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Anthropology and Religion

Deification

Deification

The first process involved in building up Polynesian religion was the deification of ancestors. All ancestors who figure in the lineages were respected by their descendants but they were not all worshiped. Only those that had been selected were deified as page 10gods. The method of deification was simple. A member of a family, not necessarily the chief but a person who was psychic, established communication with the ancestral spirit by means of invocations and offerings. He became the medium of the spirit and, when consultations were desired, the spirit took possession or entered the body of the medium and used the medium's voice to announce his presence.