Anthropology Of Death Research Paper

Although elaborate death rituals are probably a defining aspect of human culture, comparative studies have revealed few, if any, universal practices. Even the widespread practice of crying at a funeral is actively discouraged, for example, among the Balinese. Nevertheless, anthropologists have uncovered a number of key metaphors, which help to make sense of the enormous diversity of mortuary rituals. The anthropology of death takes as its task to understand the phrase: ‘All humans die,’ yet in every culture, each dies in their own way.

1. Centrality Of The Death Ritual

In the West, death and mourning rituals are often considered to be private, and Western ethnographers have often reported a reluctance to intrude into this seemingly intimate realm (Palgi and Abramovitch 1984). In many traditional cultures, however, death rituals stand at the center of social life. Most societies use expensive and elaborate mortuary ritual as a way of demonstrating status and power, so that the expense incurred is often an enormous financial burden. The atmosphere is not always sad or somber, but may even take on a festive atmosphere so that one may speak of ‘celebrations of death’ (Huntingdon and Metcalfe 1991).

The impact of the death is related directly to the social status of the deceased. Death is likely to be seen as particularly disruptive when it strikes persons who are most relevant for the functional and moral activities of the social order: ‘At the death of a chief, or man of high standing a true panic sweeps over the group’ (Hertz 1960, p. 76). The elaborate funeral rituals and pyramids of Ancient Egypt are outstanding examples of this ethos. Likewise, the death of a spouse often leads to a long period of taboos and restricted activity. ‘On the contrary, the death of a stranger, slave or child will go almost unnoticed; it will arouse no emotion, occasion no ritual’ (Hertz 1960, p. 76). In regions of high mortality, the death of an infant who is not yet considered a ‘social person’ may have no formal ritual or mourning. Bereaved parents often experience their loss privately, without ceremony, in what has been called ‘death without weeping’ (Scheper-Hughes 1992). The simple funerals of some hunter–gatherers, such as the Baka Pygmies of the Central African rain forest, are notable exceptions to the widespread pattern of elaborate and complex mortuary rituals (Bloch and Parry 1982).

2. Death As An Event vs. Death As A Process

In the West, despite recent legal and medical controversies death is considered as occur-ring at a specific identifiable moment, symbolized by the ‘time of death’ on the death certificate. This punctual view of death (Bloch 1988) in which a person is thus either alive or dead is not shared by many cultures. Physiological demise and social death do not necessarily coincide. Instead, death is seen as part of a long, complex, and even dangerous process, with no sharp boundary between life and death. Cultures express the degree of alive dead using different metaphors. The Merina of Madagascar, for example, use the image of wet dry to indicate degrees of alive dead. A newborn infant is very wet and thus very alive; in contrast, a shriveled elderly person, almost totally dry, is mostly dead. The process of drying, and hence dying, will be only completed long after biological death when the bones are dug up and placed in communal tombs (Bloch and Parry 1982).

3. Theoretical Approaches And Key Metaphors

‘Few areas of contemporary anthropological inquiry are still so dominated by fin de siecle thinking as is the study of death and mortuary ritual’ (Palgi and Abramovitch 1984, p. 387). The three traditional paradigms are: French sociological school (Durkheim, Hertz), early British functionalists (Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown) and ‘rite of passage’ approach (Van Gennep).

3.1 Hertz’s Analysis Of First And Second Funerals

The single most influential text in the anthropology of death was written by a brilliant disciple of Durkheim, Robert Hertz, who was killed on the battlefield of Verdun in World War I. Many of the central ideas in the anthropology of death: That death is widely perceived as a process and not as an instantaneous event, that death is the starting point of a ceremonial process whereby a dead person becomes an ancestor, and that death is akin to an initiation into a social afterlife and hence resembles a kind of rebirth, all derive from his seminal monograph (Hertz 1907). His study focused on the widespread custom of second funeral, or more correctly, secondary treatment of the remains. One of the main ideological reasons for a double ceremony, often separated by years, has to do with the dual nature of the person as composed of both body and spirit (or soul). Dead bodies or corpses are usually associated with ritual pollution and sorrow. The first funeral, in a literal and symbolic sense seeks to get rid of these polluting and sorrowful aspects. The second funeral is focused on the initiation of dead people’s spirits into the realm of the ancestors, where they will continue to serve as a cultural resource, watching over and guiding the living. This structuralist perspective highlighted parallels between the de-composition of the corpse and the fate of the soul.

3.2 Death Rituals And Core Values

In many societies, the occurrence of a death disrupts social life severely, so that ‘it is stricken in the very principle of its life in the faith it has in itself’ (Hertz 1960, p. 78). A functionalist perspective stressed how mortuary rites served to resolve the disruptive tendencies that operate at times of social crisis. Malinowski demonstrated how ceremonies counteract the centrifugal forces of fear, dismay, and demoralization associated with death, and provide a powerful means of reintegration of the group’s shaken morale (Palgi and Abramovitch 1984). These rituals must provide an answer to the meaning of life for the community at a time when it is most threatened. As a result, the study of such death rituals provide a unique opportunity for studying the core values of any culture. The functionalist perspective emphasized the problem of death for society, and especially the issues of inheritance, re-distribution of rights, and statuses, as well as the reintegration of mourners into day-to-day life.

3.3 Death As A Journey Or Rite Of Passage

Most cultures conceptualize death as a transition, or rite of passage. In many cultures, this transition is seen as a journey to an ultimate destination that may culminate in rebirth, ancestral abode, reunion with nature or Divinity, or indeed total oblivion. Death rituals, like all rites of passage, have a three-part structure, first delineated by Van Gennep: Separation, liminality, and reincorporation (Huntingdon and Metcalfe 1991). The spirits of dead people must be separated from their social roles as members in the community of the living and enter an undefined ‘in-between’ state, finally being reincorporated into a new status as the end of the ‘journey.’ Often, the fate of the soul is modeled on the fate of the body. Just as the soul of the deceased is formless and repulsive, as in Borneo when the dead are left to ferment in large jars, so the soul of the deceased is seen as homeless and the object of dread. Only when the bones alone are left can the ritual journey be completed (Huntingdon and Metcalfe 1991). Likewise, the ritual status of the mourners is in turn linked to the fate of the corpse in its process of decay, and the soul in its progress on its journey. Some cultures do have a specific tie-breaking ritual, which symbolizes both the end of mourning for the bereaved, and the end of the journey for the soul or spirit of the deceased. The living are often required to nurture the deceased at each stage along the journey through the afterlife and this conception helps to explain why the dead take up so many economic, emotional, and spiritual resources.

3.4 The Danger Of The Unincorporated Dead

From this rite of passage perspective, it is possible to understand why the unincorporated dead, trapped permanently in the liminal realm, are often considered as dangerous. These wandering spirits, for whom no rites were performed, may act as hungry ghosts. They yearn to be reincorporated into the world of the living, and since they cannot be, they behave like hostile strangers who lack the means of subsistence which other dead find in their own world, and consequently must find at the expense of the living. Many cultures use elaborate strategies to confuse the spirit of the deceased so that it will not return to the realm of the living. Illness, misfortune, and associated healing rituals are often attempts to incorporate these lost souls. The ‘tomb of the Unknown Soldier’ in modern states, provides a resting-place for unincorporated spirits of the war dead.

3.5 Parallels To Other Life Cycle Rituals

Anthropologists have also noticed how death rituals often parallel other life cycle rituals, notably births and weddings. Conceptually, death is often seen as a rebirth into another world, while birth is viewed as the literal rebirth of a deceased ancestor. Likewise, for weddings, just as a bride may leave her family, so too the soul of the deceased departs for another world. In rural Greece, for example, the same lyrics are sung at both weddings and funerals (Danforth 1982).

3.6 Emotional Response Of The Mourners

The comparative study of how mourners respond to loss and bereavement has attracted considerable attention (Parkes et al. 1997). Almost all cultures allow, or even encourage, the expression of crying, as well as fear and anger by mourners. Women tend to cry and self-mutilate, while men express anger, or direct aggression away from themselves. Yet most societies have developed mechanisms and institutions to control the anger of the bereaved, especially via the use of ritual experts (Rosenblatt et al. 1976). In many cultures, there is no cultural category of a ‘natural death’; rather, each death is akin to murder in that a culturally sanctioned cause of death must be un-covered. Almost all societies concern themselves with the spirits of the dead, which probably give expression both to the ‘unfinished business’ between the living and the dead, and the fact that death does not end a relationship. The more complicated the relationship and unfinished business in which the dead are dis-possessed in favor of the living, the greater will be the dread and concern about ghosts.

3.7 Good Death vs. Bad Death

Recent interest has focused on cultures’ conception of what constitutes a ‘good death’ or a ‘bad death.’ A good death represents a cultural ideal that enacts a symbolic victory over death, and the regeneration of life (Bloch and Parry 1982). A bad death does the opposite, leaving survivors despairing, helpless in the face of meaninglessness, evil, or nothingness. Unpredictability, violence, or intentional harm are wide-spread attributes of a bad death. Archetypal examples of bad death include suicide, homicide, and death in traffic accident. A good death is the mirror image of a bad death: An expected, painless death of an elderly individual with a multitude of descendants in attendance. But a good death has culture-specific aspects, such as the setting, timing, physical posture, thoughts and actions at the final moment, and other ‘near death experiences,’ as well as a preferred cause and manner of death (Abramovitch 1999). An Indian Hindu ideally should die in the open air, as an act of self-sacrifice, abandoning life to the sound of the chanting of the names of God, for his thoughts at that moment may determine his subsequent fate and rebirth (Parry 1994).

3.8 Future Directions

The anthropology of death traditionally focused relatively narrowly on the death of single individuals in small-scale societies. Future research, in contrast, will need to investigate how local cultural traditions interact with the wider collective and global context. The study of mass death, in the form of epidemics, natural disasters, or political violence, provides one stimulating area of investigation. The diverse impact of new technologies may provide another intriguing area for understanding how conceptions of death are changing. Web pages on the Internet provide for new forms of commemorating the dead. Organ donation allows a ‘bad death’ to be transformed into a ‘good death’ as a posthumous act of self-sacrifice, literally dying so that others may live. Cloning awakens in some the ‘myth of eternal life’; while artificial life support has created a new state in which persons are neither alive nor dead.

Death will always remain a mystery; nevertheless, the cross-cultural investigation of death will continue to provide insights into how humans cope with that mystery.

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