Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION
- 1 PRELIMINARIES
- PART I UNIVERSALS AND CULTURE
- PART II DEATH AS TRANSITION
- 4 THE LIVING AND THE DEAD: A RE-EXAMINATION OF HERTZ
- 5 DEATH RITUALS AND LIFE VALUES: RITES OF PASSAGE RECONSIDERED
- PART III THE ROYAL CORPSE AND THE BODY POLITIC
- PART IV SEEING OURSELVES ANEW
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - DEATH RITUALS AND LIFE VALUES: RITES OF PASSAGE RECONSIDERED
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION
- 1 PRELIMINARIES
- PART I UNIVERSALS AND CULTURE
- PART II DEATH AS TRANSITION
- 4 THE LIVING AND THE DEAD: A RE-EXAMINATION OF HERTZ
- 5 DEATH RITUALS AND LIFE VALUES: RITES OF PASSAGE RECONSIDERED
- PART III THE ROYAL CORPSE AND THE BODY POLITIC
- PART IV SEEING OURSELVES ANEW
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
LIFE THEMES IN DEATH
Death is a transition; but it is only the last in a long chain of transitions. The moment of death is related not only to the process of afterlife, but also to the process of living, aging, and producing progeny. Death relates to life: to the recent life of the deceased, and to the life he or she has procreated and now leaves behind. There is an eternity of sorts on either side of the line that divides the quick from the dead. Life continues generation after generation, and in many societies it is this continuity that is focused on and enhanced during the rituals surrounding a death. The continuity of the living is a more palpable reality than the continuity of the dead. Consequently, it is common for life values of sexuality and fertility to dominate the symbolism of funerals.
Let us carry our comparison of the variety of Southeast Asian funerals to the westward limits of the Malayo-Polynesian culture area: to the island of Madagascar (see Figure 6). The forebears of the Malagasy inhabitants of the island sailed their outrigger canoes from Borneo and Indonesia thousands of miles across the Indian Ocean more than a millennium ago. Over the centuries in Madagascar, these Indonesians mixed with peoples of Arab and African descent to form the unique Malagasy culture and language.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Celebrations of DeathThe Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual, pp. 108 - 130Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991