Religious Connections of Ritual Servitude
Simon Abaxe has researched the practice in Ghana. He says that ritual servitude is part of African Traditional Religion in some places, but not a universal practice of that religion. A form of it is also practiced in India and Nepal as part of Hindu religion, and various forms of it were part of ancient religious traditions of devotion to various gods and goddesses. It is distinguished from the Christian monastic tradition at a basic level since ritual servitude is involuntary on the part of the participant, in contrast to Christian monasticism, which is voluntary.
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