| dc.description.abstract | This study seeks to find out the nature of the function of the Abanyole cleansing rituals.
It investigates the Abanyole cultural and religious knowledge transmitted through rituals
and the effects they have on the social and spiritual life of the Abanyole.
There are several rituals that characterized the Abanyole traditional religious aspects of
life. For example departure and arrival ritual purification mourning, incorporation,
planting-harvesting, establishing new homesteads, marriage relationship, healing
reconciliation, appreciation and settling dispute rituals. These rituals bind Abanyole to
have a common belief that the ancestral spirits and the supernatural being controls every
aspect of human and nature's life.
A ritual is never a matter of routine, habit or the dead weight of tradition but a suitable
means of securing cultural knowledge. It is an affirmation of communal unity in contrast
to competitiveness of social life and organization. It is eminently suitable for organizing
a theoretical conversation that wishes to uncover a cultural meaning through its practices.
This study attempts to analyze the effects of ritualization as practice on the socioreligious
life of the contemporary Abanyole community.
The study examines the elaborate proceedings of Abanyole rituals that comprises
personal and public activities and identifies their significance in the socio-religious life of
the community. Under normal circumstances the Abanyole personal rituals affected the
individual life and status whereas public rituals consist of external activities taking place
outside the person's life thus affecting the environment in which he lives. The study
relied on the secondary and primary sources of data. There were 250 informants from-the
Abanyole community consisting of scholars and religious leaders who have authority in
African Traditional Religion. Data was collected using observation and questionnaire. It
was evaluated by critically examining each questionnaire and recording case themes from
all informants. The tape recorded data was transcribed and translated into English then
analyzed according to case themes ofthe study.
The study is a contribution to knowledge that benefits institutionalized religious leaders,
lecturers of religion and literature, and Social scientists. The thesis has five major
divisions of study. Chapter One is the Introduction of the Study. Chapter Two is the
Literature Review. Chapter Three discusses the Methodology adopted for the study.
Chapter four discusses specific rituals and their significance and how they affect the
socio-religion life of Abanyole. It also discusses the fading away and discarded rituals as
well as identifying various effects of rituals on the socio-religious life of the
contemporary Abanyole. Chapter Five embodies constructive conclusions and
formulates the recommendations for future research and summarizes the research
findings. | en_US |
