The purpose of this paper is to understand the religious life proper to the North Indian village, in the framework of its social relations. The description is based on field work done by the author, supplemented by existing village monographs. The major premise for this understanding is that all the rites mentioned here are not practised in their entirety even by the richer part of the dominant castes. ' (1) Rites of Passage: Usually the rites at birth are not observed when a nonprimogenitural girl is born. A Harijan woman assists at birth, using a knife to cut the umbilical cord. Impurity is not the reason for the Harijan's role as a midwife . Some Brahmin participate in the birth rites as astrologers, except when they do not benefit from these events. On Chhath (the sixth day after birth) a luncheon is held, occasionally inviting Brahmins who have no positive function there. The initiation ceremony done today is a sanskritized version of the traditional rite of presenting the turban. "Marriage" (shadi) is composed of a series of rites. The Brahmins' role in this ceremonial complex is not considered to have been especially religious, since their function was quite similar to that of the Nai (barber caste). The Nai and Brahmin together played central roles for the betrothal ceremony (sagai), the latter performing the rite of tilak. The normalization of the sex ratio, which became apparent in the thirties, reversed the proposal direction, and resulted in the simplification of the betrothal procedure of the marriage series. Sex ratio imbalance and hypergamic mechanism of social status determination, which had contradicted each other and complicated the betrothal procedure, were removed. The change from bride-price to dowry took place simultaneously. The positive participation of the Brahmin is not observed in the marriage ceremony in the narrowest sense, although sanskritic etimologies are frequently found in the terms for this rite which begins with the arrival of barat (the march of the groom's side to the bride's village). Counting the bride-price and circumambulation by the pair around the fire, touching their feet to a stone, compose the traditional marriage ceremony, during which the most important roles are played by the brother of the bride robed in pardah (white cloth for segregation). The following rites are milai and bidai on the afternoon of the next day. After receiving the gifts of the two rites, the barat together with the bride starts for the groom's village. In Dhadeki the bride returns to the natal village a few days later, again visiting the husband's village with gauna gift after a one week interval. The year following gauna passes without sexual intercourse between the pair, and the bride repeatedly goes back to stay in the natal home during the first several years. Considering the prolonged nature of the series of rites, shadi is better interpreted as the process of the betrothal completion. Funeral rites generally are simple. The consciousness of corpse impurity does exist, but it is not linked with Harijan since the body of the just expired is washed by a family member. Gifts are usually not exchanged. The cremated remains are brought to the Ganges on the third day. Due to the development of modern transportation the ashes are now carried to holy place towns. Formerly they were most probably cast at particular spots of religious importance along the Ganges or nearby rivers. Sanskritized elements predominate in the requiem rites among which the shrad luncheon held on the thirtieth day is really traditional.

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The Polynesian ancestors, who traveled the ocean and immigrated to many islands, have handed down cultural material and knowledge of several thousand years ago to their descendants. Myths, one of the cultural heritages, have been changed form and content by the isolation of the Islands. The purposes of the, present article are to make clear, firstly, the structural relationships between the Maui and Tahaki myths in New Zealand and, secondly, the transfofmational relationships between some Tahaki myths in Eastern Polynesia. By analysis, we can see systematic changes between the variants of the Tahaki myth. Thus, we know that the Levi-Straussian structural analysis of a myth is also valid in Eastern Polynesia. Maui and Tahaki are famous mythological heroes in Polynesia and they have more powerful manas than their elder brothers, though they are not the primogenitures. They venture to other-worlds, overcome their enemies and solve their difficult problems. Although Maui should be in a superior position to Tahaki in the Polynesian custom. Maui is treated as a minor and the heroes are given the opposite values in character, looks and status by the people. We can see clearly these differences among the Maori myths in New Zealand. In the mythological aspect we know that there are many<complementary semantic oppositions between the Maui and the Tahaki myths. The former has the structure of the trickster type, and the latter the fusion type, which bridges the gap between two and one. In the social aspect, the former belongs to the commoner, and the latter to the chief. The chief's people possess the cosmological origin myths in which it is told how the sky and the earth are eternally separated, but that is a secret among commoners. In this constructed world system, the Maui myth which recreates the world cannot function, but the fusing function of the Tahaki myth can operate effectively in order that communication be restored between the sky and the earth. Thus we know that the differnt values of Maui and Tahaki derive from the difference in the knowledge between the commoner and the chief and this difference corresponds to the semantic oppositions between the Maui and the Tahaki myth. Therefore we can conclude that Maui and Tahaki are the opposite side of the same shield. The principal themes of the Tahaki myth are generally, (1) conflict between same-age relatives, (2) expedition to rescue a father, and (3) love story of the hero, although in the Tahaki myth the model of the chief takes various forms in Eastern Polynesia. From [M_1] New Zealand to [M_2] Tahiti, the transformation of the myth bears on the semantic level. From [M_1] New Zealand to [M_4] Mangareva and from [M_2] Tahiti to [M_3] Tuamotu, the transformations bear on the semantic level and the syntagnratic level. According to this transformation, the power of the hero becomes weak and therefore he is unsuccessful in the third theme. In [M_5] Hawaii, the hero did not solve the second and third themes because he was killed by the enemy, but Rata, who is the hero's grandchild, succeeds later. According to the changes of the themes, that is the killed-hero and the delayed solution by the grandchild, the transformations have a bearing on the framework and the content. What happened to Tahaki? Has he been killed? We can meet Tahaki again who is transformed into the female in the [M_6] Pele myth which develops exceptionally widely in Hawaii. This transformation from the Tahaki myth to the Pele myth changes the syntagmatic code and the theme is reversed, but still the hero is younger and the origin of the hero's mana descending from the female does not change.

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Economic anthropology has attracted world notice in recent years. It was begun with the classical studies by Malinowski. Firth, etc. which was research on the economic phase of primitive society. But it is gradually developing toward a fundamental interdisciplinary study for the rethinking of human history. It also corresponds with the blind allys of present society or the social sciences, in other words the blockage of the value system of Western civilization. At present, the principles of market economy increase internal conflicts not only in the economy but also in the culture of the advanced nations, for instance, in over-concentration, pollution, alienation, etc. Besides, the Third World gradually recognize the fact that they are never the developing countries, but the underdeveloped countries which are compelled to develop from "undevelopment" to "underdevelopment" as a peripheral formation to the capital accumulation on a world scale. They demand the acknowledgment of interdependence and the New International Economic Order, therefore, the South-North conflicts increase their intensity. And now, we are urged to review the myth of "Homo Economicus" in this modern society and the social sciences which are based on it. These sciences have advanced with the growth of capitalism in Europe since the 18th century. which is based mainly on a commodity economy. It had investigated in essence the phase of production in human society, but not distribution and consumption. Polanyi was the first to raise this question or form a new paradigm, and even more, constructed the base for the new economic anthropology. But his theory is essentially an empirical study based on social balance, therefore it cannot interpret the dynamic structure of human history. Then, if Polanyi's paradigm is sublated by Marx's historical materialism, it may be an effective method for rethinking human history and the solution of underdevelopment in the Third World. And the concept of the Asiatic mode of production may be one of the most important subjects in the neo-marxist economic anthropology based on this method, because of the heterogeneous character of European history. From this point of view, I will analyze the formation and development of the Asante kingdom in West Africa, and from there the historical study of West Africa in the pre-colonial period. The Asante kingdom was the Akan people's state that developed with the slave trade in present Ghana from the late 17th century. The Asante society was based on peasant communities in which matrilineal lineages abusua engaged in auto-subsistent farming (not autarky). These peasants possessed the farm land and cooperated in the work according to the lineage's bond. The making of a farm therefore required the help of every able-bodied member of the domestic unit; besides, the rights to use the land were inherited by maternal kinsmen. These peasant communities were under mediate rule through a hierarchical social formation (village headman - elder - chief - Asante king) based on kinship and tribal ties. But these had their broad autonomy; besides, the tribute from these communities to the chief were almost redistributed through the rituals. Then the chiefs cannot acquire their source of revenue from the tax-rent couple (surplus products or surplus labors) for commoners, but on the latter was imposed the obligation of military service. In the 18th century, chiefs acquired their source of revenue from the profit of selling slaves which were plundered from the region around Asante by this military service.

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