SATISFACTION (IN ETHNOLOGY). — I. — Among primitive peoples, particularly those ethnologically most ancient, there exists a moral ideal to which every individual and society itself must always conform. They feel themselves responsible for the observance of this moral ideal before God. Every action not conforming to this ideal is sin (v. CONFESSION). God, holy and just, wills only good and hates evil; indeed, He is angered, according to the ordinary manner of expression among primitives, by human sin and punishes it with death, disease, great natural disasters, or by depriving people of their means of subsistence, or by taking away their loved ones, because God is Lord of all and of all. The beliefs of primitives regarding God’s attitude toward sin can be seen most clearly and vividly in their legends concerning the early days of humanity, legends known as “of paradise and the fall into sin,” and in those concerning the flood; legends that are extremely widespread, indeed one might say universal.
The former, studied extensively and deeply both among primitive peoples and those of high civilization by Feldmann, are summarized by him in four points: 1) the ancestors of humanity at first lived with God, their creator, in a relationship of familiarity and enjoyed a happy life, free from hardship and pain. 2) This happy state came to an end through a wicked act against God, committed by men or their representatives, which in some peoples amounts to some act of carelessness or a misunderstanding. 3) To this wicked act, which entails the loss of original goods, is joined a malignant power, hostile to God and man, which is fought and overcome but not annihilated. 4) God, angered by the wicked act of His creatures, withdraws from humanity; from this there has not infrequently arisen the concrete idea that God drove men away from heaven or even from the earth. Since then, arduous labor and daily sustenance, sickness and death have befallen every inhabitant of the earth. It is easy to see that this also answers the anguished questions of how evil came into the world and brought disorder and confusion, how happiness and peace were lost—namely, because of sin.
While in these legends the protagonists are thus punished for their personal sin, in those of the flood it is shown instead that God punishes with death the entire unrepentant humanity, saving only a few, from whom, by God’s will, the human race begins again to multiply. These beliefs about sin influence the daily life of primitive peoples, even among those, it should be noted, in whom belief in God has grown dim and in whose minds the belief has greatly developed that physical evils and death itself originate directly or indirectly from moral evil.
God, according to primitive peoples, is not only holy and just but also good and merciful. After withdrawing because of the sin of the protagonists, He has not abandoned humanity but, like a good father, provides for its needs, watches over the observance of His law, of which no violation escapes Him. On the other hand, primitives, though feeling themselves obligated before God to live according to the moral ideal, are not angels. As Father Schmidt rightly observes, they too have their faults, especially an extreme impulsiveness and excitability in their strong feelings, so that they inconsiderately and unconsciously fall now in one place and now in another of this moral ideal, openly rebelling even against the supreme legislator Himself. They know, however, that God forgives the repentant sinner; indeed, the African Pygmies of Gabon and the Andamanese believe that God forgives sins even after death (provided that they have been correspondingly atoned for in this life) in a place that is neither heaven for the good nor hell for the bad, but something intermediate and provisional, a kind of purgatory. Thus, the terror of God’s wrath—which, according to primitive beliefs, manifests itself in many ways: with thunder, lightning, the rainbow, etc.—and the desire and necessity of being at peace with Him drive the primitive to atone for his sin. Indeed, once the moment of excitement has passed, through calm reflection he repents and is ashamed of his sin, disapproves of it morally, and gives it a moral sanction. There are many cases in which this has been observed, but the question of sin and expiation must be studied more deeply among primitive peoples, and it is well worth doing, because through it one penetrates into the innermost being of man. Judging from the totality of primitive peoples and setting aside actions that are not expiatory in the strict religious sense, it can be said that the expiation of sin is accomplished through prayer, which often accompanies every other expiatory act, and through confession (v.), through sacrifice, called therefore expiatory, through fasting, through numerous other penitential practices of simple recollection and silence, of mortification, of painful and bloody acts; all this is then done personally or through others, for the sin or sins of one person or of an entire community, by one person or by an entire social group.
2. Individual prayer to ask God for forgiveness is an entirely interior act, often without a fixed form; it can be known externally only if it is manifested. Among the Pygmies of Gabon, in Africa, when the rainbow appears, it is customary to address a prayer to it, which in essence is a plea for forgiveness to God. Every Pygmies, or the village chief, if they are all gathered, turning to the rainbow, says among other things: “O rainbow, give thanks to Him (that is, to God) for us. — Tell Him not to be angry. — Tell Him not to be irritated. — Tell Him not to kill us. — Since we greatly fear Him. — O rainbow, tell Him.”
The Pygmies believe that God punishes every crime by causing men to die, even by means of lightning. They fear the rainbow because it is believed to be a divine manifestation connected with God’s vengeance. They tell, in fact, that four men who attempted to kill their father were surprised and annihilated in the woods by a violent storm; then the rainbow appeared. For this reason it is feared, and this explains how that prayer is expiatory. Among the same Pygmies of Gabon and the Semang of the Malay Peninsula there exists expiatory sacrifice made with one’s own blood. The offering of this sacrifice is obligatory, and failure to fulfill this duty would result in a flood, not only for some tribe but for all humanity. When thunder resounds, sinners offer their own blood in sacrifice, while the innocent light a fire to signify their innocence to God.
Among other peoples ethnologically more ancient, the expiatory sacrifice has not been observed. It exists among many peoples of more recent civilization and even of high civilization. There are peoples who offer the expiatory sacrifice only in certain cases or for certain graver sins and crimes. Thus, among the Nuer a certain disease is considered a divine punishment for a meeting; therefore, the one who suffers from it is held to be guilty and must offer a bull in expiatory sacrifice to avert misfortune. Among the Dinka (Räk) it is believed that an incestuous girl would be punished with sterility in future marriage, and so she is obliged to confess her fault and make a sacrifice. If before the
If a girl or one of her relatives should die, her seducer would incur the penalty of blood and would have to pay a bull and a sheep for the sacrifice to be made, as well as one to three head of cattle, including a cow for the girl’s father or guardian. Among the Banyoro, sacrifices are offered after the birth of the seduced girl. Among the ancient Mexicans, a human sacrifice was offered after each member of the community had confessed their sins upon the victim (v. CONFESSION).
The spirit of penitence that animated the sinner is evident in the following prayer, which the priest recited before the individual confession, quite different from the common one: “You, Lord, who are the father and mother of the gods and the most ancient divinity, know that your vassal, your servant, comes before you, weeping and approaching with great sorrow, immersed in his contrition because he recognizes that he has fallen into error... O merciful Master, who are the support and defender of all, receive in penance and listen in his anguish to your servant and vassal.”
Among the Yaoze in China, there is a penitential festival celebrated every ten years to obtain the remission of sins. For three days, the commandments and laws of the Supreme Being are read aloud to the people and the priests. Both priests and people do penance for the sins of the past years, praying, weeping, and fasting.
Among the Lolo of southwestern China, at the beginning of the new year, a sacrifice is made for the entire village. The sacrificers must be three, chosen from among those in the village who have not suffered a death in the family during the year. In some tribes, this sacrifice can be compared to that of the scapegoat in the solemn Day of Atonement of the Hebrews: the goat, instead of being killed, is driven into the wilderness. The same Lolo celebrate a particular festival, organized by one village and attended by neighboring villages, in which a sacred wrestling match is held to obtain from the Supreme Being the cessation of an epidemic or famine; this sacred wrestling is compared to the “pardons” of France.
3. Regarding the origin of the sacrifice of atonement, three hypotheses have been proposed:
a) That it derives from purification rites. W. Wundt argued that it arose from the need to purify oneself from the stain of breaking totemistic taboos, thus known in totemistic civilization; but this is an error. Today it is demonstrated that in the civilization of gatherers, which ethnologically is older than that of totemists, there already exists a moral ideal, the observance of which, as has been said, man and society feel responsible before God. One might rather think that purification rites, especially when blood is used, derived, through natural symbolism, from the sacrifice of atonement or became closely connected with II. b) That it originated from the simple offering of a gift, in the sense that just as it is natural to please and befriend a person with a gift, so too it is natural to regain the favor of the one offended by sin through an offering.
c) That it stems from the idea of punishment for the transgression of a moral law. Indeed, this idea is found developed in the ethnologically oldest civilization. The free acceptance of a punishment, already decreed by the Supreme Being, would have the character of an expiatory sacrifice. Hence Westermarck rightly notes that fasting in some cases may be a remnant of such a sacrifice. “The offering of food,” he says, “made to the divinity is transformed into a sacrifice, which will consist in an abstention from food on the part of man.” The same could apply to certain forms of asceticism. Hence the idea arose that every sacrifice necessarily involves mortification, so that in ordinary language “sacrifice” and “deprivation” have often become synonymous. This seems to be precisely the idea of the sacrifice of atonement as it appears among the Pygmies of Gabon. Of them, Fr. Trilles recounts that during an elephant hunt, a third of the men in the camp were trampled by the enraged elephant. Then the leader of the expedition, though wounded himself, offered his own blood in sacrifice. This, he explained, had to be offered to the angry Creator to “renew the covenant” (rête). It is also noted that among the same Pygmies, when two people wish to enter into brotherly friendship, they have the custom of mixing their own blood.
As Fr. Schmidt rightly observes, this sacrifice to appease God’s wrath and renew the covenant with Him was offered after it had been ascertained that the previous animal sacrifice had not had its intended effect. Thus, in the mind of the Pygmy, the animal sacrifice represented that of human blood; it was made only as a trial sacrifice to spare the offering of one’s own blood, which was truly required. Indeed, even in this animal sacrifice, blood is used as such. Even when making a sacrifice to the rainbow, some drops of human blood, drawn from the arm, are mixed with the blood of the beast.
Therefore, the principal idea of the sacrifice of atonement would be this: man, through his sin, makes himself worthy of death; the sinner acknowledges this before God by making the sacrifice of atonement, in which the animal stands in his place, and he is restored to peace with God, believing that he has thereby satisfied divine justice.