Ritual and belief : $b Studies in the history of religionHartland, Edwin Sidney
Religion
Ritual and belief : $b Studies in the history of religion
Hartland, Edwin Sidney
Ethnopsychology; Magic; Religion; Rites and ceremonies
For this reason many of the aborigines of British Guiana lay their
trinkets aside and go entirely naked; and among the Jiraras or Ayricas
the wife, brothers and sisters of the deceased paint themselves all
over with the juice of a fruit that renders them as black as Negroes,
while relatives less near paint only their feet, legs, arms and part
of the face: they are not so deeply compromised.[237.2] So on the
Ivory Coast the Ngoulango or Pakhalla mourners put off their
ornaments, put on the head a worn-out loin-cloth and wear brown
clothing, marking different parts of the body with red earth. If
anything more were necessary to exhibit their state of taboo, it would
be the practice of widows when they went out of doors to carry a piece
of “fetish” wood, endowed with the power of causing death to anyone
who approached them and touched it.[237.3] In Australia the
relatives, especially the women, cover their heads with clay, or in
some parts of West Australia with red mud.[237.4] The Warramunga
women in the Northern Territory cover themselves from head to foot
with pipeclay.[237.5] Among the Uriyas of India, whose women are
particularly fond of gay colours, a widow wears a plain white
borderless _sari_, or cloth, as {238} the sign of her
bereavement.[238.1] The Man Cao Lan of Tonkin wear white garments not
hemmed; and those of their women who have adopted the Annamite
trousers recur to the native petticoat.[238.2]
The colours of the mourning garb vary widely. Dr Frazer has collected
a considerable list, to which it is needless to add. Let it suffice to
say that though emblematic colours are often used, the main principle,
especially in the lower culture, is that just discussed of reversing,
or wearing something quite distinctive from, the ordinary costume.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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