Bug Bite
I
am bitten. Bitten by the genealogy bug. I want to know all about my ancestors.
It is not enough to know their names. I could be tempted to guess at them
or select people of note from history an assign them postmusously to the
task of my ancestry. As along as I kept this to myself it would seem to
cause no harm to others. This is not enough. My need requires a knowledge
of the people. More than names or even places I must understand how they
lived and the those that lived around them. From this I am certain I draw
some strength. I understand better when the old car will not run me to
the store that there were tougher circumstances sermounted by my ancestors
who knew nothing of cars and packed their whole families and even neighborhoods
onto wood wagons and carts and crossed roadless mountains. Gee, but aren't
some of my daily concerns petty? Were these the bravest, most noble people
that ever walked this earth? Their country called without much promise
of reward or even victory and they were there. Some one saw a need and
rather than call upon their leaders to provide some program to resolve
the need they simply step forward themselves. Perhaps they did not always
resolve things in a manner acceptable in current society; perhaps even
they were tougher on themselves than pity requires; perhaps they were often
rowdy and gruff. Yes, but their society had its own rules. I look at the
accomplishments, the foundation they built unto which we have attempted
to pile the rubbish of modernism only to complain that the structure appears
unsound. Yet the foundation holds. It is we who crumble. There is then
a problem I preceive with my study. Am I wanting to know because the knowledge
makes me more than I was or do I want to know because I have the need to
glorify those in whose image I was made? Is this genealogy or ancestor
worship?
There is a fine example of the issue involved posted on Mists
of Antiquity , Chapter Six, "Ancestor Worship." This
chapter provides through the use of the text of Sir Richard Maitland of
Lethington an explanation of the Why of genealogy. It does not, however,
answer the question with regard to where the line between the need to know
and the need to worship is crossed. The Bible provides us with some guidance
here. Genealogy was an important study in Jewish Society and the genealogies
of the Bible provide the lineage proof of Christ. Yet the Bible warns against
the worship of the dead:
Ec 9:5,10 "For the living are conscious that they will die;
but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they
anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten.
10 All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is
no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in She'ol, the place to which
you are going."
Ro 5:12,14 "That is why, just as through one man sin entered
into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men
because they had all sinned-. 14 Nevertheless, death ruled as king from
Adam down to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness
of the transgression by Adam, who bears a resemblance to him that was to
come."
Ex 34:14 "For you must not prostrate yourself to another god,
because Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, he is a jealous God;"
Mt 4:10 "Then Jesus said to him: "Go away, Satan! For
it is written, 'It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him
alone you must render sacred service.'"
Eph 6:1-3 "Children, be obedient to YOUR parents in union with
[the] Lord, for this is righteous: 2 "Honor your father and [your]
mother"; which is the first command with a promise: 3 "That it
may go well with you and you may endure a long time on the earth."
Ac 10:25-26 "As Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell down
at his feet and did obeisance to him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying:
"Rise; I myself am also a man."
Re 22:8-9 "Well, I John was the one hearing and seeing these
things. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the
feet of the angel that had been showing me these things. 9 But he tells
me: "Be careful! Do not do that! All I am is a fellow slave of you
and of your brothers who are prophets and of those who are observing the
words of this scroll. Worship God."
Go
here for these Bible links
If these seem to contridict each other then perhaps the problem
exists in our preception. The words rather seem to indicate there exists
a line between honoring and worship. A further understanding of what ancestor
worship is might serve well.
From Encarta we I gleaned the following definition: "Ancestor
Worship, reverence granted to deceased relatives w are believed to have
become powerful spiritual beings or, less frequently, to have attained
the status of gods. The practice has been documented in West African societies,
in Polynesia and Melanesia, among several Indo-European peoples, and especially
in China and Japan. In general, ancestors are believed to have special
powers to influence the course of events or to control the well-being of
their living relatives. They are considered intermediaries between the
god or gods and the people, and they can communicate with the living through
dreams and by possession. Ancestor worship has no formal doctrines and
is ordinarily an aspect of some larger religious system."
The people at The
College of New Jersey through their African American Studies Department
provide us with the following: "The cult of the ancestors is associated
with the gina, the family households of the Dogon. The purpose of the many
religious rituals this cult performs is to maintain good relations between
the living and the dead. The gina bana is in charge of the ancestor cult.
As in most African religions, ancestor worship is very important to the
Dogon. The Dogon society is gerontocratic; elders are the intermediaries
in the cult of the ancestors, since they are the future ancestors themselves.
The Dogon carve many different kinds of statues as a form of worship to
the ancestors. Although statues are the concrete expression of ancestor
worship, they are carefully hidden away, viewed and handled only by those
in the cult of the ancestors. "
Change the names: Genealogy Society or GenWeb for "gina bana;"
gedcom for "statues;" genealogy for "inga;" and it
sounds a lot like what you hear from many in the hobby. In all of this
there is clearly something that defines the difference between ancestor
worship and genealogy. The craftsman who carves the icon is not by the
act the member of the church. While ancestor worship is dependent on genealogy
as the ancestors must be known, genealogy must be carried across a line
to enter the realm of worship. That is not to say the latter is not done.
One could compare the library to the church or the microfilm reader to
an altar or the reference and genealogy stacks to the devine tablets. These
are only comparisons. The researcher must find the line themselves and
be willing to finally note that this is just a hobby. That finding our
great-great something or another will only improve my knowledge not change
my life or my afterlife unless I allow it to do so. For me then genealogy
is not ancestor worship though the knowledge causes me to admire and respect
those from whom I came, I cannot imagine that through anything but genetics
they direct or intercede in my life. Being a good part Scot the genetics
is probably enough.
J. R. Yearwood