Western Civilization Burial Rituals Essay

Funerary customs are practises and beliefs that the Ancient Egyptians used to respect their dead, and preserve their bodies in preparation for the afterlife which was a universe that mirrored their life on Earth, where they would live with the Gods in eternal Egypt. The body of the deceased could be mummified, which was where a body is dried, packed with minerals and wrapped in linen cloths, whereas another form would be embalming which is the use of salts and spices to preserve a body and took 70 days in total. However, there were many tests and dangers on the way to the afterlife, including fire-filled lakes, poisonous snakes and executioners. Because of this, there were many ceremonies and tests to see if the deceased person was worthy of the Afterlife. Such as the opening of the mouth ceremony which was when a priest touched parts of the deceased body at a funeral in order for the

Mankind’s history of burial practices and funeral customs are as old as civilization itself. There is no specific way to planning a funeral. Every civilization and culture has provided for their dead in different ways. Religion and personal beliefs play an important role in the burial practices and funeral customs of a given culture or civilization. Furthermore, each civilization and cultured ever studied have three things in common: some type of funeral rites, rituals, and ceremonies; A sacred place for the dead; and memorialization of the dead. As far back as the time of Christ, burials have been noted to take place. In time burial and funeral customs have become very distinct, interesting and

Higgins, Joseph, and Chuck Bergman. "Evidence of the Afterlife." Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Greece and Rome -. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. <http://www.netplaces.com/evidence-of-the-afterlife/afterlife-beliefs-in-ancient-and-modern-cultures/death-burial-and-the-afterlife-in-greece-and-rome.htm>.

In this paper, we will discuss the different death rituals performed in different cultures. We view death rituals from Native Americans, Africans, those of the Chinese decent, and endocannibalism from the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea. Death is universal to all people in every culture. Responses to how one deals with death and dying differ greatly. Death rituals are usually based on beliefs. This can come from religion, history, language, and art.

If someone died from natural causes, their death ceremony depended on their social standing and how they died. If they died of old age, people would prepare the corpse by wrapping the body in paper, then cremating it along with a dog so they would have a companion to travel the underworld with. If you died a hero death or by sacrifice, the hero was buried in the ground with objects resembling images of the mountain gods. The Aztecs wrapped their bodies in cloth decorated with birds and butterflies to show the greatness of their

People would be buried in the ground, in water, put in a hanging coffin or cremated. Chinese burial practices had two main components: tombs and their contents, and ceremonies to honor the dead, performed in temples and offering halls by their relatives. The rites observed at his funeral were elaborate versions of those common throughout China. Ancestors were considered an important influence on one’s life, and their continued existence in the afterlife a certainty, prayers were offered both to those who had gone before and to the principle of divine harmony to aid the dead person in transition from this world to the

At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people.

Because of this, people received payment to bury the dead. The way they buried people was very simple, they threw them all into a pit, and then covered the pit with dirt. A dead man received no more recognition than a dead goat would today.

The temples, pyramids, tombs, and religious artifacts left behind all tell us that the Ancient Egyptians believed in the resurrection of the dead. Their belief in immortality was the fundamental driving force behind their religion. “The formulae which were declared to have been recited during the performance of ceremonies were written down and copied for scores of generations, and every pious, well-to-do Egyptian made arrangements that what had been done and said on behalf of Osiris should be done and said for him outside and inside his tomb after his death.” (Liturgy of Funeral Offerings, pg.2) This illustrates just how important the ceremony and the process was to the Egyptians. Their belief in the afterlife and the importance of the ceremonial steps taken to get them there caused them great concern with their own funerals. Today, everyone has an idea of what they would like to do for their own funeral as well. We may follow in the same patterns as our family heritage has done for generations with either a traditional funeral or cremation, or we may have a newer alternative in mind for our self. Even though we may not be preparing for an afterlife, we still have an

Today the society is looking for ways to ease life and to find solutions for problems which oppress our lives and make it hard to live through. Because of many reasons, the traditional burials in this century are becoming a problem. (Prothero,2001). The fact that they cover a lot of land to build cemeteries and other things that are attached to these traditional burials is enough for us to search for a practical solution. About a century ago the term "cremation" was unknown to many people. It is believed that it began to be practiced during the early Stone Age and still exists today. Since that time cremations have been made all

Burial has long been considered an important component of death; it is the mourners’ final encounter with the recognizable, substantial body of the deceased. Every culture has to determine how to deal with the physical remains of the dead, to find a way to honour their memory, and to go on living in a society that is now deprived of one of its members. Burial traditions and practices have developed throughout history and around the world to meet this human need. This paper will examine Jewish death and burial practices from the Old Testament, the Gospels, and other New Testament accounts, as well as archaeological evidence from first century Palestine; this evidence, when compared to recent arguments against the burial of

Every individual experiences the act of death, and most persons experience the death of someone they know of. Whether family, kin, or someone infamous, the living deal with the process of dying. Anthropology seeks to understand the universal process of death ritual and how different cultures deal with death differently. An anthropologist can extract social values of a given culture, past or present, from how death ceremony is practiced. Such values could be regarding political hierarchy or an individual’s status in a society, and about a culture’s spiritual or religious faith. By exploring death ceremony in ancient Egypt, contemporary Hindu death practice in India, and current North American funerary rites, it can be illustrated that

In the funeral world there are a lot of different styles of funerals. For example, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic funerals. Both very different, but at the same time they have several things in common. In funerals there is an abundance of things to compare and contrast. We will be looking at different ways the notification of death is handled in both of these religions, removal, embalming, dressing/casketing, visitation requirements/rituals, and interment or cremation.

The importance of burial plays a great part during the time period of The Ancient Romans as they had a strong emotional attachment to the ceremonial burial of the deceased and considered it such an honourable achievement to partake in such a religious ritual such as the funeral and burial. The Romans also wanted to demonstrate iusta facere towards the dead - the great deal of respect they had as well as the rights they had as the departed.

First and foremost, we need to understand the meaning of burial and funeral. To ancient Greek, the soil symbolizes a connection between the people and the land, as well as the continuity between the living family, the gods associated with the land, and the great-grandparents whose bodily remains were housed by the land. Human beings