LN4 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



ild be stored and kept for long periods of time the day 

 of famine was less imminent than over before, and 

 men could dwell iii ;\ -reiirity seldom pre\ iously experi 

 enced. 



The patriarchal orirani/ation of society was influen <1 

 by this momentous economic change and now the religious 

 pr. -ro Datives of the family group took on added sig- 

 nificance. If men were generous to their household godg 

 in irifts and sacrifices, thru there would be bountiful har- 

 vests for man and beast Tims, while the family may n 

 gard natural < and forces as animated by friendly 



or evil spirits a> l>e fore, they entertained for the soul of 

 the departed founder of the bouse the stronger feeling 

 of veneration. They thought of the ancestral -pint as 

 their friend and protector. To the ancestral spirit, 

 therefore, they paid their principal devotions. It was 

 believed that the soul had need of a dwelling-place and 

 of food and drink, for the soul that had no tomb, wan- 

 dered forever as a homeless spirit, and instead of beiuir 

 a protecting power, it usually became a malevolent 

 ghost. 15 To secure the repose of the soul, its body must 

 be reverently buried and a tomb prepared where food 

 could be left and libations poured in accordance with 

 proper ceremony. Often there was an altar within the 

 house whereon there burned a sacred fire, extinguished 

 only after the entire family had perished. 16 



Ancestor- worship reacted upon the domestic life 4 \md 

 marriage was arranged with reference to the transmission 

 of property and of priestly office to sons, and to the pres- 

 ervation of the integrity and continuity of the family 

 group." As none but a son could properly perform the 

 rites of the ancestral tomb, the patriarch of the house 



i* Giddings, Principles, p. 291. i Ibid. 



