Question

The concept of death has numerous sociocultural definitions. Demonstrate your knowledge of these distinctions by describing some ways that different cultures view death and describe some mourning rituals practiced by different cultures.

Answer 1

Hello !

So Death for different people holds different meanings and also across cultures .For me Birth and Death are the ultimate truths.

The western culture views death differently from the eastern .There are many social constructs about this ,the perception of death is different to every person,beliefs, cultural knowledge, myth etc.

While in many believe death is separation, there were also a few cultures that believed in afterlife ,for instance I can say the Egyptians who had their favourite things and belonging so they would not miss out on anything in their journey to afterlife and such can also be seen in Old China, where the king even got many soldiers and horses of clay underground thinking it would help him in the battle in afterlife.

Since its a vast and interesting topic I want to put everything i know here.Now coming to the olden days where social values and ethics were followed blindly without reasoning or questioning ,let's say in the West Husband passes away for sure temporarily it's very hard emotions but the person had to get on back to life where as considering the East in the olden days there existed a ritual called the SATI system where of the husband was dead the young wives has to jump into the funeral pire of the husband and it was done forcefully even if the widow did not want this ,this was not less than a murder .people then probably believed that the wife and husband could be together I'm afterlife . This is important as during funeral the westerners wear Black and in the East they wear white .In the East black is the sign of darkness and evil where as white stands for innocence and peace .There is a tradition in the coorgie as the British called them or Kodava the cast,after the funeral a few people gather and sing of the deceased's journey of life.There is also mourning ritual that is done after 11 or 16th day after the demise where food is arranged and not just the family but many many people come and eat in the honour of the deceased and during this time specially in Southern India the men shave off their head honouring the person. There is intense mourning but at the same time the same importance is given to the deceased at the time of death with music,food ,gatherings etc.

Thankyou, hope this helped!