Ancient Burial Grounds of Hawaii

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.

The Process of Mummification The earliest ancient Egyptians buried their dead in small pits in the

Burial practices- Pueblo buried their dead in an empty or a collapsing room just off the main living rooms that way other living creatures could benefit from these dead bodies. Once this room was filled to a satisfactory level they would dig a shallow grave in one of the corners.

　　　　According to the short story, The Man to Send Rain Clouds by Leslie Marmon Silko, it is evident that the traditional Laguna Native American burial conflicts with the Catholic Church after the death of the old man. According to the traditional rituals, the dead man is supposed to have a feather tied on their head, their faces smeared with four colors, they should be wrapped in a red blanket and buried with corn meal and water should be sprinkled around their graves. These are the traditional rituals practiced by the Laguna individuals which are symbolic to their culture. The feathers are symbolic in the Native American Cultures are they symbolize the spirit

This paper will provide information on the volcanoes of Hawaii, where it is known to be the home of one of the world’s largest volcanic islands, merely second to Iceland. It is not just the beautiful landscapes and wildlife that spark the interest to this particular area, but the uniqueness of the Hawaiian volcanoes and islands themselves are what make the area so significant. There will be information spanning from the history of the origin of the islands to how Hawaii must adjust to the volcanic hazards in order to keep the area livable. With these ideas in mind, I will first address background information on the area and set the scene as to what makes this area so special. Then I will transition to the history of how the

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

The handling of human remains and sacred sites of prehistoric people still remains as a hunge controversial subject in the field of Anthropology. Archaeology are bounded by all kinds of laws and regulations, guidelines are strictly followed by archaeologists to ensure a legal, ethical, and professional conduct of archaeological research. Complex ethical issues arise when an archaeologist tries to excavate a prehistoric site. Archaeologists must be careful when handling Native American remains as they might violate laws if they mishandle the human remains. All these laws existed to protect the basic human rights for the Native Americans. In this paper, perspectives from both Native Americans and archaeological researchers would be discussed.

After the European influence upon indigenous Hawaiian culture, “Hawaiians radically reinterpreted and transformed their culture… part of this transformation was the abandonment of the kapu system in 1819.” The meaning of the organization of architecture no longer reflects upon ideology of the Hawaiians, but the adaptation of more technological advanced living space. As a result, “many temples were dismantled or destroyed, leaving only he foundation stones” (Ladegoged, #).

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.

Burial rituals are discussed in this page of notes. There is a blanket wrapped around the body and a “nice silk handkerchief” placed on the face, blankets are then put all around the body to make sure it stays warm. They did not use a coffin but dis put boards around the body in similar fashion, however, they did not use nails. It also appears that there was interest by one of Harrington’s informants to see a white funeral/burial because she “wanted to see how whites fired corpse.” This tells of their burial practices and that they have an interest in how other people are burring their dead.

The Hawaiian Islands are well known for their beauty, tranquility, and unique culture that have shaped this state into what we see today. The special bond that the natives have formed between themselves and nature is not exactly one of a kind, but it is something that can truly be admired. Around approximately 300 AD, Hawaii was discovered by Polynesians who arrived by canoe from Tahiti. These migrants brought their polytheistic spirituality and formed a large intricate society with hierarchies consisting of many chiefs. Alongside the ruling of the chiefs, the newborn Hawaiians followed a strict belief system known as Kapu akua otherwise known as the “law of the gods”. The Kapu was a strict set of rules and restraints that dictated all

Even though they believed in an afterlife, the thought of it was not pleasant. The people of Mesopotamia lived very difficult lives and when one was deceased it was more of a reminder of how hard life was. “Likewise, the dead could rise up and torment the living if not given a proper burial, so the bodies of enemies were buried in a manner such as to prevent this from happening.” (4) Unlike where we burry the deceased today, some of the Mesopotamian children were found buried in various places such as under the floors in houses and even in cooking

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.

Key environmental points: Easter Island is a remotely located island in the South Pacific. The island was first populated in circa A. D. 400 by a group of travelers from Polynesia. The island, shaped like a triangle, was positioned 2,000 km from the nearest inhabited land, and 3,200 km from the closest continental land mass (Foot p. 11). According to David Foot “the island originally supported a great palm forest” (p. 12). Sediment cores collected have shown these palm trees to have been considerable in both height and diameter, actually dwarfing the three foot diameter of the largest currently existing palm tree (Diamond p. 103). Frost further pointed out how attractive the island would seem to those early Polynesian settlers, “Surrounded by an abundant ocean and supporting two extinct volcanic craters that contained natural lakes for fresh water, Easter Island appeared to have many attractive features for human habitation” (p. 12-13). The location of Easter Island just south of the Tropic of Capricorn would have afforded a mild climate similar to the climate of South Florida. Archeological findings show that this robust population had a diet consisting of land birds, porpoises, and lithic mulch agriculture. The most intriguing aspect of the culture of the people of Easter Island, would have to be the multitude of large stone statues placed on burial sites called ahu. “By the 16th century

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