In some tribes, proper burial with appropriate funeral rites is another necessary condition for the ancestral mode of existence. This condition is, however, not universal. Thus it was non-existent among those societies in which the dead were not buried, but thrown into the bush. African ancestral cult exists as part of a larger religious system. As it is limited to the ethnic group, no attempt is made to proselyte outsiders.
Close observation reveals that the cult is fundamentally anthropocentric.
It is centred on the human person, and is intended to procure human welfare in this world and in the world beyond death. And in those cases where the creator is acknowledged as ancestor, he is anthropomorphically conceived.