Symboliczny wymiar rytuałów pogrzebowych u ludu Konkomba z północnej Ghany

Abstract

Symbolic thinking belongs to the most characteristic features of human life. Symbolization, which is the ability to create symbols, is a universal language of the humankind and it constitutes the basis of all social communication. Symbolic thinking and symbols are linked with all domains of life of the African peoples, including the problem of life and death, which are of fundamental importance in their social and religious life. The subject of the article is to present the understanding of the notion of a symbol in the view of social anthropologists and to analyse selected symbols which express social and religious experiences connected with death among the Konkomba of northern Ghana. These symbols occur in the burial rituals and the rituals of the final, or secondary funerals among that people and other Voltaic peoples of West Africa. The following symbols are discussed: a calabash, the place of the grave, water, shaving the head, and white colour as the symbols of forgiveness, purification and mourning, the symbols of the gender expressed by numbers three or four (male and female symbols), and dances, which make it possible to externalize the feelings of emotions, regret and despair connected with the tragic event of death. Symbolic objects, activities and actions express the cognitive, i.e. ideological aspect of funeral rituals as well as their goals and the accompanying frustrations, emotions and desires. Symbols not only point at something or represent something but they are also the source of power, thanks to which they are affective and causative. The power of symbols results from their reference to transcendence and from the recognition of their value. Symbols perform the communicative function and they have a social dimension. The social structure plays a significant role as the model and source of symbolization process. Particular symbols are understandable only in a broader context of funeral rituals, other rituals and specific patterns of behaviour connected with them. The source basis of the present article are the scientific literature and the results of ethnological field studies that I conducted among the Konkomba in the region of Saboba, from July 1984 till January 1985 and from September 1990 till August 1991.