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Australian Aboriginal Religion – Logbook Exercise 4.3

Outline and comment on three functions of ritual in Aboriginal Societies. Refer to examples of rituals.

Australian Aboriginal rituals are impossible to categorize simply, partially because of the wide spread of different tribes across the continent (Stanner, 1976). Stanner (1976) discusses the failed attempt to classify major rituals into four categories; commemorative, increase, initiation and death rites. Religious rituals of the Australian Aboriginals have been classified under two broad headings instead: those for individual progression through life and those for meeting the needs of the community (Edwards, 2005). Although it is difficult to exactly define ritual types, the functions of ritual are relatively simple, if overlapping. For example, the Central Australian initiation rites to impart knowledge to adolescents as well as induct them into adulthood, the Northern Australian mortuary rites which also function to provide a social event within the community and the increase rituals to augment food supplies and fertility (Edwards, 2005; Colless & Donovan, 1998).

Through ritual initiation, young Aboriginal men are introduced to the mysteries of the Ancestral Spirit Beings and the knowledge of the tribe (Edwards, 2005). Indeed, some of the ‘senior rites are more revelatory than initiatory’ (Stanner, 1976, p. 27). Initiation rites are functionally important for ensuring that the right people have the knowledge required for the continuance of life, and instate a boy as a man of the tribe (Stanner, 1976). Although data about rites is restricted from the uninitiated, it is known that for the Arunta and Ilpirra tribes of Central Australian, there are four specific initiation ceremonies: painting and throwing the boy into the air, circumcision, subincision and the fire ceremony (Spencer & Gillen, 1899).

Mortuary rites, at death and burial, allow a dying/dead clansman’s ghost to break earthly ties and shepherd this soul towards the clan country, where it can remain or go on to fill another human host (Stanner, 1976). These rites are generally prolonged more than those of other transition rites (such as puberty initiations) to make certain that the spirit has passed on, and will not remain to haunt or disturb the living (Berndt & Berndt, 1988).The gradual detachment from the deceased in ritual, and the similar treatment of their belongings (destroying intimate possessions) is an integral part of Northern Australian rites (Widlok, as cited in Venbrux, 2007). A person’s values and worldview are conveyed in death rites, completing their life journey (Metcalf & Huntington, 1991, as cited in Venbrux, 2007).

The maintenance or increase rites are performed to ensure that sacred sites remain filled with the specific kind of life associate with them, and to enhance food supplies, fertility or love between a man and woman (Stanner, 1976). Some rites are believed to assist in maintaining and sustaining the fertility of the countryside in which the Aboriginals hunted their food (Berndt, 1974). These rituals were also important for bringing together different clans to share knowledge and find mates (Spencer & Gillen, 1899).

Ritual in Australian Aboriginal religion, although difficult to categorize by European standards, functions to bring together different Aboriginal clans for events such as birth, death and initiation, and promote the important sense of community within the tribe.

Word Count – 507 words