Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IVToy, Crawford Howell
HistoryHistory
Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV
Toy, Crawford Howell
Mythology; Religion -- History; Religions -- History; Rites and ceremonies
+46+. _Death of the soul._ The general belief has always been that the
soul survived the man's death.[81] There are, however, exceptions; the
continued existence of the soul was not an absolutely established
article in the savage creed. According to the reports of travelers, it
would seem that among some tribes there was disbelief or doubt on this
point. A West African native expressed his belief in the form of the
general proposition, "The dead must die"; that is, apparently, the dead
man must submit to the universal law to which the living are
subject.[82] In another African community some held and others denied
that a spirit could be killed, and one man was certain that spirits
lived long, but was not certain whether they ever died.[83] Differences
of opinion in regard to the fact of immortality are said to exist in
Banks Islands.[84] The Eskimos are reported as holding that the soul may
be destroyed, and then, however, repaired.[85]
+47+. It thus appears that even among low tribes there is speculation on
the question of the continuance of existence after earthly death; there
is admission of ignorance. We have, however, examples of a definite
belief in annihilation. In some cases, when the theory of several souls
is held,[86] one of these souls is supposed to become extinct at death:
this is the case with the Malagasy _saina_, and the 'beast-soul' among
the Eẃe, Tshi, and Congoans; but such a soul represents only a part
of the man, and its disappearance does not signify the extinction of the
man's personality.
+48+. Complete extinction of the soul and the personality, in the case
of certain persons, is found among the Fijians: in the long and
difficult way to the Underworld, bachelors (as a rule), untattooed
women, false boasters, and those men who failed to overcome in combat
the "slayer of souls" (the god Sama) are killed and eaten.[87] Something
like this is reported of the Hervey Islands,[88] New Zealand,[89] the
Hawaiians,[90] and other tribes. Among the wild tribes of India, the
Khonds and the Oraons, or Dhangars, hold to annihilation of the soul in
certain cases.[91] Miss Kingsley reports a specially interesting view in
Congo to the effect that souls die when the family dies out.[92] The
ground of this sense of the solidarity of the living and the dead is
not clear; the most obvious explanation is that the latter get their
sustenance from the offerings of the former, and perhaps from their
prayers; such prayers, according to W. Ellis,[93] are made in Polynesia.
This belief appears also in some advanced peoples: so the Egyptians,[94]
and apparently the Hindus.[95]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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