7 The interpretation of Andaman Island ceremonies

I Method: marriage. mourning. peace-making and weeping

Any 3rrcmpr (0 explain or inrcrprcr rhe particular beliefs and cuStOms of a savage people is necessarily based on some general psychological hyporhesis as ro rhe real narure of rhe phenomena ro Ix explained. The sound rule of merhod is therefore [0 formulate clearly and explicirly rhe working hyporhesis on which rhe in­rcrprcr3rion is based . h is only in this way rhar irs value can be properly resred.

The hyporhesis rhar seems ro be mosr usually adopred by English writers on anthropology is that the beliefs of savage peoples arc due ro artcmprs on rhe pan of primitive man [Q explain co himself the phenomena of life and nacurt. The student of hum an cusrorns, examining his own mind . finds that one of the motives mosr consrandy present in his consciousness is rhe desire (0 undersrand , (0

explain-in other words what we ca ll sciencific curiosiry. He concludes rhat his modve is equally insiS[cnt in the mind of primitive man. Thus he supposes thac primitive man, wishing to

explain rhe phenomena of dearh and of sleep and dreams, framed a hypothesis rhar every man possesses a soul or spiritual double. I The hyporhesis, once formulared, is supposed ro have been accepred and believed because it satisfied this need of comprehension. On this view the belief in a soul (animism) is exactly similar in characrer to the scientific belief in acorns, let us say. The samc general hypothesis appears in the explanation of cotemism as having arisen as a theory invented by primitive man in o rder ro explain rhe phenomena of pregnancy and ch ildbirrh "

On this hypothesis rhe beliefs are primary, arising firsr merely as beliefs and then acquiring rhe power to influence anion and so giving rise (Q all SOrtS of ceremonies and cusroms. Thus these cusroms are only ro be explained by showing rhar rhey depend on parricular beliefs. This hyporhesis, which we may call rhe inrellec-

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• Rut's allrl I ' fllllt'j

rualis( hypmhesls, has nc:ver, so far as I am aware, been very clearly formulated or defended, bUl \[ does seem (0 underlie many of the explanations of rhe customs of primnivc man {Q be found In works

on ethnology. A second hypothesis explains rhe beliefs of primitive man as being

due ro emotions of surprise and rcrror,:l or of awe and wonder' aroused by rhe contemplation of rhe phenomena of nacure.

Both these hypotheses may be held IOgether, one being used to

explain some primitive beliefs and rhe other (0 explain ochers':' Doubrless there are other psychological hypotheses underlying the

many 3[(CmprS rhar have been made (Q explain rhe cuscorns of primitive peoples, but these tWO .seem co be rhe mosr important and rhe most widespread. They arc mentioned here, not in order ro critiCise them, bur in order ro conrrasr chern with rhe hypothesis to

be formulated in the present chaptc:r.6

StateQ as briefly as possible the working hypothesis here adopted is as follows. (I) A society depends for its eXistence on che presence in che minds of its members of a certain system of sentimenrs7 by which the conduct of che individual is regulated in conformity with the needs of society. (2) Every feature of the social sYStem irself and every evenr or objeer thac in any way affens the well·being or che cohesion of the socier)" becomes an object of chis s)'stem of sen­rimenrs. (3) In human sociery the senriments in question arc not innate but are developed in rhe individual by the acrion of the society upon him. (4) The ceremonial customs of a society are a means by which rhe sencimenrs in ques rion arc given collecrive expression on appropriare occasions. (5) The ceremonial (i.e. co lIec­rive) expression of any senciment serves both ro maintain It ac the requisite degree of intensiC)' in the mind of the individual and to

rransmic ic from one generation (0 another. \Xfithout such expression the sentiments involved cou ld not exist.

Using rhe rerm 'social function' co denote che effects of an instirudon (cuscom or belief) in so far as they concern the sociery and its solidarit), or cohesion, the hypothesis of this ciupter may be more briefly resumed in rhe statemenr chat the social function of the ceremonial cuscoms of the Andaman Islanders is co maintain and co rransmit from one generarion ro another the emorional dispositions on which the society (as ir is constiruted) depends for its exis tence.

The presenr chaprer concains an anempr ro apply rhis hypothesis to .... the ceremonial customs of rhe Andaman Islanders. An arrempt

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The interpretation of Alldaman Is/and ceremomes

will be made co show rhat there is a correspondence between the cuStOms and beliefs of [he Andamanese and a cerrain system of social sentiments, and rhac there is also a correspondence between these sentimenrs and rhe manner in which the society is constitured. It is an attempt co discover necessary connecrions between the different characters of a sociery as they exist in the presenc. No anempt will be made to discover or imag ine rhe hisrorical process by which these custOms have come inca existence.

For the clearer understanding of the argumenr ir is necessary co draw mention to a few rules of method that will be observed. (1) In explaining any given cusrom' it is necessary co take inro account rhe explanarion given by the narives themselves. Alchough rhese explanations are nOt of the same kind as rhe scientific explanations thar are the objects of our search yet rhey are of great importance as data. Like the civilised man of Wesrern Europe the savage of the Andamans seeks to racionalise his behaviour; being impelled ro certain aCtions b), mental disposirions of whose origin and real narure he is unaware, he seeks ro formulate reasons for his conduct. or even if he does nor so when left to himself he is compelled to when the enquiring ethnologist anacks him wirh questions. Such a reason as is produced by this process of rationalisacion is rarel)' if ever identICal with the psychological cause of the acrion thar it justifies, yer it will nearly always help us in our search for rhe causc. At any rate the reason given as explaining an action is so intimately conneCted with rhe acrion itself rhat we can nor regard any hyporhesis as co the meaning of a cusrom as being satisfactory unless it explains nor only rhe custom bur also the reasons char rhe natives give for following it. (2) The assumprion is made rhat when rhe same or a similar custom is practised on different occasions it has the same or a similar meaning in all of chern. For example. rhere are different occasions on which a personal name is avoided; it is assumed rhat there is something in common to all these occasions and rhat the meaning of (he cusrom is to be discovered by ascertaining whar that common element is. (3) It is assumed that when differenr customs arc praerised rogether on one and the same occasion rhere is a common clement in the customs. This rule is the inversc of rhe last. As an example may be mentioned rhe differenr cuStoms observed by mourners, which may be assumed to be all related to one another. The discovery of whar is common to them all will explain the meaning of each. (4) 1 have avoided, as being misleading as well as

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Riles (lnd V(IIIll'1

unnecess!try. any comparison of Andamanese custOms with sim ilar customs of mher races. Only 10 onc or twO instances have I broken this rule, and in those I believe I am justified by special considera·

tions. We can conveniently begin by considering the Andamanese

marriage ceremony, which is onc of the si mplest and most easily unders[Qod. The main feature of if is rhat the bride and bridegroom arc required publicly [0 embrace each other. In the Noreh Andaman rhe embrace is made gradually, by stages as if were. each stage being more intimate than rhe preceding. At first rhe (wo sir side by side , then their arms arc placed around each other, and finally the bridegroom is made to sit on the bride's lap.

Everywhere in human life rhe embrace is employed as an ~xpres. sion of such feelings as love, affection, friendship, i.e. of feelings of attachment between persons. There is no need ro enquire intO the psycho-physical basis of [his expression. It is probably .intimacely related to the nursing of the infant by rhe mother. and IS cerrall1ly very closely connected with the development of the sex instinct. It is sufficient for our purpose to sa tisfy ourselves chat the embrace In all its forms does always express feelings of one generic kind. Nor is it necessary for us to consider the peculiar form of [he Andamanese cmbrace. in which onc person sits down and extends his or her legs. while the Other person sits on the lap so formed and the twO wrap their arms round one another's necks and shoulders.

The meaning of the marriage ceremony is readily seen. By marriage the man and woman are brought inro a special and intimate relation to one another; they are, as we say. united. The social union is symbolised or expressed by {he physical union of the embrace. The ceremony brings vividly to the minds of the young couple and also to those of rhe spectarors rhe consciousness that rhe (Wo arc entering upon a new social relation of which the essential feature is the affection in which the)' mUSt hold one another.

The rite has tWO aspects according as we regard it from {he standpoint of the witnesses or from that of the couple chemsel:,es. The witnesses, by their presence, give their sanction to the umon that is thus enacted before them . The man who conduCts the ceremony is merely the acrive representative of the community; in what he does and says he acts as a deputy and nOt as a private individual. Thus the ceremony serves to make it clear that the marriage is a matter which concerns not only those who arc entering

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The inlerprelatioll 0/ Andaman IJ/tllJd cerefIJofJieJ

IOto it, but the whole community, and its occasional performance serves to keep alive rhis sentiment with regard to marriage in general. The exisrence of the senrimenr is shown in the reprobation felt and often expressed at an irregular marriage, in which the couple unite without a ceremony: such a union showing a conrempruous or cardess rhrusting aside of an important social principle.

For the witnesses, rhen, rhe ceremony serves to awaken to activity and ro express this sentiment; but it also serves as a recognition on their part of the change: of status of the marrying pair. I t makes them realise thac henceforward [he young couple must be treated no longer as children but as responsible adults. and ir is rhus the occasion of a change of senrimenr tOwards those whose social position is being changed. For in the sociery of the Andamans there is a very marked division between married and unmarried persons in the way in which they are regarded by others, and in respect of their place in [he community.

The married couple are made to realise, in a different way and wirh a much greater inrensiry of feeling , rhest same rwo things; firsr, thar their union in marriage is a maner thar concerns the whole com­muniry, and second, rhat they are entering a new condition, wirh new privileges but also wirh new duties and obligarions. For rhem , indc:ed, the ceremony is a sorr of ordeal from which rhey would only tOO gladly escape, and which, by the powerful emorions ir evokes in them very vividly impresses upon them what their marriage mean s.

The wedding gifts tha[ are bestowed upon the young couple are an expression of the general good-will tOwards them . The giving of presents is a common method of expressing friendship in the Andamans. Thus when twO friends meer after separation, the first thing they do after having embraced and wepr rogerher, is to give one anorher presenrs. In mosr instances rhe giving is reciprocal, and is therefore really an exchange. If a 'present be given as a sign of good-will the giver expects to receive a present of abour equal value in rerum. 1l1e reason for this is obvious; the one has expressed his good-will tOwards the other, and if the feeling is reciprocated a rerum present must be given in order to express it. So also ir would be an insulr to refuse a present offered, for to do so would be equivalenr to rejecring rhe good-will it represerrrs. At marriage the giving is onc·sided, no reruro being expeCted, for ir is an expression nor of personal friendship on the parr of the givers, bur of the general social good-will and approval. It is for this reason thar it is

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--------------------......... RilfS and I? a/lleJ

(he duty of everybody who is present to make some gi(c to (he

newly-married pair. In anmhcr simple ccremon)' . the peace-making ceremony of the

Nonh Andaman, rhe meaning is again easily discovered; rhe sym­bolism of the dance being indeed at once obvious to a witness, though perhaps not quite so obvious from rhe description given. The dancers arc divided into (WO parries. The aCtions of (he one pare)' throughout arc expressions of their aggressive feelings lOwards the other. This is clear cnough in (he shouting, (he threatening gestures. and the way in which each member of the tanacking' party gives a good shaking to each member of (he other parry. On the ocher side what is expressed may be described as complete passivity; the FX=rformcrs stand quite still throughout the whole dance. taking care to show neither fear nor resenrmenc at the rrearmcnt ro which they have ro submit. Thus those of the one side give collective expression ro rheir collective anger, which is thereby appeased. The others, by passively submi([ing ro rhis, humbling themselves before the JUSt wrath of their enemies. expiate their wrongs. Anger appeased dies down; wrongs expiared are forgiven and forgorren; the enmity is at

an end. The screen of fibre against which the passive participants in the

ceremony stand has a peculiar symbolic meaning rhar will be explained later ... 1l1e only other elements of the ceremony arc the weeping together, which will be dealt with very soon, and the exchange of weapons, which is simply a special form of the rice of exchanging presents as an expression of good-will. The special form is parricularly appropriate as it would seem [Q ensure at leasr some months of friendship, for you cannOt go our to fight a man with his

weapons while he has yours. "n1e purpose of the ceremony is clearly to produce a change in the

feelings of the tWO parties tOwards one another, feelings of enmiry being replaced through it by feelings of friendship and solidarity. It depends for irs effect on the fact thar anger and similar aggressive feelings may be appeased by being freely expressed. I tS social function is [Q restore the condition of solidarity between twO local groups rhat

has bttn destroyed by some act of offence. The marriage ceremony and the peace-making dance bOth afford

examples of the custOm which the Andamanese have of weeping to.,£ether under certain circumstances. The principal occasions of this ceremonial weeping are as follows: (I) when twO friends or relatives

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The illtfrprfttllion oj AI/dfll/Jtln Island cernnollifJ

meet after having been for some time parted. they embrace each ocher and weep tOgether; (2) at the peace-making ceremony the twO

parties of former enemies weep mgcrher, embracing each other; (3) at the end of the period of mourning che friends of rhe mourners (who have not themselves been mourning) weep with the latter: (4) after a death the relatives and friends embrace the corpse and weep over it; (5) when the bones of a dead man or woman are recovered from the grave they are wept over; (6) on the occasion of a marriage the relatives of each weep over the bride and bridegroom; (7) at various stages of the initiation ceremonies the female relatives of a youth or girl weep over him or her.

First of all ir is necessary ro note that nor in any of rhe above· mentioned instances is the weeping simply a spontaneous expression of feeling. h is always a rite the proper performance of which is demanded by cusrom. (As mentioned in an earlier chapter, the Andamanese are able to sit down and shed tears ar will.) Nor can we explain the weeping as being an expression of sorrow. It is rrue rhac some of the occasions arc such as to produce sorrowful feelings (4 and 5, for example), buc chere·are others on which there would seem ro be no reason for sorrow but rather for joy. The Andamanese do weep for sorrow and spontaneously. A child cries when he is scolded or hurt; a widow weeps thinking of her recently dead husband. Men rarely weep spontaneousl) for any reason, though they shed rears abundantly when taking parr in the rire. The weeping on the occasions enumerated is therefore not a spontaneous expression of individual emotion but is an example of whar I have called ceremonial custOms. In certain circumstances men and women arc required by CUStOm to embrace one another and weep. and if they neglected to do so it would be an offence condemned by all right­thinking persons.

According to the poStulate of method laid down at the beginning of the chapter we have to seek such an explanation of chis custOm as will account for all the differem occasions on which the rite is performed, since we must assume thar one and rhe same rite has the same meaning in whatever circumstances it may take place. It must be noced, however, chac there are tWO varieties of the rite. In the first three instances enumerated above the rite is reciprocal, i.e. twO persons or (wo distinct groups of persons weep tOgether and embrace each other, both parties to the rice being active. In che other four instances it is one·sided; a person or group of persons weeps over

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Rites tlnd Va/fles

another Person (or rhe relics of a person) who has only a passive part in rhe ceremony. Any explanation, co be satisfactory, muSt take accounr of {he difference between these twO variet ies.

I would explain rhe rire as being an expression of rhar feel ing of arr3chmenr berween persons which is of such im portance in the almosr domesric life of rhe Andaman society. In m her words rhe purpose of (he rite is ro affirm the ex istencc of a social bond between rwo or more JXrsons.

There arc two elemenrs in the ceremon)'. {he embrace and rhe weeping. We have already seen that the em brace is an expression, in the Andamans as elsewhere, of rhe feeling of arrachmenr, i.e. rhe feeling of which love, friendship, affection are var ieries. Turning to

rhe second elemenr of the ceremony, we are accustomed to think of weeping as more panicu larl y an expression of so rrow. We are familiar. however, with tears of joy, and I have myself observed tears that were the resu h neither of joy nor of sorrow but of a sudden overwhelming feeling of affeccion. I believe {hat we rn a}' describe weeping as being a means by which rhe mind obtai ns relief from a condition of emorionaJ tension, and rhar it is because such · condi· tions of (cnsion are mosr common in feelings of grief and pain rhar weeping comes to be associated wich painful feelings . Ir is impossible here to discuss this subject, and I am therefore compelled to assume wirhout proof rhi s proposition on which my explanation of the .r ite is based8 My own conclusion, based on careful observation, is that in this rite the weeping is an expression of what has been called the tender emotion.9 Withom doubt, on some of the occasions of the ritc, as when weeping over a dead friend , the parti cipants are suffering a painful emorion, but (his is evidently no t so on all occasions. Ir is crue, however, as 1 shall show, thar on every occasion of rhe rite there is a condirion of emorional rension due ro rhe sudden calling into activity of the sentiment of personal 3uachmenr.

When twO friends or relatives meet after having been separated, the social relarion berween them that has been inrcrruprcd is abou t to be renewed . Thi s socia l relation implies or depends upon the existence of. specific bond of solidarity between them . The weeping rite (together with the subsequent exchange of presents) is the affirmation of chis bond. The rite, which, it mUSt be remembered, is obligawry, compels the twO participants to act as though they fclt certai n emotions, and thereby does, to some extent. produce those emotions in them . When the twO friends meer their fi rsr feeling

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The interpretation 0/ Andaman IsLand ceremonies

Sl"Cms (Q be one of shyness mingled with pleasure at seeing each other again . This is according co rhe sraremcnrs of rhe narivcs as well as my own observarion. ow th is shyness ( rhe Andamanese usc rhe same word as they do for fshame') is itself a condition of emotional tension, which has to be relieved in some way. The embrace awakens CO full activiry that feeling of affection or friendship rhat has bccn dormanr and which it is rhe business of the rite co renew. The weeping g ives relief to the emotional tension jusr noted, and also reinforces the effect of the embrace. This ir does owing to the fact that a strong feding of personaJ attachment is always produced when rwo persons join tOgether in sharing and si mulraneously expressing one and the same emorion.lO The lirde ceremony thus serves to

dispel the initial feeling of shyness and to rein state the condition of intimacy and affec tion char existed before rhe separarion.

In the pcace-malcing ceremony rhe purpose of rhe whole rite is ro abolish a condition of enmity and replace it by one of friendship. The once friendly relations between the twO groups have been interrupted by a longer or shorter period of anragonism. We have seen that the effect of the dance is to dispel the wrath of the one group by giv ing it free expression. The weeping that follows is rhe renewal of the

, fricnds~ip. The rite is here exactly parallel ro rhat on the meeting of two fflends, except that not two individuals but tWO groups are concerned, and that owing to the number of persons involved the emotional condition is one of much g reater intensiry. 11 Here therefore also we see that the rite is an affi rma tion of solidarity o r social union, in rhis instance between the groups, and that rhe rule is in its nature such as to make the partici pants feel that they are bound to each other by ties of friendship.

We now come to a more difficult example of the rite, that at the end of mourning ... during the period of mourning the mourners are cur off from the ordinary life of rhe community. By reason of the ties that still bind them to the dead person they are placed, as it were, outside the society and the bonds that unite them to thei r group arc remporarily loosened. At the end of the mourning period they re-enter the society and take up once more their place in the social life. Their return ro the community is rhe occasion on which they and their friends weep together. In this instan ce also, therefore, the rite may be explained as having for irs purpose rhe renewal of the social relations that have been interruptcd . This explanation will seem more convincing when we have considered in detai l rhe

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• IVies (lnd ValNes

cusr~ms of mourning. I f it be accepted, (hen it may be seen rhar in rhe first three instances of rhe rite of weeping (chose in which rhe acrion is reciprocal) we have conditions in which social relations rhar have been inrerruprcd are about to be renewed, and rhe rite serves as a ceremony of aggregation.

Let us now consider rhe second variety of the rite. and first of all irs meaning as parr of rhe ceremony of marriage. By marriage the social bonds rhac have ro rhar rime united the bride and bridegroom [Q their respect ive relatives, parricuJarl)' their female relarives such as mother, mother's sister, father'S sister and adopted morher, are modified. The unmarried yoU(h or girl js in a position of dependence upon his or her older relatives, and by [he marriage rhis dependence is pardy abolished. Whereas the principal duries of rhe bride were formerly rhose rowards her mother and older female relarives , henceforth her chief duries in life will be towards her husband. The position of rhe bridegroom is similar, and ir musr be nmed rhar his social relarions wirh his male relatives are less affecred by his marriage rhan those with his female relatives. Yet , though rhe ries char have round rhe bride and bridegroom to their relatives are about to be modified or parriaHy destroyed by the new ries of marriage with its new duries and righrs they will sti ll continue to exist in a weakened and CHanged condition. The rite of weeping is rhe expression of rhis. lr serves ro make real (by feeling), in rhose raking pan in ir, rhe presence of rhe social ries rhar are being modified.

\Xlhen rhe morher of rhe bride or bridegroom weeps ar a marriage she feels that her son or daughrer is being raken from her care. She has the sorrow of a parcial separa tion and she consoles herself by expressing in the rite her continued feeling of tenderness and affccrion towards him in rhe new condicion that he is enrering upon . For her the chief resulr of the rite is to make her feel that her child is sri II an object of her affection, sri II bound ro her by close ries, in spire of rhe fan rhat he or she is being raken from her care.

Exactly rhe same explanation holds wirh regard co rhe weeping ar the initiarion ceremon ies. By these ceremonies rhe yourh (or gi rl ) is gradually withdrawn from a condirion of dependence on his morher and older female relarives and is made an independenr member of the communiry. The initiation is a long process rhat is only completed by marriage. At every stage of the length y ceremonies therefore, the social ries thar unite rhe initiare ro rhese rclarives are modified or w~kened, and the rite of weeping is the means by whi ch the

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The inltrpre/tllion 0/ Andan1tm IS/twd ceremonies

significance of rhe change is impressed upon rhose taking parr in it. For rhe mOther rhe weeping expresses her resignation at her necessary loss, and acts as a consolarion by making her feel [hat her son is still hers, though now being withdrawn from her care. For the boy rhe rire has a differenr meaning. He realises thar he is no longe r merely a chi ld, dependenr upon his mother, bur is now entering upon manhood. His former feelings towards his morher must be modified. That he is being separated from her is, for him , the most imporranr aspect of the matter, and the refore whilc she weeps he must give no sign of tenderness in return but musr sit passive and silent. So also in the marriage ceremony, che rite serves to impress upon rhe young man and woman that they are, by reason of rhe new ties that they are forming wirh one anOther , severing their rics with rheir families.

When a person dies rhe social bonds chat unite him ro the survivors are profound ly modified. They are not in an insrant urrerly destroyed, as we shall see bettcr when we deal wirh rhe funeral and mourning customs, for the friends and reiarives sti ll feel rowards rhe dead person chat affection in which they held him when alive, and this has now become a sou rce of decp grief. It is this affection still binding them to him that they express in the rite of weeping over rhe corpse. Here rite and narural expression of emotion coincide, bur it must be nored rhat the weeping is obl igatOry, a ma([er of duty. In this insrance, then, the rite is similar to that at marriage and initiarion. The man is by dearh cur off from the sociery to which he belonged, and from association wirh his friends, bur the la([er still feel towards him that a([achmenr that bound rhem rogether while he lived, and it is this attachment that they express when rheyembrace rhe lifeless corpse and weep over ir.

There remains o nly one more instance of rhe rite to be considered . When the period of mourning for a dead person is over and rhe bones are recovered the modification in rhe reiarions berween rhe dead and rhe living, which begins ar dearh, and is, as we shall see, carried our by rhe mourning custOms and ceremonies, is fina ll y accomplished. The dead person is now entirely cur off from rhe world of rhe living, save that his bones are to be treasured as relics and amulets. The weeping over rhe bones must be taken, I rhink, as a rite of aggregation whereby rhe bones as represenrative of the dead person (a ll rhar is lefr of him) are received back inro rhe sociery henceforrh ro fill a special place in rhe social life. 1 r rea lly consri ru[Cs a renewal of social relations with the dead person, after a period

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Rites and 'VaLIIH

dl..ring wrnch all acrivc social relations have been interrupted ow ing to the danget in all contact between the living and the dead . By the rite [he affeCtion rhar was once felt cowards the dead person is revived and is now directed to {he skeletal relics of rhe man o r woman that once was their object. I f chis explanation seems un· satisfactory , I would ask the reader co suspend his judgment until rhe funetal customs of the Andamans have been discussed . and then to return to this point.

The proffered explanation of the rite o f weeping should now be plain. 1 regard it as being rhe affirmation o f a bond of social solidarity between those raking pan in it, and as producing in them a realisation of rhat bond by arousing rhe senrimcnr of anachmenc In some instances the rite therefore serves to renew social relation s when chey have been imcrruprcd, and in such instan ces the rite is reciprocal. In others it scrves to show the continued existence of the sociaJ bond when it is being weakened o r modified , as by marriage, initiation Ot death . In all instances we may say that the putpose of (he rite is to bring about a new state of the affective disposirions that regulate the conduct of persons to one another, either by reviving sentiments that have lain dormant, or producing a recognition of a change in [he condition of personal relations.

The stud)' of these si mple cetemonies has shown us sevetal things of importance. (I) In every instance the ceremony is (he expression of an affcnive state of mind shared by twO or mo re persons. Thus the weeping rite expresses feelings of solidarity, the exchange of presents expresses good-will. (2) But the ceremonies are not spontaneous exptessions of feeling; they are all customary actions ro which the sentiment of obligation attaches, which it is the duty of persons to perform on certain defi. nite occasions. It is the duty of everyone in a communi ty to give presents at a wedding; it is the duty of relatives

to weep together when they meet. (3) In evety instance the cetemony is ro be explained by teference ro fundamental laws regulating the affective life of human beings. I t is nOt our busi ness here to ana lyse these phenomena but only to sat isfy ou rselves that they are real. That weeping is an outlet for em otional excitement, that the free expression of aggressive feelings causes them ro die out instead of smouldering on. that an embtace is an exptession of feelings of attachment between persons: these are the psychological genera lisa­tions upon which ate based the explanations given above of various ceremonies of the Andamancsc. (4) Finally , we have seen rhat each

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The imerpretallon of Andalllan bland ceremonies

of the ceremonies serves to renew o r to modify in rhe minds of those taking part in it some one or more of the social sentiments. The peace-making cetemony is a method by which feelings of enmity ate exchanged for feelings of friendship. The marriage rite serves ro arouse in the minds of the marrying pair a sense of their ob ligations as married folk, and to bring about in rhe minds of the witnesses a change of feeling towards the young people such as shou ld properly accompany theit change of social status. The weeping and exchange of presents when friend s come together is a means of renewing their feelings of attachment to one another. The weepi ng at marriage, at initiation, and on rhe occasion of a death is a reaction of defence or compensation when feelings of solidatity are attacked by a partial bteaking of the social ties that bind petsons to one anothet .

Il Protective powers: fire and bow and arrow

In such a primitive society as thac of rhe Andamans one o f the most p:>werful means of maintaining the cohesion of the socie t)' and of enforcing that conform ity CO CUStom and tradirion without which social life is impossible, is the recognition by the individual t hat for his security and well-being he depends entirely upo n rhe society .

ow for the Andaman Islander rhe socier), is nOt suffiClendy concrete and particular to acr as the objeer of such a sentim ent, and he thetefore feels his dependence upon the society not directly but in a number of indirect ways. The particular way with which we are now concerned is rhat the individual experiences this feeling of dependence rowards every important possession of the societ)' . towatds every object which fot the society had constant and im­JX>rtant uses.

The most prominent example of such an objeer is fire. It rna)' be said to be the one object on which the society m OS l of all depends for irs well-being. It provides warmth on cold nights; it is rhe means wheteby they ptepate theit food, fot they eat nothing raw save a few fruits ; it is a possession that has to be constantly guarded. for rhey have no means of producing it, and must therefore take ca re to keep it always alighr; it is the first thing they chink o f carrying with them when they go on a journey by land Ot sea; it is the centte around which the social life moves, the family hearth being the centte of the family life, while the communal cooking place is rhe cen tre round which the men often gather afrer the day 's hunting is over. T o the

85

IUfeJ and Va/lleJ

min'd of rhe Andaman Islander. therefore, rhe social life of which his own life is a fragmcnr, rhe social well-being which is rhe source of his own happiness, depend upon rhe possession of fire . without which rhe weier}' could nor ex isr. In thi~ way ir comes about rhar his dependence on the socier}' app<.-a rs in his consciousness as a sense of dependence upon fi re and a belief rhar it possesses power to

prOtect him from dangers of all kinds. The belief in the protenive power of fire is very srrong. A man

would never move even a fcw yards our of camp ar night without a fire-stick. Marc than an)' o ther object fire is believed to keep away rhe spirits thar cause disease and dearh. Thi s belief. it is he re maintained, is one of the ways in which rhe indi vidual is made ro feel his dependence upon the society.

Now this hypothesis is capable of being very strictly tested by the facts, fOf if it is rfue we musr expect to fi nd that the same protective power is attributed to every objen o n which the socia l life depends. An examination of the Andamanesc beliefs shows rhat rhis is so, and thereby confirms the hyporhesis.

In their daily life rhe Andamanese depend on the insrrinsic gualiries of rhe marerials they use for their bows and arrows and harpoons and other hunting implemems. and it can be shown that rhey do anribute [Q these impiem el1[s and to the marerials from which rhey are made powers of protection against evil. Moreover ir is even possible to appI)' a quamirarivc test and , show rhat the more imporranr the place a rhing occupies in rhe social life the g rea ter is the dcgree of prorccrive power 3rtributed to ir. Finally I shall be able to show rhat as differenr materials are used for special pu rposes so they are supposed to have certa in specia l powers of prorection againsr certain SOrtS of danger. Thus rhe hyporhesis I have stared is capable o f being as nearly demonsrrated as is possible in such psychological enquiries as rhe one we are engaged in.

A man carrying his bow and arrows is supposed to be less likely to fall a victim (Q the spi rirs than one who has no weapons wirh him. One way of scoppi ng a violenr scorm is to go in ro the sea (storms being supposed to be due to the spi rits of the sea) and sw ish rhe warer abour wirh arrows. The natives sometim es wear a necklace formed of short lengrhs of the bamboo shaft of a fis h-arrow. All the examples of such necklaces rhar r met wirh had been made from an old arrow. I asked a narivc to make one for me, and although he could readily have made one from bamboo that had never served as

86

The interpretation oj Andamall IJ/m1d aremonies

an arrow he did nor do so. bue used the shaft of one of hi s arrows. Such a necklace may therefore be described as an arrow in such a form that it can be worn rou nd the neck and thus carried conrinually without rrouble. The prorccrive power of rhe bmv is at first sig ht nor guire so evidcnr, bur rhe material used for the string is regarded as possessing prorec{Jve power.

[There follows a passage discussing rhe various vegetable fib res used by rhe people, ro which protective powers are also anribured .]

To conclude rhe presenr argu menr, ir would seem that rhe function of the belief in rhe prmccrive power of such rhings as nre and the materials from which weapons are made is to maintai n in the mind of rhe individual rhe feeling of his dependence upon the societ)/; bur viewed from anorher aspect rhe beliefs in guestion may be regarded as expressing the socia l va lue of the things to which rhe)' relate. This rerm -social value-will be used repearedly in rhe later part of this chapter, and it is therefore necessary to g ive an exact definition . By rhe social value of anything I mean rhe way in which that thing affects or is capable of affecting the social life. Value may be either positive or negative, positive value being possessed by an)' thing rhar conrributes to the well-being of the society, nega rive value by anyrhing that can adversel), affect thar well-being.

The social value of a rhing (such as fire) is a marter of immediate experience co every member of rhe society, bur rhe individual docs nor of necessicy consciously and directly realise that value. He is made to realise ir indirectly through the belief. impressed upon him by rradirion, thar the thing in qucsrion affords prorection agai nst danger. A belief or senrimenr which finds regu lar ourler in anion is a very differenr thing from a belief which rarely o r never influences conduct. Thus, rhough rhe Andaman Islander mighr have a vague realisa tion of rhe value of HibisCIIJ, for exa mple, that would be something very different fro m rhe result on rhe mind of the: in­dividual of the regular use of rhe leaves of rhat nee in lIli tia tion ceremonies as a protection against unseen dangers. So rhar rhe prorecrive uses of such rhings are really rites o r cerem onies by means of which rhe individual is made to realise (I) his own dependence on rhe society and its possessions, and (2) the social value of the things in question.

I have had ro postpone ro rhe later parts of rhe chaprer rhe consideration of some of the objects possessing protec tive power, bur

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RileS alld V,dlteJ

I vcmure (Q state here three propositions some part of [he evi~encc for which has already been examined [and which will be suffiCien tly demonstrated, I hope, before rhe end of rhe chapter). The)' are as follows: (1) any object that conrriburcs to the well-bemg of the society is believed to afford protection against evil ; (2) (h~ degree of proreccivc power it is believed ro possess dcpe~ds on the Imp~rtance of rhe services ir aerually renders to rhe soCler)'; (3) the ktnd of special prorcction it is supposed ro afford is often related (0 the kind of special service that it does accually render.

III The spirits

It is now possible fo r us to understand the Andama~csc. bel,icfs about the spirits. The basis of these beliefs, ,I wis~ ro malflc3,'" ' IS rh,c fact that at (he death of an individual hiS SOCial personality . " IS n~( annihilated, bur is suddenly changed . This condnuancc after death ,IS

a faC t of immediate experience [Q the Andaman I siander~ and not In any way a deduction. The person has not ceased ro eXIst. For o ne thi ng his body is sti ll there. But above all he is scill the ~bieCt of the social sentiments of the survivors, and thereby he con (ln~es to aCt upon rhe sociery. The removal of a mem~r of {he group IS fclt n.ot as something negative but as the positive cause of grea t SOCIa l

disturbance. . The spirits arc feared or regarded as da,.,gerous. T~e basis of chiS

fear is the faCt that the spiri t (i.e. the SOCIal personality .of a ~rson recently dead) is obviously a sou rce of weakness and dlsrup(lon to

rhe com munity, affecring the survivors throug h rhel.r a.([~chmenr .to

him, and producing a cond itio n of dyspho ria , of dlmmlshed SOCIal activity. The natura l impulse of the Andaman Islander or of any orher human being, would be, I believe, no r to shun the dead b od y of a loved one, bur to remain near it as long as pOSSible. It IS the sociery acting under a 'Juite different sec of impulses, that compels rhe rcl~tivcs to separare themselves from the remai ns of the one they loved. The dcath of a small chird has very little influence on the general accivity of (he community, and the mo tive for severing .con-nection with the dead that is present in the case of an .ad ult , el~her does nor exist o r is so weak as to be overruled by the pnvate feelings of affection, and so rhe child is buried in the hur of the parents, rha t they may continue ro keep it ncar them. This a~ords a good test of rhe hypothesis, and gives strong support to rhe View rhat rhe fear of

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The interpretation 0/ Andaman Island ceremonies

rhe dead man (his body and his spirit ) is a colleerive feeling induced In rhe soCiery by the fact rhat by death he has become rhe objeer of a dysphoric conditio n of the collective consciousness.

If the Andamanese are asked whar rhey fear from rhe spirir o f a dead man rhey reply rhat they fear sickness or dearh , and that if the burial and mourning CUStOms are not properly observed the relatives of rhe dead person will fall sick and perhaps die.

The basis of chis nor ion of the spi rits is that (he near relatives of the deceased, being bound ro him by close social ties, are influenced by everyrhing rhar happens to him, and share in his good or evil fonune. So [hat when by sickness and resulting death he is rem oved from the community, chey are as it were drawn after him . For this reason they are, during rhe period of mourning, between life and dearh, being sti ll attached to rhe dead man. ConraCt wirh rhe world of rhe dead is rherefore regarded as dangerous fo r the living because ir is believed (hat they may be drawn completely inro that world. Deach is a process by which a person leaves che living world and enters the world of the spirits, and since no one dies willingly he is conceived as being under a compulsive force acting from rhe world of spirits. Now sickness is a condicion thar ofcen ends in death, a nrSt stage of the way leading to {he world of spi rits. Hence sickness is conceived by the Andamanese as a condit io n of parrial contact with char world. This is what is meant by rhe sca temenr thac sickness and death come:: from the spi rirs.

The way the Andamanese think abour the spir i[s is shown in [he Akar-Bale legend of the orig in of death. Yaralllllrlld, havi ng died through an accidenr, self-caused, becomes a spirit, but he does so only under the compulsion exercised upon him by h is mother, who, now that he is dead, insists char he must go away from the world of the living and become a spi ri t. The spirit then comes back to see his brother and by this conract causes the brocher's dea rh . The story implies rhat ic was not because Y(lralllllrlld was evill y disposed towards his brother thar he killed him, but on the con crary it was his actachmenr to his relative that caused him to rerurn to vis it him and death followed as a result of [his conracr of the living man with the spi rir . Since tha t rime dearhs have conr in ucd to occur in rhe same way. Thus jr appears thar rhe Andamanese conceive (hat the spirics do nor cause death and sickness through evi l intention, but through their mere proximity, and ... s rhe legend very clearly shows, the burial cusroms are intended to Cut off the unwi lling spi ri t fro m COntact

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Ritl!J 'and Values

with the living. This explains also why during the period of mourning the relatives of a dead petson are thought to be in danger of sickness, and have more to fear from the spirit t han o chers, for since it is they who were most arcached to him during life it is they who arc most likely to suffer from conran with him after he is dead . It was Yaranzllrud's brother who was rhe firS[ to die through rhe

inAuence of the spirits. The feelings of the living tOwards the spirits of the dead are

therefore ambivalent, compounded of affection and fear, and this mUSt be clearly recognised if we are ro understand all rhe An­damanese beliefs and custOms. We may compare rhe relation berween the society of the living and the socie ty of the dead to that between twO hostile communities having occasional fri endly relations. That rhe Andamancse themselves look upon it in some such way is shown by rhe belief rhat the ceremony by which a dead man is iniriared in co the world of spirits resembles the peace-making ceremony. The dead man, up co the time of his dearh, has been living in a srate of en mity with the spirits, and before he can enrer rheir communiry and share their life he has to make peace with them in the same way that men make peace with one anocher after they have been at war.

This no tion of hosti lity bet ween the society and the world of spi rits is found in o ther primitive societ ies. and seems everywhere to

have a definite social fu nction . The removal of a member of the community either by death o r otherwise is a direcr anack on the social solidarity and produces in primitive socie ties an emotional reaction of the same: general character as anger. This collective anger, if freely expressed, serves as a compensating mechanism , satisfying and restoring rhe damaged sentiment.12 But this can only happen if there is some object against which the anger can be directed. In the instance of homicide the social anger is directed against the person responsible for the death and against the social group to which he belongs. In the instance of death from sickness some othet object has to be found, and amongst primitive peoples there are: twO chief ways in w hich this is done. An example of one method is afforded by the tribes of Australia , amongst whom there is a strong and conStant hostility between neighbouring local groups, with a result that the anger at a death from sickness direcrs itself against some community with which rhe group of the dead man is at enmity and it is believed rhar some member of that community has caused the death by magic. The: Andamans afford an example of the second method.

90

The interpretation 0/ Andamon bland ceremonitJ

Amongst them it would seem thar the enmity between different local groups (except as concerns theJtJ. rawa in the South Andaman) was never very strong and the belief in evil mag ic was nor h igh ly devc:loped, so that dle anger at a death is directed against t he spi rits, and sometimes finds expression in violent railings against them, accompanied by all the bodily manifestations of extreme rage and

hatred. Now though the Andamancse regard the spirits with fear and

hatred, and believe that all contaer with them is dangerous (or li ving men, )'er rhey do not look on rhem as essentially evil , for that would conflict with their own feel ings of attachment to their dead friends.

I gathered a few hints that they even believe rhat at times the spirits can and will help them . Thus a man will ca ll on the sea-spirits of his own country to send plenty of turrle (over which the spirits seem to be assumed ro have power) when he is going huming . A very important fact in this connection is the different way in which a native regards the spirits of his own country and of other parts, the latter being thought to be much more dangerous than the former because presumably rhey arc the spirits not of rela t ives and friends bur of strangers at the best o r enem ies at the worst.

There is other evidence that rhe Andamanese do nor regard the power that is possessed by t he spir its as bemg essent ially evil. This power, whereby the spi rits are ab le to cause sickness, seems ro be shared by the bones of dead men . Indeed the Andamanese call such bones 'spirit-bones' (lau-toJ, lallga-ta). Now this power in the bones (though it may at times be supposed to cause sickness) is mo re common ly made use of in order ro prevent o r cu re it .

The most conclusive evidence that the power o f t he spirits is nOt intrinsically evil, but may be used to produce both good and evi l is afforded by the beliefs about medicine-men o r dreamers (oko-Jumu). There are three ways in which a man can become a med}c i ne-ma~ . The fitst is (as the na tives put it) by dyi ng and coming back to life. Now when a man dies he becomes a spirit and rherefore acguires the peculiar powers and qualities of a spi rit, which he reta in s if he returns to life. Secondly, if a man straying in the ju ng le by himself be affronted by the spirits, and if he show no fear (for if he is afraid they wi ll kill him) they may keep him with them for a time and then let him go. Such a man , o n his rerum , is regarded as being a medicine-man , and possessing all the powers of medicine-men . I was to ld of one man w ho became a medicine-man in this way within

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Rites and Vailles

living' memory. and it was stated that when he returned from the forest where he had be<:n kept by the spirits for two or three days he was decorated with koro fibre. [We have seen that] this fibre is used by the spirits in the ceremony by which they initiate dead men, and its presence on the teturned warrior was perhaps accepted by his friends as evidence that he had be<:n initiated by the spirits. The third and last way in which a man may become a medicine-man is by having intercourse with the spirits in his dreams. (This is a point to

which it will be necessary to return latcr.) For the present it is sufficient to note that in every instance the power of the medicine­man is believed to be derived from his contaCt with the spirits in one of the three possible ways.

We are justified in concluding rhar the special power of the medicine-man, by which he is distinguished from his fellows, is simply the same power thar is possessed by the spirits, from contaCt wirh whom he has obtained it. The medicine-man is believed be be able both ro cause and to cure sickness, to arouse and to dispel StOrms. In other words he has power for both good and evil, and we musr conclude that the spirits have {he same. Moreover, it is commonly said that the medicine-man is able (Q produce rhe effects he does, whether they be harmful or beneficial to his fellows. by communicating with rhe spirits in dreams and enlisting their aid. This would 5eCm to prove the poine that 1 am here concerned with, that the power possessed by (he spirits, (hough contact with it is always dangerous. may )'er in certain circumstances be of benefir to

the society, and is therefore not essentially evil in nature. The Andamanese believe that a medicine-man communicates with

the spirits in sleep, and rhis is nor the onl), cvidence rhal/thc), believe sleep to be a condidon in which contaer wirh the world of spirits is easier than in waking life. I t is believed that sickness is more likely co begin during sleep than when awake. During the initiation ceremonies the initiate is re'1uired co absrain from sleep afrer eating pork or turtle, and this would seem to be because sleep is regarded as generally dangerous and therefore to be avoided on such occasions as rhis when every precaution needs to be taken.

The explanation of [his belief seems ro lie in the fact rhat sleep is a condition of diminished social aerivity, in which rhe individual is withdrawn from active social life, and is therefore also withdrawn from the protection of rhe society. After eating runle rhe iniciare is in urgent need of rhe prorection of the society, which would be losr

92

The interpretation of Andaman Island ceremonies

to him if he were permitted to sleep. After a death. when the corpse remains in the camp all night the people remain awake, and since there: is no other common activity in which rhey can join, rhey sing, and thus proteer themselves from rhe spirits that are prescnt as the cause of the death.

This explanation implies rhat all condirions of diminished social activity on the parr of an individual are dangerous. One example of such a condirion is sickness, in whicn the: sick person is unable to

pursue his ordinary occupations. Other examples ate afforded by a mmher, and ro a certain extenr a father during the period preceding and following the birth of a child. and by a woman during the menstrual period. All these:, as various cuscoms show, are believed by rhe Andamanese to be condirions of danger in which it is necessary ro rake ritual or magical precautions. A be[[er example for our purpose is thac of an adolescent during the period coveted by the initiarion ceremonies, when, as we have seen, he is as it were cut off from the society, and there is abundant evidence that the An­damanese believe this to be a stare of danger. Another example is the condition of a homicide during rhe period of his isolation. Lastly. we have seen that a mourner is cur off from the ordinary social life. and ir may now be noted that the native explanation of the restrierions obser:ved in rhar srate is that if things were not done thus the mourner would be ill; in other words rhe condition of mourning is one of danger, and the ritual referring to ir is (he means by which the danger (from the spitit world) is avoided. This explanation does nor conAicr wirh the one previously given but on rhe contrary we can now see that rhe notion rhar the mourner is in a posirion pardy withdrawn from active participarion in social life necessarily involves the belief that he is in a condition of danger.

We may conclude that ever), condition in which the individual is withdrawn from full participation in active social life is regarded as dangerous for him, and rhat this is ar leasr one of the reasons why sleep is so regarded. We have already nored rhar all condirions of danger tend to be thought of as due co contaCt with rhe spirits, and sleep is rherefore supposed to be a stare in which such contact is easier than in waking life. Now sleep is visired by dreams and it comes abour rhar the dream-life, b), reason of its contrast with waking-life, is seized upon by rhe Andamanesc as a means by which the nature of the spirit world may be repre.scnted to rhe imaginarion.

The Andaman Islander seems to regard rhe dream-world as a

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Riies and Vailles

world of shadows or refleCtions, for he uses rhe same word CO denore a shadow, a reflecrion in a mirror, and a dream (rhe srem -jllmll in Aka-Jerll). Now when a man encers rhis shadow·world in sleep he is, as we have seen, conceived as coming inco parcial concan wirh the world of spi rirs. Hence the Andaman Islander believes that in dreams he may communicate with rhe spirirs, rhat dreams may be a cause of sickness, and rhar in dreams a medicine-man can cause or cure sickness in his fellows. In rhis shadow-world the man himself becomes as it were a shadow, a mere reflection of himself; it is not he that lives and acts in his dreams but his ol-jllmu/o, his double, his shadow-self, or, as we might say, his soul. It is but a step from this co the representation of the spirit-world as a similar world of shadows and dream-shapes, and to the conclusion that when a man dies it is his Ot-jIlTllIl/O that becomes the spirir.

To summarise the argument, rhe belief in the world of spirirs rests on the actual fact rhat a dead person concinues co affect the society. As the effect is one of disorganisation, whereby the social senciments arc wounded. the dead are avoided and rhe spirirs arc regarded with fear. But as a recently dead person is St ill regarded with feelings of attachmenc by his friends, the resulring final attitude cowards the spirits is ambiva lent. By a simple step rhe spirits come to be regarded as the cause of sickness and death, and therefore as hostile to living men. Yet, as rhe beliefs abour medicine-men show, it is possible for exceptional individuals co be on terms of friendship with the spirits. Finally, the dream-life affords a means by which the spirit-world may be represenced in a simple and concrete manner. This last feature (the association of the spirits with dreams) I believe co be a secondary elaboration of the primary or fundamental belief which shows itself in the ritual of death and mourning, serving only ro rationalise it and make it more concrete. This need of concrete represencation of the spirit-world shows itself in other beliefs, in which may be seen the tendency to become self-conrradicrory that is often the mark of ideas that arise as the result of attempts to rationalise conative and affeerive impulses. The spirits are, on the one hand, as it were shadows or images of living men, and yet, since they are feared and disliked, they are often represented as being repulsive and inhuman, with long legs and short bodies, with long beards and ugly faces.l3 The spirits must be thought of as somewhere, but there is no consistenc), in the statements as to where that somewhere is; one man will sa)' chat they live in the sk)" another that they are under

94

The mterpretation of A ndaman Ii/and ceremonieJ

the earth, a third will point ro a particular island as their home; at the same time it is evidenr from other S[3temenrs that they vagudy conceive rhem as being everywhere, in the forest and the sea.

We are now in a posicion to understand whae the Andaman Islander means when he says thac the danger he fears from food is from the spi rits. The greatest evil that can happen to the community is the sickness or death of its members, and these are believed ro be the work of the spiri ts. The sense of the social value of food takes rhe form of a belief that food is dangerous, and inevitably the danger comes CO be conceived as that of sickness or death, and is therefore associated in their minds with the spirits.

But there is a more fundamenral reason than this. I have tried co show thar it is because food has such important effects for good and evil on rhe social life rhat it is believed to be endued with a peculiar power which makes it necessary to approach it with ritual precau­tions. If this thesis be valid it should be capable of generalisation. and we should find rhe same power attriburcd co every obleer or being that is capable of affecting in important ways the well-being of the society. We should expect that rhe Andamanese would attribute rhis power not only to the more important things used for food but also to such things as rhe weather and dead men (i.e., the spirits). Now this, if rhe argument has been correer, is exactly whar we do find, and we have here the reason why the Andaman Islander, when asked what he fears from eating dangerous foods. replies that he fears sickness or the spirits of the dead.

We may formulate in precise language the beliefs rhat underlie the ceremonial, remembering always that the Andaman Islanders rhem­selves are '1uite incapable of expressing these beliefs in words and are probably only vaguely conscious of them . (I) There is a power or force in all objects or beings that in any way affect the social life. (2) It is by virtue of this power that such things arc able to aid or harm the society . (3) The power_ no marter what may be the object or being in which it is presenr, is never either essentially good or essentially evil. bur is able to produce borh good and evil resultS. (4 ) Any contaer with the power is dangerous, but the danger is avoided by ritual precautions. (5) The degree of power possessed by anything is directl}' proporrioned to the importance of the effecrs that if has on the social life. (6) The power in one thing may be used ro counteract the danger due ro contaer with the power in some other thing.

95

•

Rifts and Values

.We have scudicd this power in (he an im als and plants used for food and {he things used as materials. It is this rhat makes curcic dangerous [0 eat and Anadmdroll fibre dangerous ro prepare, and it is this also that makes animal bones o r the leaves of HibiJCIIS available for protection. We have now secn [hat the same power is present in dead men , in their bodies, their bones, and in the spirit-world to which dead men go. All conracr with the world of the dead is highly dangerous, and yet we have secn that human bones may be used for procccrion and that even the spiri ts may be induced to hea l sickness or allay storms. \VJc have also seen rhat the sa me power is present in the okrrj/llnu, and we have made (he important discovery rhat it is through contact with rhe spirits that he aC'luires rhe power. Thi s reveals another imporrant principle. (7) If an individual comes into contact with the power in any thing and successfull y avoids the danger of such contact, he becomes himself endowed with power of the same kind as thar with which he is in contaCt. Now although rhe oko-jllnlll possesses a very special social va lue, yet every man and woman has some social value, some of that power which makes any being capable of affecting the society for good o r ill, and we can now see char the initiatio n ceremonies arc the means by which the individual is endowed with power (or, as the natives say, made strong) by being brought inro contaCt with the special power present in each of the important kinds of food. The initiatio n of the ordinary man or woman is parallel to the initiation of the ok01J1mll save that in one instance ir is the power in foods and in the other that in the spirits with which the initiation is concerned.

It has been held in this chapter rhar the society or the social li fe itself is the chief source of protection again st danger for rhe in­dividual. If this be so rhen rhe society itself possesses this same power with which we are dealing. and we must expect to find that contact with this power is also dangerous for the individual. Now the occasion on which the individual comes into conract with rhe power in rhe society is in the dance, and I found evidence rhar the natives believe that dancing is dangerous in exactly the same way as ea ring

food. ( ... ) It would seem char for rhe Andaman Islander the social life IS a

process of complex interaction of powers or fo rces present in rhe society itself, in each indi vidual, in animals and plants and the phenomena of nacure, and in the world of spir its. and on these powers the well -beipg of the society and its members depends. By the

96

The interpretation of Andaman Island ceremonies

action of the principle of opposition the society-the world of the living-comes to be opposed to the spi ri rs-the world of the dead. The society itself is the chief source of protection co the individual; the spirits are rhe chief source of danger. Hence all protection tends ro be referred ro the sociery and all danger to the spi ri ts. In the ini tiation ceremonies it is t he society thar proteCts the initiate against the dangers of food, and those dangers are referred, generally if no t quite consistently, ro the spi rits, with which 3r first sight they wou ld seem to have nothing CO do.

IV Conclusion

Ir is rime (0 bring the argument (Q a conclusion. Ie should now, I hope. be eviden t tha t t he ceremo nial customs of the Andaman Islands form a closely conneCted system, and that we cannOt un­derstand their meaning if we only consider each one by itself, but must study the whole system ro arrive at an inrerpretation. This in itself I regard as a most imporranc conclusion , for it justifies rhe contention char we must substicu re for rhe old method of dealing wi th the cuscoms of primitive peopIc,-rhe comparat ive merh od by which isolated custOms from different social types were brought together and conclusio ns drawn from their simila rit)'-a new merhod by which all the institu tions of one society or social type are studied together so as to exhibit rheir int imate relations as pans of an organic system.

I have tried to show thar the ceremonial customs are rhe means by which rhe society aCts upon its individual members and keeps alive in their minds a cerrain sys tem of senti ments. Without the ceremonial those sentiments would not exist, and without them {he social organisa tion in its actual form could not exist. There is great difficulty, however, in finding a suitable method of describing these sentiments. In attempting ro pur into precise words the vague feelmgs of the Andaman Islander there is always the danger rhat we may attribu te to him conceptions thar he does nor possess. Fo r he is nOt himself capable of thinking about his own sentiments.

In rhe arrempr to ex hibi t the meaning of the ceremonial I havc shown that it implies a complex system of beliefs abour what 1 have called power, and have srated rhose beliefs in more or less precise rcems. Bur the Andaman Islander is of course qu ite incapable of making similar statcmenrs or even of understanding them. In his

97

s

Riles and Values

consciousness appear only rhe very vaguest conceptions, such as those: associated with rhe word kimil or with odours. We, in order co understand his customs must substitute for such vague notions others capable of precise statement, muSt formulaee in words the beliefs rhat !lre revealed in his anions, but we must be careful not to fall inro the error of ancibucing to him rhe conceptions by which we make dear ro ourselves his indefinite sentiments and notions and the ceremonies in which they are expressed.

With this qualification, then , the ceremonial of rhe Andaman Islands may be said to involve rhe assumption of a power of a peculiar kind , and we have been able to formulate cerrain principles which, although rhe native is quire incapable of stating them as principles, are revealed in the ceremonial. This power, though in itself neither good nor evil, is the source o f all good and all evil in human life. It is present in the society itself and in everything that can affect in imponant ways the social life. All occasions of speCial comact with it are dangerous, i.e., are subject ro ritual precautions.

It should already, from the course of the argument, be plain that this power or force, the imeraction of whose different manifestations constitutes the process of social life, is no t imaginary, is not even something rhe existence of which is surmised as the result of intellectual processes, but is real, an object of actual experience. It is, in a few words. the moral power of the society acting upon the individual directly or indirectly and felt by him in innumerable ways throughout the whole course o f his life.14

One of the most important ways in which the individual experiences rhe moral force of rhe society of which he is a member is through the feeling of motal obliga tion , which gives him the experience of a power compelling him to subordinate his egoisti c desires to the demands of social custom. The individual feels this force acting upon him boch from outside and from inside himself. For he recognises that it is rhe society with irs rraditions and custOms that consrrains him through rhe force of public opinion, and yet the conflict between customary duty and se lfish inclin at ion takes place in his own mind and is experienced as the clash o f a'l.tagonistic mental forces. The moral sense within impels towards rhe same end as rhe social opinion without.

This force of moral o bligation is felt not o nly in relation to rig ht and wrong conduct towards other persons, but is also felt in all ritual, whether negative or positive.

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The interpretation of Andaman Is/twd cerelllollieJ

The moral force of ehe society is also fclt. in a Guire different way, in all stares of intense colleCtive emotion, of which rhe dan ce affords a good example. [I have shown howl in the dance rhe individual feel s the society acring upon him , consrraining him CO join in the common acrivity and regulate his aCtions to conform with chose of others, and, when he so acts in harmony with rhem , giving him rhe experience of a grar increase of his own personal force o r energy. All ceremonies in which the who le communi ty takes parr give the individua1 the experience of the moral force of the society acting upon him in somewhat the same way as the dance.

Thus in these and ocher ways rhe individual does experience rhe acrion of the soCleey upon himself as a son of force. nor however as a physical force, but as a moral force. acting directly in his own mind and yet clearly felt as something o utside his own sel f. and WHh

which thar self may be in confl ict. How is il, rhen. rhar chis force comcs CO be prOjected Inro the

world of nature? The answer co thac Guesrion, which can on l}' be ver}' brieAy indicated here, is to be found in the conclusio ns ar which we have arrived with regard CO socia l va lues. The moral force of rhe society is expericnced by the individual nor only directly but also as acting upon him indirectly through every ob ject that has SOCial value. The besr example of this process is fou nd In the th ings used for food. Thus, in the Andaman s, food is ve ry c1osel), con nected with the feeling of moral obligation , as we have seen. Further, food is one of the principal sources of those alternations of socia l euphoria and dysphoria in which. rhrough the action of the collective emotion . 'he individual experiences the acrion of rhe sociecy upon his own well-being. When food is plentiful happiness spreads th rough the comm unit}, and rhe t ime is spent in dancing and fcasting so that rhe individual feels a g reat increase in his own personal force coming to

him from the societ}' or from the food . On the other hand. when food is scarce and hunting unsuccessful the communic), feels itself thwarted and restrained and experiences a sense of weakness, whIch collective feeling has fo r its immediate obiec{ the food (he lack of which is ir~ origin .

Similarly with the phenomena of the wea ther and all other obJects chat have social va lue. rhe), are all associated in rhe mind of rhe individual with his experience of rhe act io n of the society upon himself, so thar the moral force of rhe svClery is actually fell as acting through them.

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Riles a~d Vailles

But it is really ehrough the ceremonial thae this is mainly broughe about. Ie is in the initiation ceremonies that the moral force of the society acting through foods is chiefly feit , and rhe same experience is repeated in a less intense form in rhe rire of paiming the body after food. It is similarly through the protective use of the materials used for weapons and through the various ritual prohibicions connecced with tbem rhat the moral force of che society acting through tbem is chiefly felt . The argument has been that it is by means of the ceremonial that the individual is made to feel the social value of the various things with which the ceremonial is concerned. Putting this in other words we can now define the ceremonial as the means by which the individual is made to feci the moral force of the society acting upon bim either directly, or in some instances indirecrly through [hose things chat have importam effeccs on rhe social life. By its acrion upon the individual the ceremonial develops and maintains in existence in his mind an organised systcm of disposi. tions by which the social life, in the particular form it takes in the Andamans, is made possible, using for the purpose of maintaining rhe social cohesion aJI rhe instinctive tendencies of human nature, modifying and combining rhem according ro irs needs.

As an example of such modification of primar)' instiners let us bricRy consider that of fcar , to which, from the time of Pctronius 15

co the present day, so much importance has been anribured in relarion ro the origin of religion. In childhood any fear of danger makes the child run ro irs mother or father for prorection, and rhus the instinct of fear becomes an important component of that feeling of dependence that the child has tOwards its parents, The primitive society uses (he fear instiner in much the same way. The Andaman Islander, through the ceremonies and cusroms of his people, is made ro feel that he is in a world full of unseen dangers- dangers from the foods he eats, from the sea, ehe weaeher. the forese and irs animals, but above all from rhe spirits of the dead, - which can only be avoided by rhe heIp of the sociery and by conformiry with social cusrom. As men press close ro one anorher in danger, rhe belief in and fear of the spirit-world make the Andaman Islander cling more firmly co his fellow s, and make him feel more intensely his own dependence on the society to which he belongs, just as the fear of

danger makes the child feel irs dependence upon irs parents. So the belief in the spirit-world serves directly ro increase the cohesion of the society through its action on the mind of the individual. An

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The interpretation 0/ A "daman uland ceremonies

important law of sociology is that rhe solidarity of a group is tncreased when the group as a whole finds itself opposed to some other group; so, enmity between (wo tribes or nations increases the solidarity of each; ·and so also, the 3magonism between the society of the living and the world of the dead increases the solidariry of the former.

Notes

1 Tylor, PrimilitJt CuIIU", 1, 387. 2 Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, vol. 4. 3 Max Muller, PbJIical Religion, p. 119. 4 Marett, Thmhold of R£ligion. 5 McDougall, Introduction to Social Psychology, chap. XIII, seems ro combine

the rwo hypotheses. 6 For a criticism of the hypotheses of animism and naturism as ex plana.

tions of primitive religion sec Durkheim, Elementary FormJ o/ the ReligioUJ Lifo, Book I, chapters 2 :.md 3.

7 Sentiment-an organised system of emotional tendencies centred upon some objen.

8 In a few words the psycho·physical theory here assumed is that weeping is a subsrirute for moror activity when the kinetic s)'srem of the bod)' (motor centres, thyroid, suprarenals, etc.) is stimulated but no effecrive action in direct response to the stimulus is possible at the moment. When a semimem is stimulated and action {Q which it might lead is frustrated, the resultant emotional State is usually painful, and hence weeping is commonly associared with painful states.

9 McDougall , Social Pl),chology. 10 Active sympathy, the habitual sharing of joyful and painful emotions, is

of the utmost im)XJnancc: in the: formation of sentiments of personal attachment .

11 It is a commonplace of psychology {hat a collective emotion, i.e. one felt and expressed at the same moment by a number of persons, IS felr much more intensely than an unshared emotion of the same kind.

12 The psychologiClI function of individual anger is to restore to their normal condition {he wounded self.regarding sentiments. The fun ction of col1ective anger is similarly to restore the collective sentiments on which the solidarity of the society depends.

13 I once drew a few grotes9ue figures for the amusement of so me Andamancse children, and they at once pronounced them to be ·splrlts'.

14 The exposition of (his importaor thesis can only be given here in the mOSt abbreviated form . The thesis itself. as applied to pnmltive ritual in general. owes its origin to Professor ~mile Durkheim , and has been

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RileJ and Values

cxpo'undcd by him (more particularly in his work Elementary FomlJ . . . )

and by Messieurs H. Hubert and ~.t. Mauss. 15 Primus in orhe dcos fecil timor.

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8 Religion and society 1

The Royal Anthropological In stitute has honoured me with an invitarion to dc:liver the Henry Myers Lecture o n the role of religion in the development of human society. That is an imponant and complex subject, abour which ir is nOt possible ro say very much in a single lecture, but as ir is hoped rhat this may be on ly rhe first of a con~inuing series of lectures, in which differenr lecturers will each offer some contribution, 1 think rhar the most useful thing I can do is to indic3rc cCf(ain lines along which I believe thar an enqui ry into this problem can be profitably pursued .

The usual way of looking at religions is to regard all of chern, or all excepr one, as bodies of erroneous beliefs and illusory practices. ·Inere is no doubt that the history of religions has been in great parr a history of error and illusion. In all ages men have hoped that by rhe proper performance of religious acrions or observances the}' would obrain some specific benefir : health and long life, children to carry on their line, material well-being, success in hunting, rain, rhe growth of crops and the mulriplication of carrie, viewey in war, admission of their souls after death !O a paradise, or inversely, release by the exrinction of personality from rhe round of reincarnation . We do not believe thar rhe rain-making rites of savage tribes really produce rain. Nor do we believe (hat (he initiates of rhe ancienc mysteries did acrually attain through (heir illlrianon an immonality denied to other men .

When we regard the religions of other peoples, or at least rhose of what are called primitive peoples, as systems of erroneous and illusory beliefs, we arc confromed wirh the problem of how these beliefs came to be formu la ted and accepted . It is to this problem that anrhropologists have given most anemion. My personal opinion is that this method of approach , even though ir may seem the mosr direct , is not the one mosr likely [Q lead [Q a real understanding of the nature of religions.

There is another way in which we may apptoach the study of

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