Objective Correlative as Aesthetics in Indigenous Rites

Abstract

AbstractThe transition of the dead to the world of the ancestors in indigenous societies goes beyond the burial and physical disintegration of the individual. The rites attendant on the absence of the deceased in the Ugbo/Benin milieu culminate in the final journey to the world of the ancestors. This can be termed apotheosis which may be considered the general recognition that the deceased can be considered an ancestor and could sit among other ancestors. While using aesthetics as a springboard, the paper establishes the fact that indigenous ritual performances may amount to what Eliot T. S. terms “the objective correlative”, and other new generations of aestheticians such as James Shelley call “sensible pleasures, rational pleasures”, and Wonderly terms “transcendent desires.” The signs and symbolic gestures attendant on the rite of passage that are potent means of establishing belief and amplifying a picturesque presentation of what may seem abstract are instrumental in upholding transition rituals in indigenous societies. The rites of passage further amplify the belief of indigenous people that necessary rite must attend the demise of every person upon the yield to the power of death and the negation of which could bring fatal consequences on the offspring of the individual.