Ancestor-worship

an ancient and widespread practice, displayed in its most characteristic form in modern China and ancient Rome, which apparently was based upon the belief that dead parents or ancestors, represented by images or 'ancestral tablets', could be revived by appropriate ceremonies, such as burning incense or offering libations, and give the benefit of their wisdom to their descendants who performed the vitalizing ritual and asked for their advice upon, or their sanction for, actions affecting the welfare of the family. The earliest deity was a dead king (Osiris), whose advice was sought by his son and succe or. Hence in primitive religions, in which an endle variety of modifications of these more ancient beliefs has arisen, ancestor-worship may take the form of pious devotion to an actual ancestor or to a supernatural deity. As many of the most ancient gods were identified with animals, the dead ancestor, or his soul, is believed by many peoples to become incarnate in the appropriate animal, which is accorded the special veneration of a god or supernatural adviser, and set apart as sacred. Ancestor-worship still survives in a great variety of forms among various peoples.— Bibliography : E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture ; F. B. Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion ; D. G. Brinton, Religions of Primitive Peoples .