Note 21 — Chapter V · THE INTERPRETATION OF ANDAMANESE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS: CEREMONIAL (continued 2)

The dead man was bound by ties of solidarity to those still living. Now that he is dead those ties have not ceased to exist, but continue until the society has recovered from the effects of the death, for they are based on deep-seated and elaborately organised sentiments. I believe that the mourning customs of the Andamanese are to be explained on this basis, as being the means by which the social sentiments of the survivors are slowly reorganised and adapted to the new condition produced by the death. The severance of the dead man from the society is not a sudden but a gradual process, during which his relatives and friends, being still attached to him by social ties, are in an abnormal condition which may be defined as a partial separation from the world of living men and women and a partial aggregation to the world of the dead (i.e. the spirit world). This abnormal condition of the mourner is shown chiefly in his or her withdrawal from participation in the ordinary life of the society. We have seen that the eating of food is, for the Andamanese, one of the most important of social actions, a kind of communion of the society, and that during the period of adolescence a youth is separated or withdrawn from the common life of the group by being forbidden to eat certain foods. So, in strict conformity with the same set of notions, the mourner is separated from the normal life of the society by being forbidden to eat pork or turtle, these being the most important foods that the Andamanese have21. Like the aka-op, also, the mourner is forbidden to take part in a dance, or to decorate himself with red paint and white clay, for by these actions the Andaman Islander becomes conscious of his position as a member of a closely unified group, and it is necessary for the mourner, as for the aka-op, to feel that for the time being he is cut off from the ordinary life of the group. The disuse, during the period of mourning, of the name of a mourner is to be explained, as we shall see more plainly later, on the same principle, the personal name being what marks the person’s position in the social life, so that the temporary dropping of the name shows that for the time being the person is not occupying his normal social position.