It works closely with Oya ( Deity of the Winds ) and Egungun ( Collective Ancestral Spirits ) to herald the way for those that pass to ancestorship, as it plays a critical role in Iku, Aye and the transition of human beings and spirits between these two existences.

The Yoruba also venerate their ancestral spirits through Egungun masquerades, Orò, Irumole, Gelede and Ibeji, the orisha of Twins ( which is no wonder since the Yoruba are officially known to have the world's highest rate of twin births of any group ).

Through drumming and dance, the Egungun robed performers are believed to become possessed of the spirits of the ancestors, as manifested as a single entity.

Among the broad range of themes incorporated in the Egungun masks are representations of numerous societal and cultural stereotypes as well as acrobatic images in which dancers turn their clothing inside out, in part to suggest the power and distance of the ancestral world.

In matters that deal with whole communities, Egungun priests and initiates who are trained in ancestral communication, ancestral elevation and funerary rites are assigned to invoke and bring out the ancestors.

The Egungun spiritually clean the community ; through the dramatic acting and miming of the robed priests, they demonstrate both ethical and amoral behavior that have occurred since their last visit.

In Brazil: Ifá, Egungun, Orisha ( Orixa ), Vodun and Nkisi, are separated by type of priesthood initiation.

Egungun is a part of the Yoruba pantheon of divinities.

The Egungun is celebrated in festivals, known as Odun Egungun, and in family ritual through the masquerade custom.

When this performance is completed, the performers as Egungun give messages, warnings and blessings to the assembled spectators.

In Brazil, the main cult of the Egungun is found on the island of Itaparica, in the State of Bahia.

Egungun festival is still widely celebrated, like many other traditional festivals, but Ileya ( eid-el-kabir ) is the main festival.

* Egun / Egungun cult

In the Yoruba Egungun festivals overly affectionate white couples are made fun of due to their unseemly and ridiculous behaviour.

In Egba and Egbado area, as well as many parts of Yorubaland, Odun Egungun festivals are held in communities to commemorate the ancestors.

Egungun masquerade are performed during these annual or biennial ceremonies as well as during specific funeral rites throughout the year.

Egungun performances organized for funerary purposes mark the death of important individuals.

Examples are the masquerades of the Yoruba, Igbo and Edo cultures, including Egungun Masquerades and Northern Edo Masquerades.

Junkanoo may have West African origins as the costumes and conduct of the masqueraders bear similarities with the Yoruba Egungun festivals.

* Egungun only initiation Babaojés, do not come into trance.

* Egungun, important ancestor cultuated after death in separate houses of the Orixás.

He may or may not be initiated into the local Egungun society.

Important Egungun include the Oloolu and Alapansanpa, both of Ibadanland.

Houses of worship dedicated to the Egungun also exist in other states.

* African Arts, XI, 3, 1978, Special number Egungun.

The latter refers to the tendency of oral societies, such as that of Europe in the medieval period, to view knowledge as the product, expression, and property of the collective.

Dominoes ( or dominos ) generally refers to the collective gaming pieces making up a domino set ( sometimes called a deck or pack ) or to the subcategory of tile games played with domino pieces.

The modern American literature professor and translator Bernard Knox refers to the Ossian book as a forged or fake " collective bardic epic ".

The term " enteric fever " is a collective term that refers to typhoid and paratyphoid.

The combination of heart output ( cardiac output ) and systemic vascular resistance, which refers to the collective resistance of all of the body's arterioles, are the principal determinants of arterial blood pressure at any given moment.

The collective form is therefore similar in many respects to an English mass noun like " rice ", which in fact refers to a collection of items which are logically countable.

According to Robert Putnam, social capital " refers to the collective value of all ' social networks ' and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other.

" Commons " refers to the environmental asset itself, " common property resource " or " common pool resource " refers to a property right regime that allows for some collective body to devise schemes to exclude others, thereby allowing the capture of future benefit streams ; and " open-access " implies no ownership in the sense that property everyone owns nobody owns.

Private property is distinguishable from public property and collective property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community or government rather than by individuals or a business entity.

In Canada, " First Ministers " is a collective term that refers to all Canadian first ministers of the Crown, otherwise known as heads of government, including the Prime Minister of Canada and the provincial and territorial premiers.

While the term is often used by authority figures as a generic value judgment of the willpower, obedience and self-discipline of a group tasked with performing duties assigned by a superior, more accurately it refers to the level of individual faith in the collective benefit gained by such performance.

As a collective term, Dzhidi refers to a number of Iranian languages or dialects spoken by Jewish communities throughout the formerly extensive Persian Empire.

This milestone refers to the collective number of plays that all of his music videos had obtained up until that point in time.

The collective form is therefore similar in many respects to an English mass noun such as " rice ", which in fact refers to a collection of items which are logically countable.

In this use, the term refers to a culture insufficiently appreciative of the role of individual genius in excellence and placing excessive emphasis on collective welfare in promoting excellence.

It always refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary.

In Guernsey, legislation refers to the " Crown in right of the Bailiwick ", and the Law Officers of the Crown of Guernsey submitted that " The Crown in this context ordinarily means the Crown in right of the république of the Bailiwick of Guernsey " and that this comprises " the collective governmental and civic institutions, established by and under the authority of the Monarch, for the governance of these Islands, including the States of Guernsey and legislatures in the other Islands, the Royal Court and other courts, the Lieutenant Governor, Parish authorities, and the Crown acting in and through the Privy Council.

In Guernsey, legislation refers to the " Crown in right of the Bailiwick ", and the Law Officers of the Crown of Guernsey submitted that " The Crown in this context ordinarily means the Crown in right of the république of the Bailiwick of Guernsey " and that this comprises " the collective governmental and civic institutions, established by and under the authority of the Monarch, for the governance of these Islands, including the States of Guernsey and legislatures in the other Islands, the Royal Court and other courts, the Lieutenant Governor, Parish authorities, and the Crown acting in and through the Privy Council.

For these reasons, the union refers to right-to-work states as " right to work for less " states or " right-to-fire " states, and to non-right-to-work states as " free collective bargaining " states.

The Dakotas is a collective term that refers to the U. S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota together.

The term used by rabbits which refers to all their collective enemies.

Also, the notion of collective subject was introduced in the 1970s and 1980s ( Leont ' ev refers to " joint labour activity ", but only has individuals, not groups, as activity subjects ).

Because the terms St ' at ' imc and Lillooet is in use as a collective term for the main groups and the single bands and First Nations of this Interior Salish people, confusion can arise between the single groupings or bands ( especially with regard to historical sources ) and so they could and can easily mistaken for one another, therefore it is today no longer clear whether the report refers to one of the main groupings or the entire First Nation.