tion. God knows more than we know, the ancestors are watching us.
More generally: In most local descriptions of spirits and other such
agents, we find the assumption that they have access to information
that is not available to ordinary folk.
What is made explicit is most often a vague assumption that the
spirits or the gods simply know more than we do. But it seems that
people in fact assume something much more specific, namely that the
gods and spirits have access to strategicinformation (as defined here)
rather than information in general. Kwaio people's statements about
their ancestors highlight this. At first sight, what they say would seem
to confirm that ancestors simply know more: "Theadalosee the [157]
slightest small things. Nothing is hidden from the adalo.It would be
hidden from us [living people, but not from them]"; or again "an adalo
has unlimited vision." But when people illustrate these statements,
notice how they immediately move from "agents who know more" to
the much more specific "agents who know more about what is strate-
gic": "An adalohas unlimited vision... something happens in secret
and [the adalo] will see it; [if] someone urinates, someone menstruates
[N.B., in improper places: doing this is an insult to the ancestors] and
tries to hide it,... the adalowill see it."^7
In other words, although you can say that the adaloin general see
what humans cannot see, what first comes to mind is that they can
detect behaviors that would have consequences for social interaction:
someone who has polluted a particular place puts others in danger and
should perform appropriate purification rites. Whether someone did
violate these rules or not is clearly strategic information. When people
represent possible violations, this activates their inference systems for
social interaction. For them, it also goes without saying that it is that
particular kind of information that the adalohave access to. It may be
hidden to people (this is the "imperfect access principle": people's
access to strategic information is not guaranteed) but not to supernat-
ural agents (they have full access).
Here is another example of the salience of strategic information.
The shamans are special, say the Batek of Malaysia, because they can
turn themselves into tigers with human heads, and then also make
themselves invisible! This may sound like a straightforward example
of counterintuitive qualities. But then comes the crucial consequence:
because they are now invisible and fly about as they wish, were-tiger
shamans can eavesdrop on people's conversations. Nothing that hap-
pens can be hidden from them.^8
WHYGODS AND SPIRITS?