Religion and customary laws

Kinship-based social grouping with patriarchal authority may tend to follow ancestor worship. The initial reaction of awe, fear and incomprehension towards nature (sun, moon, stars, citing of undefined lights in sky at night and the universe itself) and its events (lightening, roaring and bursting of clouds, heavy rain, volcanoes, floods, tides, etc.) as well as birth and death might have given birth to customs and rituals surrounding all activities of life. There could be a ritual for beginning and ending a journey, family food, childbirth, death or even love-making. Many of the customs and rituals could have force of law and discipline. The chief of the family as high priest in the kinship-based social groupings might have guided ancestor worship and day-to-day customs and rituals. There might also have been people recognized to perform magic, create scenes to control or placate or propitiate nature, to liberate from unwanted effect of nature (exorcist), to provide cure for physical and mental ailments, etc. These might have given birth to religious institutions and leadership. This leadership further could manifest in other aspects of life as well.

The position of the priest was important, as it provided religious sanction to social activities. Possibly, the position of the tribal chief and that of the priest might have got combined to make authority and leadership forceful. It has been suggested that ‘the merger of the permanent office of tribal priest with the temporary one of war leader gave the form for the early kinships in Egypt and the Near East generally.’⁷⁵ It may be possible that the priest and tribal chief being the same authority, it provided religious as well as common life leadership. Religion provided sanction to customary practices. These customary practices would then emerge as customary law backed by religious sanction. Thus, influence of religion in emergence of religious and social leadership, emergence of customary laws, sanction to patriarchal authority through ancestor worship, all must have helped in the process of legitimization of community leadership, social order and hereditary rulership.

A variety of rituals and religious practices, which were governed and regulated by certain manners and customs, might have got gradually crystallized as customary laws and latter might have added to laws of the state. The Web of Government, citing the situation amongst the Melanesian peoples, feels that social functions and religious rituals in the aboriginal people did give rise to occasional and informal leadership. He states that ‘we may presume that beginning in this way leadership becomes institutionalized, the medicine man becomes an institution, the priest is designated, the chief and the council of elders emerge. The communal functions now receive specialized direction’.⁷⁶ Differentiation in the role and performance of community-based functions (specific roles/task to be carried out by specific persons) may be likened to different functions of a government.