Funerary Practices Used In Ancient India

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.

There is very little information about the religious beliefs in the Indus civilization. Artifacts that were found in trading, such as the seals and ornaments, were interpreted as “ritual” objects. However, there is little proof that they were used in worship of deities. Instead, their belief system mirrored their structure of government. Kenoyer (1991) explains that the Harappan culture was based on a socio-ritual belief system. In this system, the seals, ornaments, and other “ritual” objects that were traded between regions represented the regions of people using similar objects. Similarly, burials sites and cemeteries showed patterns of every major region. However, not all of the regions practiced burial. Therefore, these sites do not represent the belief of the society. Some regions practiced cremation or exposure. Overall, the socio-ritual belief became an important part of the Indus society in which it reflected and maintained its social hierarchy within different regions.

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

Ancient Egyptian embalming was a very sacred process performed by experienced embalmers. Ancient Egyptians used to bury the deceased underground, but because of that they decayed faster in a coffin when they aren’t exposed to the hot sand of the desert. That is how they developed the process of embalming to preserve the bodies.

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

Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece both believed in life after death, though the process in which they follow that belief differ greatly. The Greeks believed that at the moment of death the spirit leaves the body in the form of a little gust of wind or a puff of breath. The Greeks believed in proper burial rights that were performed in three parts, and the relatives mostly women are the ones that conduct these rituals for the deceased. Much like the modern world these rituals consist of the first step; laying out the body to be dressed, the second funeral procession, and the third step was the cremation of the body. Unlike the Greeks the Egyptians developed a process in which they prepared and preserved the dead for the afterlife, known as mummification. This process is believed to have been the purpose of the Egyptians famous pyramids, believed to be the stairs that would lead the Pharaohs to their kingdom in the afterlife. Artifacts are buried in their tombs such as gold, wine, and sculptures to accompany the dead in life after death.

Ancient Egyptian civilization was based on religion. Their belief in the rebirth after death became their driving force behind their funeral practices. Death was simply a temporary interruption, rather than an end to life, and that eternal life could be ensured by means of worship to the gods, preservation of the physical form thru mummification, substantial ceremonies and detailed burial policies and procedures. Even though many today have varying views of an afterlife, many of the funerary practices that originated in Egypt can be seen in present day funeral services.

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

“Cave burial was one of the most common ways to put a body to rest. Placement of the bodies were in lava tubes, rock shelters, or hitches that contained several bodies inside. Burying the deceased in sand dunes or in earth was another common but preferred method. Majority of the sand dunes in Hawaii have some kind of history with burial” (Kirch 240). Apart from buried in the earth, surface burials they had also conducted included cremation, which was performed by burning the corpse over a fire until the bones had charred into ash. “When referring to sea burials, bodies of fishermen would be wrapped in red cloth, then put in the ocean to be eaten by sharks. It was believed that the essence of the fisherman would inhabit the shark’s body” (Redmond 4).

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.

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

As we all know death of humans has been one of the utmost mysteries we would all like to solve. Although the ancient Mesopotamia, Egyptian, and Hindu all believed in an afterlife, their understanding and celebration if any, seems to be a little different. Mesopotamians were afraid of death, although they believed in afterlife they also had strong belief about the spirits still being alive. The Egyptians had an understanding and outlook on death, in which they believed in an afterlife, but they also believed in preserving the body. However, the Hindu also had the same perspective on afterlife, they were also very religious, but the way they went about it was much different than those of Mesopotamia and Egyptians.

In Egyptian culture, they often buried personal belongs and food for the afterlife. However, in ancient China instead of reading spells they would read out messages about the importance of the family member. The burial had two main features; the tomb and the offerings. The people of ancient China made offerings of food and personal belongs, to the deceased person so they would be happy in the afterlife. Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Chinese people had very precise funerary practices.

The burial process in ancient Greece was an influential part of the culture shown in art, rituals, and stories. It was very significant to what they believed in at the time, which was gods and goddesses, big ceremonial rituals for every occasion, and family was also important. This ritual was sacred and was supposed to be done correctly out of respect for the deceased. This burial ritual includes three main parts. Each part representing an important meaning to the Greeks.

Cremation is thought to have started a long time ago in the late Stone Age because of pottery urns found among the Slavic people of Russia. Some historians think cremation started in Greece when the Greek speaking immigrants from the North introduced it to them. During all historical periods, the Hebrews always interred the dead. Hebrews believed cremation was “an indignity of the dead.” Early Christians frowned upon cremation because they thought it was pagan associated. It is also believed that Scandinavians practiced cremation in the Bronze Age. Skipping ahead in time, America started cremating as early as 1737. Due to concern for public health in general “The specific movement for the cremation of the dead” was set up as a way of “burial reform”. Cremation was also looked at as an alternative to burial by legislative bodies in the American Colonies as a way of controlling funeral expenses as some seen it as extravagant. In 1876, America’s first crematory was founded in Washington, Pennsylvania by Doctor F. Julius LeMoyne. Between 1876-1884, 41 cremations were