comparing religions: a limitative approach pe Ze “Seer Ga ci Sm Lhe Tf TOMAS P= 7 WN }.2. platvoet_ |. com direitos autoraisCOMPARING RELIGIONS: ALIMITATIVE APPROACH Ithas been standard procedure in books on phenomenology of religion, comparative study of religions or the science of religion to compare religions and religious ‘phenomena’ taken from a great diversity of historical, cultural and socio- logical contexts and described by scholars from very different disciplines and theoretical approaches. In this book, an attempt is made to elucidate the hermeneutical and methodological problems involved in this procedure as well as the mechanisms of de-objectivation operative in it. The author advocates using only a few processes of religious communication in a small number of religions for purposes of comparison, because in sucha limitative approach the student of comparative religion is able to perform the required reliability tests on the material used, obtain a high degree of mastery over it, and thus make a more controlled comparison. A methodology for this approach is devised, con- sisting ofa theory of religion and a number of analytical tools derived from it. The approach is applied in the second part of the book by examining three rites in three religions, along with their religious and other contexts, and the authors who have reported them, The three rites are the Nkyi-Dwo annual ritual of 192] in Asantemanso/Asumegya in Ghana, witnessed by RS. Rattray; a purification (sreka) rite in the Para district of Surinam in 1969-1970 as described by C. J. Wooding; anda meeting of a group of IFO-Sananda believers in the state of Minnesota, USA, in 1954 as seen by hired observers and re- counted by L. Festinger et al. Particular attention is paid to the role of verbal communication, or ‘prayer’, in these three rites. The prayers of the Akan and Para-Creole rites, of which the texts are available, are examined in order to discover the models followed in their composition. ISBN 90 279 31704 MOUTON PUBLISHERS THE HAGUE - PARIS - NEW YORKComparing Religions: A Limitative Approach An Analysis of Akan, Para-Creole, and IFO-Sananda Rites and Prayers J.G. PLATVOET Katholieke Theologische Hogeschool Utrecht MOUTON PUBLISHERS THEHAGUE + PARIS +» NEW YORKISBN 90 279 3170.4 © Copyright 1982 by Mouton Publishers, The Hague. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form - by photoprint, microfilm, or any other means = nor transmitted nor translated into a machine language without permission from the publishers. Printing: Krips Repro, Meppel. Binding: Liideritz & Bauer Buchgewerbe GmbH, Berlin. Printed in The Netherlands.Contents Preface v PART ONE: METHODOLOGY: FROM UNLIMITED TO LIMITATIVE COMPARISON 1. OBJECTIVE INTENTION AND SUBJECTIVE INVOLVEMENT 3 1.1 The Extent of Comparison 3 Objectivity 4 7 8 1.2 1.3 Quantitative and Qualitative Methods 1.4 Subjective Involvement in the Study of Religions 1.5 The Limited Reliability of the Unlimited Comparative Study of Religions 13 1.6 Three Modes of Empirical Study of Religions 15 1.7 Disadvantages and Advantages of a Limitative Approach ta the Comparative Study of Religions 18 1.8 Conclusion 19 2. A LIMITATIVE APPROACH TO THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RELIGIONS: ITS GENESIS AND TOOLS 21 2.1 A Biographical Outline 21 2.2 Towards a Theory of ‘Religion’ * 24 2.2 E.£, Evans-Pritchard 24 2.2.2 R, Horton, J. Goody, M. Spiro 25 2.2.3 A.M. de Waal-Malefijt 27 2.2.4 J. van Baal, Th.P. van Baaren, D.J. Hoens 28 2.3 A. Theory of ‘Religion’ 29 2.3.1 Two Preliminary Remarks 29 2.3.2 A Definition of 'Religion' and of a Religion 30 2.4 The Tools 31 2.4.1 'Field', 'Process', ‘Context! 31 2.4.2 Their Refinement 31 2.5 Concluding Remarks 34X Contents PART TWO: THE LIMITATIVE METHOD APPLIED: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SOME AKAN, PARA AND IFO-SANANDA RITES 3. THE WIDER SETTINGS OF THE THREE RITES 39 3.1 The Asante, Their Society and Religion 39 3.1.1 The Asante 39 3.1.2 Their Traditional Economy 39 3.1.3 Their Traditional Social and Political Organisation 40 3.1.4 Their Traditional Religion 41 3.1.4.1 God: Nyame 41 3.1.4.2 The Gods: Abosom 41 3.1.4.3 The Ancestors: Wsamanfo 3.1.4.4 Man: Onipa 42 9.1.4.5 Animals and Plants 43 3.1.4.6 Suman 43 3.1.4.7 Witcheraft: Bayi 43 3.2 The Para-Creoles, Their Society and Religion 44 3.2.1 The Creoles of the Para District 44 3.2.2 Their Economy 44 3.2.3 Sranantongo 45 3.2.4 Their Traditional Social Structure 45 3.2.5 Their Traditional Religion 45 3.2.5.1 God: Anana 45 3.2.5.2 The Gods: wWinti 46 3.2.5.3 The Ancestors: Profen, Kabra, Jorka 47 3.2.5.4 48 3.2.5.5 A Model of Para Traditional Religion 48 3.3 The IFO-Sananda Religion 48 3.3.1 The Setting of the IFO-Sananda Religion 4g 3.3.2 The Founders 49 3.3.3 The Tenets of the IFO-Sananda Religion 53 4. THE AUTHORS 86 4.1 'Captain' R.S. Rattray (1881-1938) 87 4.1.1 Biographical Data 87 4.1.2 Rattray's ethnographical merits: an evaluation 62 4.2 C.J. Wooding 68 4.2.1 Biographical Data 68 4.2.2 An evaluation of Wooding as an ethnographer 70 4.2.3 Wooding as a historian of Para-Creole Culture and Religion 12 4.3 Festinger, Riecken and Schachter 74 4.3.1 Biographical Data and Publications 74 4.3.2 A ‘Collaborative Work'? 77 4.3.3 The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance 78 a3 -4 The Research on the IF0-Sananda ‘Dooms Day’ Believers 81Contents xI "AT __ASUMEGVA a4 5.1 The Field-annlysis 84 S.1.1 The Believers 5.1.2 The Meta-empirical Beings 87 S.1.3 The Fields 0s 5.1.4 The Roles Ruling these Fields 99 5.1.5 The ‘Social Distance’ 101 5.2 The Process-analysis 101 5.2.1 The Place of the Process CSC‘ 5.2.2 The Time of the Process 10: 5.2.3 The Initiative to the Process 103 5.2.4 The Response to the Initiative 105 5.2.5 The Messages Sent 105 5.2.5.1 Their Contents 105 5.2.5.2 Their Form 106 5.2.5.3 The Symbols Used 106 5.2,6 The Function of the Messages Sent in the Communication Process at 5.2.7 The Diachronic Plow of the Communication Process 112 5.2.8 The Conclusion to the Process of Communication 117 5.3 The Context-analysis 118 3.1 The Place of the vkyi-Dwo Rite in the Local and National Religion of that Time 118 5.3.2 The Wkyi-Dwo Rite and Akan Society ng 5.3.3 The Religious and Social Function of the Nkyi-Dwo Rite 119 5.3.4 The Origin of the Nkyi-Dwo Rite 11g 5.3,5 The Influence of Context Factors upon this Rite 119 6. AN AFRO-SURINAMESE RITUAL PROCESS: A PARA-CREOLE PURIFICATION RITE 121 6.1 The Field-analysis 121 6.1.1 The Believers 121 6.1.2 The Meta-empirical Beings 123 6.1,3 The Fields 128 6.1.4 The Roles Ruling these Fields 135, @.1.5 The ‘Social Distance’ 138 6.2 The Process-analysis 138 6.2.1 The Place of the Process 139 6.2.2 The Time of the Process 139 6.2.3 The Initiative to this Process 139 6.2.4 The Response to the Initiative 141 6.2.5 The Messages Sent 141 6.2.5.1 Their Contents na $.2.5,.2 Their Form \|\\__d 6.2.5.3 The Symbols Used 142 6.2.6 The Function of the Messages Sent 149 com direitos autoraisXII Contents 6.3 6.2.7 The Diachronic Flow of this Communication Process 149 clusion to Pro. of The Context-analysis 155 6.3.1 The Place of the Sreka Rites in Para-Creole Traditional Religion 155 6.3.2 Sreka Rites and Para-Creole Society 155 6.3.3 The Religious and Social Function of Sreka Rites 156 6.3.4 The Origin of sreka Rites 156 6.3.5 The Influence of Context Factors upon Sreka Rites 156 11._AN IFO-SANANDA RELIGIOUS PROCESS: THE MEETING OF THE 'SEEKERS' ON 21 NOVEMBER 1054 187 7.1 The Field-analysis 158 Z.1.1 The Believers 7.1.2 The Meta-Bmpirical Beings 160 1.3 The Fields 162 7.1.4 The Roles Ruling these Fields 164 7.1.5 The ‘Social Distance’ 165 7.2 The Process-analysis 166 7.2.1 The Place of the Process 166 7.2.2 The Time of the Proc 166 7.2.3 The Initiative to the Process 166 7.2.4 The Response to the Initiative 167 7.2.5 The Messages Sent 167 7.2.6 The Function of the Messages Sent in the Communication Process 168 7.2.7 The Diachronic Flow of the Communication Process 169 7.2.8 The Conclusion of the Process of Communication 170 7.3 The Context-analysis 170 7.3.1 The Place of the Meetings of the Seekers in the IFO-Sananda Religion 170 7.3.2 The Meetings of the Seekers and wider American Society 171 7.3.3 The Religious and Social Function of the Meetings of the Seekers 172 7.3.4 The Origin of the Meetings of the Seekers 172 7.3.5 The Influence of Context Factors upon the Meetings of the Seekers 173 8. THE THREE PROCESSES COMPARED 175 8,1 The Field-analyses Compared 175 8.1.1 The Believers 175 8.1.2 The Meta-Empirical Beings 177 8.1.3 The Fields 180 8.1.4 The Roles Ruling the Fields 181 8.1.5 The ‘Social Distance’ 183 8.2 The Process-analyses Compared 183 8.2.1 The Places of the Processes 183Contents XIII 8.2.2 The Times of the Processes 187 8.2.3 The Initiatives to these Processes 187 8.2.4 The Responses to the Initiatives 187 8.2.5 The Messages Sent 189 8.2.5.1 Their Contents 189 8.2.5.2 Their Forms 189 8.2.5.3 The Symbols Used 193 8.2.6 The Functions of the Messages Sent 193 8.2.7 The Diachronic Flow of these three Processes 193 8.2.8 The Conclusion of these three Processes 197 8.3 The Context-analyses Compared 197 8.3.1 Processes in their Religions 197 8.3.2 These three Processes and their Societies 199 8.3.3 The Religious and Social Functions of these three Processes 199, 8.3.4 The Origins of these three Processes 200. 8.3.5 The Influence of Context Factors upon these Processes 200 9, THE STRUCTURE OF SOME AKAN AND PARA-CREOLE PRAYERS 201 9.1 A Definition of ‘Prayer! and some Analytical Distinc- tions 201 9.2 The Prayers to be analysed 202 9.2.1 The Introductory Prayers 202: 9.2.2 The Supplementary Prayers 203 9.3 One-phase, Two-phase and Three-phase Structures 204 9.3.1 The Three-phase Structure 204 9.3.2 The One-phase Structure 204 9.3.3 The Two-phase Structure 204 9.4 The Structural Phases and Structural Elements 205. 9.4.1 The Opening Phase 205. 9.4.2 The Supplicatory Phase 205. 9.4.3 The Concluding Phase 207 9.5 The Formal Structure of these Akan and Para Prayers 207 9.6 Structural Breakdown of the Akan and Para Prayers 209: 9.6.1 Structural Breakdown of the Introductory Prayers 209 9.6.2 Structural Breakdown of the Supplementary Prayers 215 10. CONCLUSIONS 216 APPENDIX Denteh's Interpretation of the Nkyi-Dwo Rite 219 NOTES 221 BIBLIOGRAPHY 00000 GLOSSARY OF TWI WORDS 311XIV Contents GLOSSARY OF SRANAN~TONGO WORDS 320 GLOSSARY OF IFO-SANANDA WORDS 325 GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TECHNICAL TERMS 326 INDEX_OF AUTHORS 08D INDEX OF SUBJECTS 8Simage not availableimage not available4 Methodology exclude from their comparison any religion which has been described. Stephenson (1976: IX) calls it 'the General Seience of Religion’, in which 'the religions of all peoples, cultures and times' are studied. It closely resembles the globe~ trotting Frazerian manner of comparison which anthropologists have long since abandoned in favour of at least an attempt at (more closely) ‘controlled comparison" (4). This unlimited comparative study of religions is, however, usually known by other names, ‘Phenomenology of religion’ (5) is a much-used label on most of the continent of Europe, though of late 'the comparative study of religions’ (6) and 'the syste matic study of religion’ (7) have become current. In Francophone usage it is, however, often denoted as I'histoire des religions (8), and in the Anglo-Saxon world as ‘comparative religion’ (9) or as ' the comparative study of religion’ (10). It is not without significance that the 's' which denotes the plural in the word Religions is most often lacking in these labels and in the titles of the books on this discipline (11). For, although its students claim that it is an empirical science, they aim not only to com- pare man's religions past and present, but also to establish the origin (12), or to obtain a Wesensverstandnis (an understanding of the essence) of ‘religion’ and ‘religious phenomena’ (13), or to detect their ‘structures’ (14). This discussion will be restricted to certain methodological aspects of the study of single religions and of the unlimited, universalist-essentialist comparative study of religions. The limited comparative studies are omitted from this discussion for the sake of brevity and clarity. Many of the methodological remarks to be made below, however, are also pertinent to these disciplines. 1.2 OBJECTIVITY The study of religions is also called the science of religion by some of its students (15) after the German Religions- wissenschaft and the Dutch godsdienstwetenschap. The label is used to indicate that the discipline should be a scientific one in which objective knowledge of religion and of religions, based on empirical analysis, is sought. Objectivity here means at least three things. It first of all implies the recognition that the religions of mankind constitute an immense variety of culturally condi- tioned symbolic worlds (16) and that no description of such a symbolic world can be called objective unless the describer has been able to exclude from it all the normative judgements which his own culture, religion or ideology have instilled in him. Or, conversely, it is only then objective when the intersubjec-image not availableimage not availableimage not available8 Methodology qualitative ones (31). They involve the investigators' professional and other subjectivities also in the phase of data collection. In this phase, they often evoke forms of reactivity in the informants. These may be slight, such as the processes of reflection which their questions set off in the informants. But they may also be serious, such as the incorrect answers which are obtained when informants are asked about opinions or attitudes that offend against the norms of their society (32). 1,4 SUBJECTIVE INVOLVEMENT IN THE STUDY OF RELIGIONS Quantitative methods have scarcely been employed in the study of religions except in some works of sociology and psychology of reli- gion (33). Quantitative methods do not seem very appropriate to the complex and often intimate realities of the religions (Hultkrantz 1974: 371). The methods that have so far been used are the ‘soft! ones (Honko 1979a: XVIII), which involve the investigator as a human person in the object of his research, such as those of the historical and philological sciences (34) and the qualitative ones of the social sciences (35). Students of religions have certainly attempted to impose limits on their subjective involvement in the object of their study by practicing restraint, or epoché, which is the temporary elimination of that subjectivity that obstructs the 'emic' approach and the a- chievement of objective results. But they also practice ‘empathy’ (21), which is that form of involvement which is thought to be bene- ficial to the achievement of objective descriptions. The terms, epoché and empathy, suggest that these two forms of involvement in the object of research can easily and clearly be separated. These subjectivities are, however, more easily distin- guished in methodological theory than separated in the practice of the transcultural encounters of the Study of Religions. In these, empathy is never complete, and epoché never eliminates all precon- ceived theories and biases (36). Biases may range from subtle ones that are held unwittingly to coarse ones which are overtly put into practice. They are endemic in all societies. In that sense, they are a very normal and human phenomenon, They are the by-product of the self-centredness of every culture. A culture is imposed upon those who live in and by it as the norm of the 'normal', and of the ordered world, Biases are a cultural defense mechanism against the aliens. They forestall an openminded comparison between one's own culture and an alien one by fostering depreciative pre-judgements about aliens as being strange, queer, funny, inferior, not to trusted, etc. By means of biases men construct and maintain cultural boundaries (Arens 1979: 145). Biases also serve to prevent rapid cultural changes and the dis- orientation that goes with them.image not availableimage not availableimage not available12 Methodology The investigators should, as a matter of principle (Jackson 1978: 136), monitor and reflect on their own experiences and relationships in their encounters with the believers they are studying. They should also describe them when they write up the methodology of their research. They should reflect especially on the mental determinants of their perception of that religion: on the subtle ethnocentrisms that they may hold; and on the normative and/or particularistic elements in the scientific theories in which they have been trained (Klimkeit 1979: 189). Those who study these descriptions and use them for compar- ative purposes, should study not only the books, but also the authors; because the describer is an integral part of the de- scription. It is his or her version of the empirical reality which he or she presents. This is even more compelling when authors fail to discuss how they were subjectively involved in these encounters and in the interpretation of their data. An author is the 'mirror' in which, or the ‘spectacles’ through which, we are shown a picture of a religion. Neither a human mirror nor human spectacles are without their altering, and usually distorting, effect. principle, on whatever reliability-reducing mechanisms may have been operative on the author whose descriptions one intends to use for comparative purposes. It is arguably not enough for a phenomenclogist of religion to be also ‘a good historian of religions’ who has ‘somewhere a direct access to the sources’, as Bleeker holds (1963: 12), Being a historian of, e.g. ancient Egyptian religion, will not of itself "provide him with the necessary control on all too wild speculations' (Bleeker 1963: 12), let alone on more subtle distortions, when he moves into the wide variety of perceptions brought to bear on the very different histories of the religions of mankind. This adds a heavy burden to an already burdensome job. For it requires the student to investigate not only the religious worlds of several groups of believers and their contexts, but also the mental and cultural worlds of the authors, including the discipline and the 'school' in which he was trained; his theories and methods; the works he has produced so far; the opinion which others, especially those in his own discipline or area of research, have of them; and other relevant infor- mation, for example, biographical, or relating to his encounters. with the believers he studied: such as who his informants were; how reliable and representative they were (Hultkrantz 1974: 372) ; and what position they, and the investigator, had in the relevant networks in that society at that moment, Such a laborious, double study is not compatible with an un- limited comparative study of religions because of the sheer size of the work-load which it entails. This, and methodological rigour seem to demand a severely limited form of comparative study of religions (49). So one must check, as a matter ofimage not availableimage not availableimage not available16 Methodology symbols of causalities and relationships in the empirical realm. They hold that scientific investigation into empirical realities ean rationally prove that religion is an illusion. Comte,Durkhein, Freud, Lévi-Strauss, Leach, and Sierksma are examples of pro- tagonists of this atheistic position. It is, however, an ideolo~ gical position, Its truth cannot be proved or disproved by means of scientific, inductive methods: i.e., the position cannot be verified or falsified ( Kérber 1976: 306; Ringgren 1970). Its adoption implies a conviction, a belief. The second position is a reaction to this positivist reduc- tionism and emerged in the Romantic period. Examples of early proponents are Schleiermacher, whose book Dber die Religion ; Reden an die Gebildeten unter ihre Verdchtern (Schleiermacher 1958) appeared in 1799, and Constant y de Rebeque who published a six volume work De la Religion between 1824 and 1831 (52). It was also taken by some of the founders of the study of religions as an academic discipline: e.g., Max Miller (1823- 1900) (53) and C.P. Tiele (1830-1902) (54). In this century, it may be said to have found its typical expression in the apriori- irrationalistic theory of religion proposed by Rudolf Otto in his book Das Heilige of 1917 (55). It is also the basic as- sumption underlying and informing the phenomenologies of reli- gion by G. van der Leeuw (1933) (56), F. Heiler (1961), G. Mensching (1959), K. Goldammer (1960) and others. To this stream also belong Mircea Eliade (cf. Allen 1978: 220, 222-243; Saliba 1976: 62-65), W. Cantwell Smith (cf. Baird 1968a, 22), G. Schmid(1979; 126, 135, 136, 139, 151), H.W. Turner (1979: 348-351), and E, Perry (1979: 288-290), They all hold that man is essentially a religious being; that religion is absolutely sui generis and cannot, therefore, be reduced to an epiphenomenon of empirical realities; and that religions refer to a Being who is, and to beings who are, ontologically real and empirically active. Ismail Faruqi is a Muslim student of religions who also takes this view: for him it is self-evident that something di- vine exists and that man enters into relation with it in reli- gion (Faruqi 1965; Ringgren 1970: 125). The third mode or position has emerged only in recent dec- ades. Its proponents maintain that the temporary suspension of normative judgement in the epoché of phenomenology of religion must become a permanent one (van Baaren 1973: 48). One must steer clear of any reductionist position, whether positivist or religionist. Neither position can be verified or falsified, and both influence the perception and interpretation of the empirical religions. Data and theories about them can only be termed scientific if they can be verified or falsified by the intersubjective testing processes of a community of scholars (57). This does not imply that a religion can only be studied inObjective and subjective 17 externals, and not ‘in itself’: i.e., as a system of com- ication with meta-empirical beings. But it does imply that eligion 'in itself’ can be studied only indirectly: i.e., the basis of statements of belief, ritual actions and other igiously inspired behaviour of the believers. The meta-empir- 1 part of a religion is as such completely outside the grasp scope of an empirical scientist of religions. He can make statement, affirmative or negative, about its ontological lities: whether or not it is real and active. Nor can he nounce on the truth-claims of a religion. He must not, there- ©, introduce any prejudiced argument, or personal belief, or bability reasoning that ‘proves', or tends to 'prove', any anion which he may hold privately about religion or about a ticular religion. But he must also show that the meta-empir— 1 beings of a religion are very real to its adherents (cf. tke 1952: 154). He must describe how they are assumed to ect their lives, and to be at times present in their midst, etimes in the very tangible form of one or more of the be~ vers of whom they have taken possession, so that believers may verse, drink, dance and joke with them. To the believers, - usually more remote - presence and activity of the meta- irical beings of their religion constitute a very central ment in the all-embracing framework of customs and traditions t provides a basic meaningfulness and orientation to their es in their natural habitat and society. Apart from this emic description, this approach also requires t a religion is presented as shaped by that habitat, by the er cultural institutions of their society and by its histor- 1 vicissitudes, This emic and contextual study of religions requires a poly- hodological approach, both because of the diversity of the igions, and the diversity of contexts and materials of single igions. There is no one single method for the study of igions (Hultkrantz 1974: 165), nor is there a special ligious* method. It is the materials available, i.e., the igious expressions, and the aim of the research, i.e., the ormation that one wishes to extract from that material, which tate the method or methods that should be applied to them dolph 1973: 117; 1979a: 109; Capps 1979: 180-184). In this third stream, there can also be no a priori valid inition of religion, but at most a hypothesis, or working inition, that is heuristically fruitful for the religion or igions which are being studied. One must be careful not to im wider, or universal, applicability for it.image not availableimage not available20 Methodology the methodological difficulties of comparing religions and religious phenomena have been extensively and critically discussed in recent years in a literature which is steadily in- ereasing in volume.image not availableimage not availableimage not available24 Methodology 2,2 ‘TOWARDS A THEORY OF 'RELIGION' In this section, only those influences are discussed that are obvious with hindsight. But as one's memory is selective and ameliorative, it is likely that the development has been given more order than it had in its growth. Furthermore, the authors are discussed in more or less the chronological order in which they came to my attention. But many of the implications of their positions did not dawn on me on my first acquaintance with them, but often only much later, when rereading them or after having studied other authors. 2.2.1 £,E, Evans-Pritchard Sir E.£, Evans-Pritchard (1902-1972) has been a major influence on me since 1967. From him I took three important elements. The first is his neo-Tylorian approach to religion (cf. Goody 1961; 157-158; Horton 1960: 204, 211; Evans-Pritchard 196. 3) and his rejection of both dynamistic interpretations of reli- gion (Evans-Pritchard 1929: 4, 20; 1965: 33, 110) and reduc~ tionist explanations of it (Evans-Pritchard 1956: 311-314; 1965: passim). A somewhat expanded and modified version of Tylor's ‘minimal definition of religion’ as ‘belief in spiritual beings’ (Tylor 1871, 1: 384, 424) is accepted because it is very close to most 'folk', or pre-reflexive, concepts of ‘religion’, in contradistinction to more current definitions of theological or philosophical provenance, in which subjection to a High, unseen Being is stressed, or that which is of ultimate significance to the believer. The second element is that religion involves reciprocal relationships (Evans-Pritchard 1956: 144): i.e., a set of institutionalized roles by which the partners, visible and invisible, in the process know how they ought to behave towards each other and what each may legitimately expect from the other in terms of attitude and behaviour, Reciprocity also implies that they are involved in an economy of mutual interests which has both immaterial (e.g. mutual respect and solidarity) and material (e.g., sacrifices and other gifts; health and prosper- ity) aspects. The third element is that in a ‘folk'-religion, believers do not speculate on what an unseen being is ‘in itself" (Evans- Pritchard 1938: 81-82; 1956: 315-316, 321) or how it operates to bring about the material aspects of the relationship for the, believer. For example, the Zande attribute any invisible devel- opment from one visible stage or thing to another visible stage or thing (e.g., from a seed planted in the earth to a plant; or from the poison that is put into the beak of an oracle-fowl to its dying or non=dying) to the mbisimo, 'soul', in the seed orimage not availableimage not availableimage not available28 Methodology to one or more of the meta-empirical beings. In possessions, the perceived distance is reduced to almost zero. The messages exchanged in a process of religious communication, whether phatic or emphatic in function,may take either a verbal or some other form of expression. Non-verbal forms, like a mien, @ gesture, a gift, or the observance of a rule of respect often express a message even more clearly and forcefully than words. For a full grasp of the communication process, it is important’ to pay close attention to them. 2.2.4 J van Baal, Th.P. van Baaren, D.J. Hoens Since 1969, when I came to Utrecht, three authors have seemed to stand out in relation to the development of my ideas on ‘religion’ and how to study it. They are van Baal, van Baaren and Hoens. Van Baal's major contribution was towards the solution of the terminological problem of how to designate the beings to whom the believer addresses himself. The usual labels ‘spiritual’ and ‘supernatural’ carry too many typically Christian and Western connotations. In religion, however, man addresses 'a reality that cannot be verified empirically’ (van Baal 1971: 3; cf. also van Baal and van Baaren in Honko 1979b: 683-84): i.e., the exist- ence and activity of the beings, who are addressed by believers in their processes of religious communication and who are very real and active to them, cannot be proved or disproved by a student of religions, because that existence and activity can in no way be empirically verified or falsified. Sense perception and what- ever technical extension of it that can be used to establish facts about physical and cultural realities is of no avail where the proof or dis-proof of the existence and activity of the ‘meta- empirical’, or 'unseen', beings is concerned. Scientific enquiry inte religions must, therefore, carefully avoid any statement about it, This pertains not only to beings that are fully invii ible, such as God, gods, ancestors; but also to the invisible aspects of, or beings in, visible persons or things that are ritually approached, such as souls, witches, charms, medicines; and to beings that are believed to have a bodily form, but cannot be seen, or have never been seen, by non-believers, such as fai- ries, fauns and the mmoatia, forest dwarfs, of Akan Religion. Van Baaren mainly influenced me in the redefinition of 'magic' (van Baaren 1960b: 197-219) (11) and in viewing religion as a form of interaction between gods and men‘ (van Baaren 1973: 41) which must be studied in all its contexts as it is ‘a function of culture and interacts with other functions of culture! (van Baaren 1973: 36; ef. also Evans-Pritchard 1965: 111-112).image not availableimage not availableimage not available32 Methodology Four questions may be asked in the analysis of the ‘field': (1). By what believers and meta-empirical beings is this field, or network, of religious relationships constituted? (2), What position does each of them hold in it? (3). What role pattern do the believers expect the behaviour and attitudes of each of the participants in the process to conform to? (A subsidiary question to be asked here is whether there is role- training and role-institutionalisation for some of the roles in the process studied, And if so, whether some status, power and/ or material benefits are associated with them,) (4). How great, or how small, is the culturally enjoined distance between the visible and invisible participants in this field? By what behavioral, material or verbal symbols is this distance and aloofness, or nearness and confidentiality expressed? The 'process' may be analysed in eight questions or clusters of questions: (1). Where does the (visible part of the) religious process take place, i.e., in what visible locality in terms of (empirical) geography? Does that place have a special meaning to the believ- ers, in terms of their ('emic') geography? (2). When is the process enacted, both in terms of Western chro- nology and of the 'emic' ordering of time by the believers? In the latter case, do the believers attach a special meaning to the time at which they enact the ritual? (3). Who, among the visible or invisible participants, initiated the process? How does that qualify his or her position in the field during the process? What were the motives, or needs, that made him or her take this initiative, and what does he or she hope to achieve? What factors in the wider contexts, religious, economical, socio-structural or other, played a part in him or her taking this initiative? (At times, no initiative is taken, for example, when the religious process is one of a regularly recurring sequence ruled by custom. Other questions may have to be asked in that case, such as: What is the frequency of this Sequence? What is its place in the wider religion, and what is its function in the extra-religious contexts?) (4), Communication is an exchange of messages. There must be a response to a message, signifying whether or not the initiative was accepted. In the religious process studied, is there a response within the time-unit of the rite itself in a two-way flow of the communication, or is the response "retarded', i.e., to be expected at some later time? If the latter, at what time is it expected, and in what form? Of what wider religious process, or phase of such a process, is this rite then a part? If the for- mer, what form does the response take, and in what phase of the rite is it received? (5). What is the content of the messages sent or exchanged? In what form, and with the aid of what symbols? Why precisely in these? What ('emic') complexes of meaning are associated with them?image not availableimage not availableimage not availablePART TWO The Limitative Method Applied: A Comparative Study of some Akan, Para-Creole, and IFO-Sananda Rites In this second part, an attempt is made to apply the limitative method proposed to three religious processes in which verbal communication ('prayers') occupies a rather prominent place. These rites have been selected from three monographs, each on a different religion: the Akan-Asante religion in southern Chana; the religion of the Para-Creoles of Suriname (1); and an IFO (2) religion in the Great Lakes' region of the USA. The first two are ‘oral’ religions and historically related through the slave- trade. They show strong morphological similarities. The IFO- religion provides a distinctive contrast: it is a literate religion in an industrialized, cosmopolitan setting. The time setting of the three rites is the twentieth century. The Akan ritual took place on the morning of 12 December 1921. The IFO religion had its ephemeral existence in the second half of 1954. The Para rite was performed, most probably, between Novenber 1969 and June 1970. The general setting of these processes of communication is discussed in Chapter 3. The authors are scrutinized in Chapter 4 in order to probe the relative reliability of their descriptions and analyses. They are 'Captain' R.S. Rattray, ‘Government Anthropologist’ in the Gold Coast from 1921 to 1931; C.J. Wooding, a Creole anthropologist from Surinam;and the social psychologist L, Festinger who investigated this IFO religion with the help of two colleagues and five hired observers. Chapters 5 to 7 are devoted to the analysis of the fields, processes and contexts of the three rites. These analyses are compared in Chapter 8. In Chapter 9, the structure underlying the Akan and Para prayers is discussed. Some general conclusions are proposed in Chapter 10.image not availableimage not availableimage not available42 The method applied and with the blood and the meat of a fowl by the farmers on their fields when the new planting season has come round (Rattray 1923a: 214-216). She abhors sex in the fields or bush and must also be pacified if a girl conceives before her first menstruation (33). Another, and more enigmatic, god is Sasabonsam. He is depicted as a big, manape-like monster residing in the depth of the virgin forest, or on solitary silk-cotton trees (onyinaa, Lat.; Ceiba Pentandra). He is said to catch and devour hunters and travellers, and to be in league with the witches (abayifo). But he also had his abonsamkomfo mediums who caught witches (Rattray 1927a: 28-31). He is also thought to be in league with the mmoatia, the small forest dwarfs who are said to speak in a whistle-language, to have their feet pointed backwards, and who may pass on expert knowledge of aduru, herbal medicine, to those who aspire to become a herbalist (odunsinni). But they are also said to be mischievous and to play tricks upon men (Rattray 19274: 25-26; Busia 1954: 195-196). 3.1.4.3 A prominent part of Asante traditional religion is the attention given to those of the departed of one's abusua who have qualified as asamanfo, ancestors. An adult male traditional believer 'feeds' his ancestors with a libation of some water and by putting a morsel of food on the soil when he takes a meal. The chiefs, queen-nothers and heads of matri-clans give ritual attention to their predecessors in their offices in the Adae~ rites which return twice in each 42-day cycle of the Akan adaduanan calendar (34). These ancestors are also ‘purified’ and 'fed' in the Odwira, the annual,six-day purification ritual which marks the transition to a new year (‘when the edges of the year have met') (35). The asamanfo live in asaman, the world of the departed, but are also very much involved in the lives of their descendants who "sit here below’ (36): they rule, protect and, if need be, punish them (Busia 1954: 201-202; Ringwald 1952: 61). 3.1.4.4 Mipa, man, is thought to be endowed with three ‘souls! in Asante Traditional Religion, By these, man is part of the world of the meta-empirical beings as well as human society. From the mother, the body being formed in her womb from her blood (mogya), an Asante receives his or her mogya, 'blood- soul’. It constitutes him or her into a member of the mother's abusua and links him of her to its asamanfo and to its abusua~ bosom (gods of a matri-group) if it has any, as is often the case. From the father, whose semen makes the mother's blood clot and form the body, an Asante receives his or her sunsum, or *person~ ality-soul' It links him or her to the father's sunsum, to those of his patrilineal relatives and to their ntcrobosom who is an