Ashanti often attribute sickness
or misfortune to the anger f a ghost (saman) and a father's
ghost is as frequently cited as that of other kinsfolk. But here,
as among the Thonga, a ghost is not an ancestor as I define the status.
Tallensi enshrine and sacrifice
to their deceased mothers and through them to certain maternal kin.
This is related to the function of maternal filiation in lineage
segmentation.
Cf. Kuper's remark (op.
cit., p. 188). 'The Ancestors are the ideal not the actual personality.'
The foregoing applies, of
course, to women (mothers) as well, again in relation to the function
of matrifiliation in specifying filial status.
Cf. Krige, 1943, p. 232- 'Above
all the ancestors complain, a fact which lies at the basis of Lovedu
religion...'
I stress inter alia
because in its descriptive totality as I have noted in several places
in this essay, ancestor worship also includes mystical notions and
metaphysical ideas. I do not want to give the impression that I regard
it as being exhaustively specifiable as a purely jural institution.
Like all institutions it has what Gluckman has called 'multiplex'
meaning; that is, it has a role in every domain of social structure.
