| caption: |
Chapter One. The Material Background |
| caption: |
ritual abstention from work on specific occasions |
| text: |
Even during the period of cultivation, there were days on which no work was done on the fields. Ritual abstention from work was compulsory for all villages at the time of the seasonal feasts and the rites following the bringing in of an enemy head. Eclipses of sun and moon, earthquakes, and certain natural calamities such as devastating storms were followed by days when neither man nor woman might work on the fields. Deaths, funerals, and memorial rites were also occasions when no villager might engage in agricultural pursuits, however pressing the need. |
