Ancestor worship is a religious form of worship which emphasizes the influence of deceased relatives on the living. The worship is not a religion in and of itself, but a facet of religious expression which recognizes an element beyond human control. Ancestor worship is found in many forms in cultures throughout the world, veneration of ancestors is regarded as a means through which an individual can assure his or her own immortality. The ancestor worship is the reverent devotion expressed by descendants for their deceased forebears through a culturally prescribed set of rituals and observances. The prominence of ancestors as a focus of worship within a broader religious tradition is common in many parts of the world, but there are few unifying characteristics cross-culturally. (New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, 2005) The ancestor worship is related to the animistic belief in a spirit or soul surviving the body after death, as proposed by early anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917), is reasonable, since it is this spirit essence of the ancestor that is believed to continue its relationship with descendants. The ancestor worship is related to the earliest stage of religious expression among humans, however, as Tylor's theory further suggested, is certainly debatable. Other controversies in the study of ancestor worship include whether practices in honor of the deceased constitute actual worship; the extent to which linear versus collateral relatives comprise the worshiping group; the ways in which the living are influenced by the dead and so on.
This Panel explores the interconnectedness of such practices across South and Southeast Asian cultures, across India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
