Culture, Death and Rituals



Culture, Death and Rituals

Introduction

Death and attendant matters have been seminal topics of reflection, disputatious debate, and other modes of social discourse since the dawn of civilization and, presumably, also among the people who predate civilization. This paper discusses culture, death and rituals in different cultural context using the sources mentioned in the list of references.

Culture, Death and Rituals

Over the centuries, scholars of many stripes have spoken to the matter of death and documented their musings. Philosophers have pondered the meaning of life and death. Theologians have posited notions and persuasions with regard to eschatological scenarios. Historians have documented myriad configurations of death-related behavior from the past. Poets and novelists have waxed eloquently on their conceptualizations of death and dying. Archeologists have discovered ancient ruins and artifacts and interpreted the meanings of such discoveries with concern for the patterns of life and death among ancient peoples. Scientists and medical doctors have probed the physiological dimensions of life and death. Missionaries have reported unfamiliar patterns of death-related behavior and beliefs of the exotic people with whom they have lived and to whom they have ministered. More recently, anthropologists have observed and analyzed death-related values, rituals, and ceremonies of the preliterate and folk groups they study.

The funeral has long been a component of society's attempts to adjust to and cope with the loss of one of its members. Traditionally, it has served as a ceremony acknowledging death, as a religious rite, and as an occasion to reassure and reestablish the survivors' social group after death (Corr, Nabe, and Corr 2000). As such, it serves to commemorate life as well as establish a ritual for disposal of the body (Fulton 1988; Kastenbaum 2001). The funeral service itself serves at least two manifest purposes: completing the final placement of remains (its secular function) and confirming public recognition of the deceased person's transition from life to death (its sacred function; see Schulz 1978). That the first function is an important one is illustrated by the public's outrage in early 2002 at the failure of a Georgia crematory to dispose of several hundred bodies with respect and dignity; many had simply been stacked up rather than cremated. Decisions about cremation, embalming, whether the body is to be viewed publicly, and how the body is to appear under such circumstances also reflect the importance that society assigns to the funeral's secular function. Regarding its sacred function, whether the service is religious or not, whether a memorial service or a more traditional ceremony is to be held, and the central role in the funeral service assigned to the eulogy and who is to give it all reflect the importance of the funeral as a public ritual that symbolizes the life of the person whose death is being mourned.

Mandelbaum (1959) described three latent functions of the funeral. The first two include structuring economic and reciprocal social obligations of mourners, as exemplified by taking financial responsibility for funeral costs, and the roles that participants take in the funeral, ...