There are many countries with different cultures, religions and community with various behavior and ritual rite that often guide their action and belief when their loved one expired. African culture is often regarded as a tribe with rich culture. Ashanti tribe displayed some of the rich culture in Africa.
This project will focus on Ashanti’s death ritual process and involvement of different group during the process. More insight will be given on this tribe belief, mourning and grief process during the funeral period.
In Ashanti tribe, family and the mother’s side are most important to this particular group. This tribe believe that child often inherit their father’s soul while flesh and blood is received from the mother. “Instrument such as talking drums are used for learning the Ashanti language and spreading news and used in ceremonies. This instrument is very important to the Ashanti and there are very important rituals involved in them”. (Vollbrecht, Judith A., 1979).
The community embraced the burial customs and death rituals as a whole not only family of the deceased. It is a significant event to whole community regardless of the family involved or affected. This tribe regard mourning as a way respecting the position held by the deceased among the family. “The female members of the family are with the individual while he is about to pass, in order to pour water on his throat for the journey that he is about to embark on. The kra, or undying spirit, needs this water to “climb the mountain” into the world of the ancestors”. (Vollbrecht, Judith A., 1979).
All elderly person within the community of the deceased begin eight days fasting as soon as the whole community is aware of the death. This eight days fasting is a way the eld...
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...ced eight days after death and burial. Mourning and the grief process to the Ashanti are supposed to be emotional. “When someone is upset, they do not obey the rules. If they do, that shows they’re not really upset. If someone who is wailing and crying greets you or smiles when you greet them that shows that they are not really sorry”. (Vollbrecht, Judith A., 1979)
As soon as the public funeral end, the community will end their fasting and return to normal life when the gong drum is beaten while the deceased family continue grief for another forty days and continue to wear the funeral cloths during this period. Deceased’s family meet again at the end of forty days to select the best person to inherit the deceased’s material belongings and take over the deceased’s duties, after this selection, then drink is poured by the family as honour to the deceased once again.
For many Indigenous people the customs following the death of a family or community remember is called “sorry business’, an indicator to all that there has been a death in the community (NSW Department of Community Services, 2009). Sorry business refers to the customary protocols that some Indigenous cultures adhere to and include sending the spirit of the deceased person into the next world and identifying the cause of death (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Branch, 2011). For many Indigenous the cultures the spirit leaves the body upon death and the spirit must be assisted in its journey to next word. One of the customary protocols to assist the spirit include the practice of not mentioning the name of the deceased for months or years after the death (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Branch, 2011). Not mentioning the person’s name allows the spirit to be unhindered in its passing and therefore not recalled to the world it has
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Death is a natural part of life that we all have to face one day. The way in which friends and love ones cope during this time is based on their culture or religious belief and their support system. Different religion or culture has different mourning customs which are unique to their own believes. For this project, three religious practices: Christianity, Muslim and Catholic were examined along with their own unique customs and believes. Despite the wide array of differences between each culture, they all believe in life after death and that there is a heaven and a hell.
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The comparison and contrast of ceremonies performed by African religions to those of Hinduism, Buddhism and Oceanic religions
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There are numerous cultures in this planet today; however the Jewish view of death makes this culture unique from the rest. Jewish death and mourning rites have two basic principles: kevod ha-met, respectful treatment of the dead, and kevod he-chai, consideration for the feelings of the living. These two principles are highly regarded by the Jewish community (Kolatch 7-8).
Achebe uses the symbol of tribal drums to show the flourishing culture and life that Umuofia experiences before the Europeans arrive. The symbol of drums is often present during cultural gatherings and celebrations in Umuofia. During the feast, which marks a new harvest year, “drums [are] still beating, persistent and unchanging. Their sound [is] no longer a separate thing from the living village” (104). Drums distinctly relate to the culture and traditions of the village. Moreover, the “persistent and unchanging” beat to the drums also reflects the unity of the society, and how the tribe currently operates (104). These traditions are unique to Umuofia and are an integral part of African culture. However, this unchanging and pe...
The goal of the anthropologist is to come to understand the beliefs and behaviours of the cultures around them, without judgement. When one scrutinizes Western rituals, we often have difficulty seeing the strangeness of our own culture. To understand those around us, we must first be able to understand ourselves. In this paper, I will attempt to critically summarize and analyze Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”.
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