Asceticism Religion And Biological Evolution

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

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JOHANNES BRONKHORST
ASCETICISM, RELIGION, AND BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
405
acts, to some extent, independently of the body even while the body is engaged otherwise. In this case it is appropriate to speak of a
double”. In Finnish popular belief the free-soul can become a double when its owner is struck by a particular illness characterized by giddiness, despondency, weakness and the like. The illness is cured when the double is retumed to its owner by the appropriate method. Another double acts as messenger of death, among the Finns as well as elsewhere. 15
In North America, too, the free-soul is commonly inactive while in the body, although it is sometimes said to "keep watch". This soul is usually conceived as having the appearance of its owner. It is often, but not always, represented as a shadow. It may also appear as light or fire. The free-soul may be very small in size, and take many shapes, such as a bird or something else 16
The Netsilik and Iglulik Eskimos of North America knew a freesoul which was thought to be a miniature image of its owner. It could leave the body in trance, dreams and sickness; in the case of sickness it had to be restored to the body. Under specific circumstances it could permanently reside outside the body, its owner was then considered invulnerable. Similar ideas prevailed in other Inuit groups. The free-soul was usually thought to reside in an internal organ, such as a kidney or the liver, when not outside the body during dreams, etc. (Oosten 1976).
The Mundas in India recognize a soul called to, which is the true self, it leaves the body to experience dreams. People are no longer directly conscious of their rod as they were in primordial time. The immediate effects of its activity belong to the invisible world. It plays no role in the explanation of trance (van Exem 1982).
Finally, the Germanic peoples knew a soul-called huge or ham which could leave the body and be active during inactive periods of the body (Hasenfratz 1986: 20, 23).
All these examples from different continents share one important feature: they all signify some kind of entity, a 'soul' in the terminology of the scholars who have written about it, which is not involved in the activity of body and conscious mind even though inseparable from the person. Situations in which members of so-called tribal societies accept to undergo, or even bring about in themselves, pain
ful experiences while trying to remain unaffected, are equally numer. ous. In providing the examples below, it should be clear that these two characteristics—a soul not involved in body activity coupled with willfully undergoing painful experiences-comprise phenomena similar in certain respects to asceticism. As in the case of early Christian asceticism, and for the reasons specified above, no attempt will be made to interpret these phenomena in their own cultural contexts. Such interpretations are, on the contrary, purposefully extracted from the description
The following examples are taken from what are commonly known as 'initiations'. (See the articles collected under the heading "Initiation in the Engclopedia of Religion (Mircea Eliade ed.], New York: Macmillan; London: Collier Macmillan, vol. 7: 224-238.) This is not the place to define this term (see Snoek 1987). It is rather my aim to single out some features which frequently occur and which are relevant in the present discussion. We shall first concentrate on puberty initiations.
Proofs of endurance often characterize these initiations. Prohibitions against sleeping, drinking, and eating are common, as are silence, darkness, and suppression of sight. These are obvious attempts to ignore, or overcome, the needs of the body. Not infrequently, endurance of physical pain is part of the initiation, as when wounds are inflicted upon the candidate: circumcision is particularly widespread, but cutting off of a finger, removing incisors, and other bodily afflictions also occur. Often, even if not invariably, these sufferings have to be undergone and are undergone with great equanimity, It is not necessary here to illustrate these well-known facts.
The question could be raised whether initiatory trials can really be considered to be related to asceticism. Asceticism, as commonly understood, cannot be dissociated from religion. Is this to the same extent truc of tribal initiations? It must here be recalled that, earlier in this article, we abandoned essentialist uses of religion' and 'asceticism', so that we are not interested in the question whether something is "really" religious or otherwise. Cascs are here presented which exhibit the features we are looking for on the basis of the universal whose existence we have provisionally postulated. It is of no particular interest to know whether these features characte
to know whether these features characterize phenomena that are commonly called religion or asceticism.
It is yet striking to note that these initiations are often the occasion at which the initiand acquires secret knowledge about gods and spir
All the cases mentioned in this paragraph are discussed in Paulson 1958 The cases in this paragraph have been taken from Hultkrantz 1953.