Summary

We have seen that in a simple stage of social development man created his gods. The parents of the gods were human beings who had their place in the family genealogy. The technique of deification was continued by family groups until the advent of Christianity. page 62There is a certain affinity between gods and eponymous ancestors whose names were used to denote tribes and subtribes. The major gods and tribal ancestors were earlier in time and were shared by many, whereas the minor gods and subtribal ancestors were later in time and were shared by a lesser number of people.

With the passing of years and the growth of an intellectual and imaginative priesthood, some of the deified ancestors who had led the great voyages into central Polynesia were given a greater prestige by changing a human parentage into a supernatural origin to fit in with a reconstructed theology. The abandoned and forgotten human parents were replaced by the personifications of the Sky-father and the Earth-mother. Additional prestige was given to these major gods by reversing the earlier technique and making them the creators of man. Thus man-created gods in their turn created man.