Editing Odinala (section)

===Ancestral veneration===
[[File:Igbo male figure.jpg|thumb|alt=An image of a brown wooden standing male figure partially painted with large black, yellow and white pigment, figure is in an exhibition case on a green background|A male ancestral figure]]
Ndebunze, or {{Transliteration|ig|ndichie}}, are the deceased ancestors who are considered to be in the spirit world, {{Transliteration|ig|àlà mmúọ́}}.<ref>{{cite book |first=Okwuchukwu Stan |last=Chukwube |title=Renewing the Community and Fashioning the Individual: A Study of Traditional Communal Reconciliation Among the Igbo |page=30 |year=2008 |isbn=978-0549638605 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ofywX9zydwEC&pg=PA30 |access-date=2015-04-04}}</ref> In Odinani, it is believed that the dead ancestors are invisible members of the community; their role in the community, in conjunction with Ala, is to protect the community from epidemics and strife such as famine and smallpox.<ref name="Ilogu"/> Ancestors helped chi look after men.<ref name="Talbot1916"/> Shrines for the ancestors in Igbo society were made in the central house, or ''òbí'' or ''òbú'', of the patriarch of a housing compound. The patriarchal head of the household is in charge of venerating the patriarchal ancestors through libations and offerings, through this the living maintain contact with the dead. Only a patriarch whose father is dead, and therefore in the spirit world where they await reincarnation into the community, were able to venerate ancestors.<ref>{{cite book |first=Michael Angelo |last=Gomez |title=Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=1998 |page=[https://archive.org/details/exchangingourcou0000gome/page/129 129] |isbn=0807846945 |url=https://archive.org/details/exchangingourcou0000gome/page/129 }}</ref> Female ancestors were called upon by matriarchs. At the funeral of a man's father there is a hierarchy in Igbo culture of animals that will be killed and eaten in his honor. Usually this depended on the rarity and price of the animal, so a goat or a sheep were common and relatively cheaper, and therefore carried less prestige, while a cow is considered a great honor, and a horse the most exceptional. Horses cannot be given for women.<ref>{{citation |first=Simon |last=Ottenberg |title=Igbo Religion, Social Life, and Other Essays |publisher=Africa World Press |page=348 |editor=Toyin Falola |year=2006 |isbn=1592214436}}</ref> Horses were more common among the northeastern Igbo due to [[tsetse fly]] zone that Igboland is situated in and renders it an unsuitable climate for horses.<ref>{{cite book |first=Clive |last=Spinage |title=African Ecology: Benchmarks and Historical Perspectives |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |page=932 |year=2012 |isbn= 978-3642228711}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Ian |last=Williams |title=Riding in Africa |year=2005 |publisher=Ian Williams |page=30 |isbn= 0595373011}}</ref> Horse heads are traditionally decorated and kept in a reliquary and at shrines.

A number of major masking institutions exist around Igboland that honour ancestors and reflect the spirit world in the land of the living. Young women, for example, are incarnated in the society through the [[agbogho mmuo|àgbọ́ghọ̀ mmúọ́]] masking tradition in which mean represent ideal and benevolent spirits of maidens of the spirit world in the form of feminine masks. These masks are performed at festivals at agricultural cycles and at funerals of prominent individuals in the society.<ref>{{cite book |first=Hope B. |last=Werness |title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Native Art: Worldview, Symbolism, and Culture in Africa, Oceania, and North America |publisher=A&C Black |year=2003 |page=145 |isbn=0826414656}}</ref>