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Nancy Jay’s Throughout your generations forever: Sacrifice, Religion, & Paternity

Introduction

The author of the book ‘Throughout Your Generations Forever: Sacrifice, Religion and Paternity’ (Jay, 1991) had a passion for religious studies and sociology which explains her authorship of the book and the title. Basically, the book talks about sacrifice and reasons behind many women having to be excluded from the sacrificial performances especially childbearing women. From the knowledge she posses on religion, the author successfully amalgamates the concept of religion, sociology, biblical context and account of the church while focusing on the society today and of the olden times. Critics have claimed that the book focuses so much on women and reveals the intention of feminist study of its main components which would also be femininity and sacrifice. The author also focuses on the forgotten traditions relating to sacrifices while at the same time avoiding the laws, scientific and modernized ways of sacrificing by the society today.

In the text, the author: (Jay, 2001. Pg 1) opens by giving a clear description of a ritual and arguing that there is no actual definition that singly defines the term/practice. However, in this case a ritual is compared to a farmer cutting wood and knowing its purpose, failure to which, it may lie useless. Resistance from cutting the wood would also result to the absence of wooden houses (Jay, 1991.Pg 1). This is also comparable to sacrifice in the traditional context. Relationship between ritual and sacrifice is well connected to religion by the definition of the term by missionaries who settled for religious purposes. The intertwining of sociology and tradition clearly depicts in defining rituals through the attempts to find the appropriate meaning by incorporating the social and traditional considerations. A review of different traditions and their sacrificing practices which include the Ashanti, Hawaiian and the Lugbara traditions in sacrificing sheds more light on the above mentioned concept.

According to Jay, (1991); “In no other major religious institution is gender dichotomy more consistently important across unrelated traditions, than it is in sacrifice” (Pg xxiii). There is clarity brought out on religion throughout the book in the sense of what may seem as hypocrisy. Religion is meant to understand the concept of sacrifice since its service is a matter of commitment and self sacrifice as well. In the event of a church especially Christianity in the ancient times, the sacrament of Eucharist is believed to be a form of surrender on the part of the person taking it. Thus, it is not justifiable to uphold some of these rituals and deny societal and traditional rituals the beauty of free practice where no one gets hurt. The importance of maintaining tradition is also important whether in religion or other areas like sacrifice and ritual performance as mentioned. Also, many traditions discriminate on the basis of gender, thus the inclusion of paternity in the title to raise the question of the place of the maternal parent in the traditional society.

It is worth noting the neglect of most women in the traditional societies while in most cases they are responsible for holding together the society. Though not disputed, fathers and sons receive too much acknowledgement for the fact that the family names are passed on through them and their generations. This has led to an evident resistance of either child bearing or sacrifice but no acceptance of both which in the traditional society, child bearing would be advocated for more. There is an obvious concern from the title of the likelihood of the inevitability of the current situation due to common way of handing over generations which is through the sons. These are ideas and matters that have surpassed in generations without criticism. For instance, the concern regards the parts that females and males are expected to play in the ritual of sacrifice. Undoubtedly, a conclusion is experiential as has happened in many other sociological settings that the males play the sacrificial performance part while women/females watch from the side and only participate in minor roles where needed with adequate authorization.

Particularly, some communities such as the Aztec sacrifice further elaborate the opposition of child birth in sacrifice practice. An illustration stating how women in child birth passed on during sacrifice attempts to explain why the restrictions are put in place. Similarly, the Hawaiian sacrifice and rituals is demonstrated with the revelation of the practice to be purely masculine with total women absence (Jay, 1991. Pg 61). Here, it is not as simple as involvement of humans only but gods as well where there can be possible reincarnation for a person to be physically born again to become a god. This brings out the religious context attached to the rituals and sacrifice by different groups. The effects also differ depending on the values that different groups attach to the practice. Areas such as the West Africa known to be very traditional had all their women leave the sacrificial area before any advances were made. The extremes here were that humans were the ones sacrificed alongside priests whose role was to sanctify the process/ritual. Traditions were undoubtedly sanctified and needed no further conviction in most societies.

Finally, it is clear that keen analysis of different cultured communities and their traditions would trace to activities and rituals that are distinct to them. It is worth noting that in the past, these activities were undoubtedly religious and they would be fully supported by the religious leaders. Religion traditionally also comprised of its own fair share of rituals and sacrifices that believers followed unquestionably. Families in the Agrarian society appear more organized compared to the mentioned societies. The passing on from one generation to another was more based on property rather than traditional practices. Practice of sacrifice and other rituals happens to be more of a social building and identification of the actual structure. Through the comparison of different communities, there is clear development of the importance of sacrifice, and other societal rituals to communities and their traditions. As clearly indicated, it was also religious and sensitive on gender a concept well concentrated on and passed on to future generations in the respective communities.

Works Cited

Jay, Nancy. Throughout Your Generations Forever: Sacrifice, Religion, and Paternity. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1991. Print.