The Encyclopedia of World Religions

primal religion S 355

family altar. Or again, it may become a power ful ancestral spirit ( see ANCESTOR VENERATION ) who guards descendents still in this life but also pun ishes them if they violate TABOOS or moral codes. Or different aspects of the soul may perform all three of these functions. Related to belief in soul are the great dances ( see DANCE AND RELIGION ) and festivals that primal peoples often observe. In them they may take on the appearance of, and even feel themselves one with, gods or ancestors. For example, in A USTRA LIAN RELIGIONS , dancing festivals, which may con tinue for days, were considered participation in the Dreamtime, the other world of gods, ancestors, and mythic events. Dances held before hunting or planting, or in celebration of success in the field or harvest, may use costumes and symbols indicat ing identification with the mythic first hunters or farmers. INITIATION For many primal religion societies, life is a series of initiations ( see INITIATIONS , RELIGIOUS ). It is through them that members become more and more a part of the tribe and prepare themselves for the after life. The most important are usually those of young women and men who, at puberty or adolescence, become full members of the society. Imitation is often compared to a second birth, or a death and rebirth, and inevitably the way it is enacted con tains symbolism suggestive of birth and death. For example, among New Guinea societies, the young men were taken by the older men to a lodge deep in the jungle. The women would look on anxiously as they left, for they were told that the boys were to be eaten by a monster, who would release them only on the condition that they sacrificed a sufficient number of pigs. In the lodge, a great noise was made by a device called a bull roarer to emulate the growling of the beast, which frightened the boys. They then received CIRCUMCI SION and, while in the lodge, learned the secret lore of the tribe. Sometimes the young men ritually passed through the legs of the older men, in imitation of physical birth. When they returned, like newborn

nature and the turn of the seasons rather than on historical events (as for example, J UDAISM centers on the E XODUS or Christianity centers on the life and death of J ESUS ). For cosmic religion, the location of the Sacred, as Eliade called the object of religion, is here and now, in nature and the temple—a sacred mountain, tree, or site where dances or sacrifices are performed—or in the “sacred time” of seasons and festivals. Every N EW Y EAR FESTIVAL is like a repeat of the creation of the world. Virtually all primal religion is imbued with the cosmic religion outlook. Indeed, much of the cosmic lingers today just behind the historical perspective. In Christi anity, for example, Christmas commemorates a historical event, the birth of Jesus, but the Christ mas tree, and the holiday’s close proximity to New Year’s, are cosmic religion symbols. GODS AND SPIRITS Primal religion is religion of many spiritual forces: divine spirits, spirits of nature, ancestral spirits. But often there is a supreme G OD , or group of gods, who first made the world and placed human beings in it. There are many beliefs as to how the world came into existence. In some, the world was born of the mating of the deities of heaven and earth. Sometimes humans emerged out of the earth, or they came down from heaven. Sometimes they were taught the skills of civiliza tion by a TRICKSTER deity, such as Coyote in Native American stories or the more tragic Prometheus of Greek myth, who stole fire from heaven to give it to humanity. Sometimes, in stories reminiscent of A DAM and E VE in the Garden of Eden, humans were at first close to the gods but through some error or rebellious act fell away from that inti macy. In some cases the F ALL was associated with the discovery of agriculture. In response the supreme God may have withdrawn from daily interaction with the world, leaving the field to spirits of nature and ancestors. The SOUL , or spirit within, may be thought of as a separable, undying part of oneself. In the AFTER LIFE it has its own destiny. It may go to another world underground, in a sacred mountain, or over the sea. Or it may remain around the hearth or