祖先崇拜的宗教人类学探析

A Religious Anthropological Analysis about Ancestor Worship

祖先崇拜是具有普遍性的人类信仰文化现象。人类学意义上的祖先崇拜,是指以相信已故的成员给某个集团的现有成员的生活带来影响这一信仰为基础的民俗信仰体系。通常,进行崇拜的现有成员和被崇拜的已故成员之间的关系,被认为是"子孙"和"祖先"的关系。某个群体活着的成员认为自己以及所属集团的延续和繁荣有赖于祖先。人们认为,承认这种事实并不懈地感谢和祈祷,是为确保继续获得祖先保佑,过更幸福的生活或为免遭不幸所不可缺少的。而子孙为了和祖先沟通交流,为得到祖先的佑护经常需要向祖先供献祭品、举行相应仪式并诵唱祷词,这种带有仪式性的行为,宗教人类学上叫做祭祖仪式。

Ancestor worship is a universal phenomenon in human belief culture. Ancestor worship in the anthropological sense refers to the belief system in which people believe that the deceased members of a certain community affect the life of other members. The relationship between the worshipping and the worshipped generally amounts to that of ＂grandsons＂ and ＂grandfathers＂. The living members of a com- munity believe that the maintainance and prosperity of themselves and their community rely on their ances- tors. It is considered that admitting such a fact and thanking and praying continually is necessary in order to obtain protection from the ancestors and to live a happy life free from misfortunes. In order to communi- cate with ancestors, the decedents need to offer sacrifice and to hold ceremonies and to read and sing pray- ers. Such ceremonial behaviors are called ancestor worship ceremonies in religious anthropology.