There is usually belief in an immaterial aspect of human personality, which may be called a soul. Dreams may be considered as an activity of the soul: death, the departure of the soul from the body. Everyone may be believed to have a soul, or they may not. Some believe a person gets it at a particular stage in his/her life - naming, beginning to walk, etc. The soul may be referred to as: 'soul', 'spirit', 'breath', or 'shadow'.

Melanesia - dreaming

They believe that in sleep their souls wander off from the body and actually perform the deeds of which they dream. For this reason, some people have allowed themselves to be condemned for stealing in a distant village even though they could prove that all the time they were asleep at home.

Trinitario - death

They believe that a person will die if someone steals the soul of that person.

Dahomeans, Africa - number of souls Every person has three souls, adult males have four. One is a kind of guardian spirit, inherited from the ancestors. The second is a personal one, the third is a small part of the creator god Mawu. The fourth is one's 'destiny' which must be propitiated with sacrifices at least three times a year.

Karen - number of souls

They don't know if they have 32 or 33 souls.

The Cubeo believe in a form of after life. The soul is called by the same word as breath. The soul leaves the body during dreams and returns when the dreamer wakes up. After death it has human form unless the person has been adulterous or unsociable, then it assumes an animal form.

Ese?ejja - number and function. The yajjana - person has it before birth, and it originates from the father. 

If lost a person gets sick and dies. After death the yajjana goes to the place of death, located on earth. Animals and trees have yajjana too. The animals' yajjana goes to the place of death. The trees' yajjana walks around and is dangerous, it may eat you.

The eshshua - the same word as for devil, yet context normally tells you which one is referred to. The eshshua seems to take importance only after death. At that time it is thought of as hovering around the dead person's home or going far away. It continues to live after death.

The ecuiquia - take importance after death. It leaves the body at death or burial and stays close to the cemetery, living in thickets and later wanders through the jungle. It is greatly feared and will eat people; it is most dangerous at night.

ILLUSTRATION

This term "kuia" has been taken by Christian Missions for the equivalent of "soul", "spirit" in a person.

Whether the word carries the same significance in the indigenous mind could be questioned. Anyhow the content of the word is that something real in a person, and causes the movement of the body, goes out of the body, in dreams and death. After death it stays around the burial place or where the person has lived. Food is given to the kuia for a time after death. Together with the burial before the grave is covered the kuia is taken out of the body. If a child dies the mother throws knotted leaves on the road from the burial place to her home in order that the kuia should not come back.

Later on all human kuia turn into "gigl", a term for spirit, something that cannot be seen but still real. When a native sees his picture in water or in a mirror reflected he calls that "nigl minmane" also "na kuiana". The same on a photo. They call the shade of a tree "ende minmane". Everybody avoids to step over the shade of another person, or stand in the shade for fear that would cause harm to that person. The belief that animals also have a kuia that survives after death is not clear.

I have read statements from writers saying: the Chimbu people believe when they kill a pig on the cemetery the kuia's of the dead will eat the kuia of the pig but not the living meat, though I could not confirm this. Often I heard men saying: women and children should not eat the meat and fat from a killed Casuwary because its "kuia" would harm them, but this I take rather to mean: that the men only should have that prestige. At the present stage I believe that our Christians have taken the term "kuia" for the equivalent of "soul", "spirit", the personal reality surviving death.

Another ref. to "kuia". There are several lakes in the high mountains of the Bismark in T.N.G. When we went up there for the first time with the natives the latter were afraid to go near those lakes because they said the kuia of men we see in the water will harm us.

The kuia of the men, so the upper Chimbu people believed, went into those lakes, though the kuia of the women went into the ground , into rat holes. They did not understand that the reflecting pictures of themselves in the water could be the same picture of their own bodies.

In the same way they were scared when they looked into a mirror for the first time. They did not recognize themselves on a photo taken. And when they came to identify photos they were reluctant to have photos taken for fear, as they said, their kuia would be harmed, taken away, and especially could be harmed by magician through black magic.

The Afterlife

There are very few people who do not believe in some kind of life after death. In some societies an individual must prepare himself for afterlife by learning special formulae, etc. With others the welfare afterlife depends on the ritual carried out during burial, mourning, etc., and sometimes on the possession of objects buried with them or ritually burned. The dead may send blessing as well as misfortune on the living. The reverence shown to the dead from an important part of the ancestor cult.

Africa

In many parts of Africa it is believed that soul continues to live on for a time but that it has only a very shadowy existence as a wandering ghost, which, when finally neglected or forgotten by the clan, perishes in utter oblivion.

Hinduism

The Hindus believe in life after death - in fact, many lives here on earth in the form of repeated existences, higher in rank and caste if one merits it by proper behavior and religious observance in the

Cubeo

The spirit of soul has a human form after death - unless they have

been unsociable or adulterous. Then it's an animal form. If they have committed incest or eaten forbidden fish they become a feared bird. Right after death they are a nuisance and want to get a sibmate to go with them, but they are dispatched by a sibmate (through ritual). Women occupy a vague place in the afterlife, since there they 'live' by hunting, and women don't hunt.

Religion: A General Comment)

There is fellowship and communication. Man sends messages to gods, spirits, largely through prayers, incantations, etc. He may back up his verbal communication with something more substantial, namely a sacrifice, which he may perform in order to transmit his gift to the next world. Just as man cannot pass from this world to the next without dying, so an animal cannot pass into the next world without it being killed. Or the worshiper may seek some more spontaneous way to transmit his gift to the spirit world. Hence he causes it to be consumed by fire, since the smoke itself as it rises is presumed to bear the gift to the gods. But communication is two-way: sending and receiving, so that the religionist also expects responses in visions, dreams, verbal revelations and in such positive benefits as healing and good fortune.

Communication in religion is understandable, for the supernatural beings are able to listen to what is said, understand the message, and to decide when an how to answer.

3. Abode of the Dead

This may be geographical and/or mythological location. It may be underground, in the sea, in the sky, etc. There may be a ruler or lord of the dead, who may be a culture hero or god. Souls may sometimes be able to visit the abode of the dead during life.

Cubeo

At death the soul leaves the body permanently, journeying after a suitable place to a nearby river, the dwelling of the spirits. It may return to disturb the house. They are not sure if they live in a house although the common view is that all the dead of one phratry live in one great phratry house under one headman.

Aziana

They think the stars are their departed loved ones who died, and the twinkling is an attempt to communicate with them.

Ese?ejja

They believe they have four souls which at death each go their own way. One goes to heaven and if sinful, God will put it in fire for awhile and then take it out. The next one goes to the village of the dead to live which is on this earth. One just wanders in the jungle and the other hides in the cemetary and grabs and eats unwary passersby.

Dusun

The final resting place of souls is supposed to be beyond Mt. Kinabalu. It is a broad level plain - all the houses are new and the animals are fat and well fed. There is no sickness, always food in abundance. No one fights, etc. All the people are young and beautiful again.

4. Fate of the Dead

The dead may die again, or merely cease to exist after a span of years or when they are forgotten or no longer have descendants to perform their ritual. In many cultures the dead are believed to have the same feelings, needs and occupations as they had during life. They may be born again, or reincarnated. This can be in human or animal form. If in human form ceremonies may be performed at the time of giving a name in order to diagnose whose spirit is reincarnated. It may be believed that the spirits are restless until they are reincarnated.

Dusan

Certain spirits - called "souls of the dead" are out to capture human souls. They may enter a living body to capture his soul. These human souls are destroyed by these canabalistic spirits and don't go to the regular abode of the dead.

Yuqui

When a person dies he goes to live in the sky (although "part"of him may be reincarnated into a jaguar, National, etc.). The thunder is the dead having a drunken party in the sky, and they seem to have some control over the storms and the rain. The storm and wind chants, which used to be practised whenever a storm approached, contiued throughout the night at times, leaving the men unable to talk the next morning, were apparently directed to the dead asking them to stop the storm.