Within animistic worldviews, ancestor spirits are treated as continuing members of the family and community, and are honored through a range of ritual practices that sustain this living relationship. Central to many traditions are household or village altars and other sacred spaces, where photographs, bones, carved figures, personal belongings, or symbolic objects represent the deceased. At these sites, offerings of food, drink, incense, flowers, tobacco, or other valued items are presented, sometimes daily, sometimes on special occasions, as a concrete expression of respect and remembrance. Such offerings may include portions of family meals, first fruits of the harvest, or libations poured onto the earth or special stones, understood as “feeding” or refreshing the spirits. In some cultures, more elaborate sacrificial rites, including animal sacrifice, are reserved for major communal ceremonies to seek protection, forgiveness, or blessing from the ancestral realm.

Communication with ancestor spirits is understood as reciprocal and ongoing, rather than a one-sided act of remembrance. Practitioners address ancestors directly by name or lineage title, speaking aloud or silently in prayer, invocation, or simple conversation, asking for guidance, protection, fertility, health, or help in resolving conflicts. Formal rituals may involve chanting, drumming, dancing, or other ceremonial actions, especially on death anniversaries, seasonal festivals, or key moments such as planting, harvest, or the beginning of a journey. Ancestors are believed to respond through dreams, inner intuitions, and subtle signs, and these responses are often interpreted with the aid of divination. Shamans, spirit mediums, or designated ritual specialists may enter trance states or use tools such as bones, shells, or lots to allow ancestral voices to be heard more clearly and to convey their counsel, warnings, or blessings to the living.

These practices are embedded in a broader ethic of moral obligation and continuity. Ancestors are regarded as guardians of tradition and social order, so honoring them involves not only ritual care but also adherence to inherited customs, taboos, and clan rules. Seasonal or calendrical ceremonies may honor all ancestors collectively, with the recitation of genealogies and retelling of ancestral stories to keep their memory and influence active in community life. Visiting graves, cleaning tombs, and lighting candles or incense at burial sites further reinforce the sense that the dead remain present and attentive. In many animistic settings, ancestral presence is also linked to particular landscapes—family lands, mountains, forests, rivers, or stones—so that caring for these places and invoking ancestral blessing in everyday activities becomes another way of maintaining an intimate, ongoing dialogue with the spirits of those who have gone before.