The Encyclopedia of World Religions

14 S ancestor worship

This entry uses the term ancestor worship because it is in common usage, but many scholars find the term misleading. For one thing, the word worship does not reflect the wide variety of ritual acts that the living direct toward their dead rela tives. For another, not every society distinguishes between the living and the dead the way North Americans do, so not every society thinks of dead relatives as ancestors. The classic examples of this second point are people known as the Suku, who live in Zaire. The practice of ancestor worship is ancient. Perhaps the best known example of ancestor wor ship in the ancient world comes from China, where ancestor worship is still strong today. Bronze ves sels from China survive that were used in making offerings to the ancestors almost 4,000 years ago. Ancestor worship is widespread. It is espe cially practiced in China, Korea, and Japan. It is also practiced in H INDUISM , to some extent in B UD DHISM , and in the indigenous religions of Africa, the Americas, Australia, and Oceania. Not every religion, however, worships ancestors. Jews, Christians, and Muslims today remember their ancestors but do not worship them. A ritual exam ple is the Jewish custom of lighting the Jahrzeit candle or light on the anniversary of a person’s death. But those who engage in such activities do not give dead relatives gifts or expect benefits from them. Ancestor worship often begins with the funeral. In societies that worship ancestors the funeral is not simply a way that the living deal with grief. It is a RITE OF PASSAGE by which a dead or dying rela tive becomes an ancestor. In some cultures these funerals, reserved for older relatives rather than children who die, are joyous occasions. Some cul tures also pay special attention to the treatment or placement of the physical remains. For example, the Chinese use FENG - SHUI to determine the location for a tomb that will make the ancestor’s existence as beneficial as possible. People worship ancestors by giving them gifts, sharing a meal with them, and recalling them through RITUALS , among other means. Hindus pres ent rice balls known as pindas to their ancestors

parts. One part is the golden rule: As Confucius formulated it, do not do to someone what you would not wish them to do to you. The other part talks about how one should conduct oneself: One should always strive to do one’s best. Confucius believed that people had to work hard to realize virtue to the fullest. Virtue had to be cultivated through a process that lasted a lifetime. The process began at home, with obedience and respect—the “filial piety”—that children showed their parents. If one did not love one’s parents, Confucius asked, how could one love other mem bers of society? The process of cultivating virtue continued in society as a whole. It did so as people observed the rules of proper behavior. Confucius believed that one nurtured virtue, which is ulti mately an internal quality, through one’s external behavior. (Compare some North American par ents, who teach their children gratitude, an inter nal quality, by telling them to say “thank you,” an external act.) Confucius expected his gentlemen to be mem bers of the government. He had a very specific idea of how it was best for them to rule. By passing laws and meting out punishments, Confucius said, one could maintain order, but one would not make people more virtuous. The better way to rule was by being virtuous and observing proper behavior oneself. That way, people would develop a sense of shame and as a result govern themselves. These ideals of government often strike North Americans as unrealistic. It is good to remember, then, that for centuries the Chinese government ruled a very large territory at least in part by putting Confu cius’s ideals into practice. ancestor worship Rituals directed to relatives who have died, based on the belief that the spirits of the dead continue to influence the living. Ances tors are concerned with the well-being of their descendants, but also with upholding traditional morality and the traditional family structure. They will bless those who keep traditional sacred val ues, but they may turn malevolent against unwor thy descendants.