Research on ancestor worship

Research into ancestor worship has a long history. Interest started to emerge in the first half of the 19th century when folklore was first considered a useful instrument for studying ancient religions and ritual practices. The earliest folklorists combined mythology and folklore, but for following generations folklore became the most authentic source. Alongside Mannhardt’s models of folklore and emphasis on the ‘lower mythology,’ which greatly emphasised links to ancestors, evolutionary anthropology took root. Influenced by Darwinian theories, evolutionary ideas were in opposition to biblical creationism, and native cultures – where ancestor worship was almost always a central element – came to represent the early stages of religious development. With the emergence of functionalist field studies, the focus shifted to contemporary indigenous societies and the study of kinship, which dominated social anthropology throughout the 20th century. In the years following World War II, previous enthusiasm led to a counter-reaction and ‘ancestor worship’ was stringently redefined. This new methodological approach also affected other areas of research that explore religion, such as Old Norse scholarship.