services if another fails to solve the problem at hand. The way these
specialists describe what they do and why it supposedly works can vary
a lot. Since their role depends so much on their particular, individual
qualities, on their reputation in a particular group, there is no clear
sense that they are representatives of a general way of dealing with
supernatural agents.
All this is quite different from what we find in established religions
like Christianity or Islam. Those Fang people who became familiar
with either of these found, first, that specialists in these religions are
not defined in terms of some internal essence; the Christian priests or
Muslim scholars are simply people who underwent special training; [273]
second, that the competence of specialists is guaranteed by a large
organization, not established at the level of a village community; third,
that the services offered are uniform—what you get from one Catholic
priest is very much what you would get from any other.
What is the source of this difference? The standard answer—put
forth by religious institutions themselves—is that there are institu-
tions because there is a distinctive "faith" expressed as a doctrine. To
diffuse that unique doctrine and organize activities connected with it,
a special organization was then founded, with the result that ritual is
standardized. But there is every reason to think that the evolution of
religious institutions is more or less the opposite of this standard pic-
ture. Doctrines are the way they are because of the organization of
religious institutions, not the other way around.
ORIGINS OF THE GUILDS
Millions of pilgrims, devotees, priests and holy men throng the city of
Benares because of the special qualities of the place, in particular the
fact that funerals conducted there are said to confer on the deceased a
better destiny. The main point of the long rituals performed by spe-
cialized Brahmans is to turn the soul of the dead person from a pret,a
malevolent ghost, into a pitror ancestor. During a ritual cycle that
extends over eleven days, the Brahman gradually incorporates the
substance of the deceased person, in particular the impurity of the
dying process, into his own body. The Brahman receives many "gifts"
on behalf of the deceased. This in fact is a euphemism, for the priests
are notoriously rapacious, as anthropologist Jonathan Parry points
out. They will haggle for hours over their fees for each segment ofWHYDOCTRINES, EXCLUSION ANDVIOLENCE?