Native American Death Rituals

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.

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

Native Americans have rain dances that are still practiced today to help grow crops on their reservations. Like the Latin American Countries and the Egyptian people the Native American’s have death ceremonies that they believed helped carry the deceased into the spirit world. Native Americans have the Green Corn Festivals which is believed to be a celebration and religious ceremony. This ceremony is done in the late summer and coincides with the new corn crop. During the event the leaders were to give thanks for the corn, rain, sun, and a good harvest and the corn was not be eaten until thanks had been

I’ve always been very uncomfortable about the modern process of death; however, I’ve always respected the process of death especially in certain Native American cultures where they place their dead on stilts high in the sky and burned them. I’ve seen pictures of dead individuals from generations back where they actually took black and white pictures of the dead at wakes, and after seeing those pictures are probably part of the reason why viewings and funerals make me uncomfortable. Going to the viewings to pay your respects and trying to make pleasantries have always made me feel awkward and nervous you never know the right thing to say.

This paper explores the many ways cultures deal with death, both before and after. Most cultures have different practices when it comes to rituals before and after death, but some rituals and beliefs are surprisingly similar. When it comes to health care, nurses need to be aware of any cultural needs of a client in this emotional time. Asking questions about what the patient and family want to happen is very important. For example, Muslims would like the same sex washing their loved one, and they would like the family to do it themselves. The nurse needs to know this to provide culturally competent care.

Death is part of life that affects everyone regardless of race, tribe, religion or geographical area. Different communities view death in particular and unique ways. Explanations of the traditions of Hawaiians specifically rituals performed during death. The culture of Hawaiians is mostly influenced by their geographical location e.g. their nearness to large water bodies, mountains and valleys. Religion is a tool for answering the mysteries of life related death and is a unifying factor. Religion defines the rules and regulations of communities forming a tradition that is passed from one generation to another (Akindes, 2001).

Death comes to all in the end, shrouded in mystery, occasionally bringing with it pain, and while some may welcome its finality, others may fight it with every ounce of their strength. Humans have throughout the centuries created death rituals to bring them peace and healing after the death of a loved one.

Death is part of life in every part of the world, and every culture handles it differently. Just like every other region in the world, the approaches to death in Latin America are unique to the area, and have changed over the years. The Pre-Colonial death rituals in Mexico, Peru, and Haiti each have their own method of addressing this inevitable tragedy. Never the less there are common threads throughout the Aztec, Inca, and Taino peoples. When the Europeans arrived in the Americas the beliefs and assumptions surrounding death changed, along with the rest of the cultural landscape. This tumultuous time eventually led to a very unique heritage for the modern people of Mexico, Peru, and Haiti.

America is a melting pot of different cultures. Each culture shares within its group their own beliefs, values, traditions and rituals. All cultures have their own way of handling death and expressing grief often through customs and rituals which are reflected in our understanding of death. Grieflink stated, when someone close to us dies, we mourn this loss inwardly (we might refer to this as the inner experience of grief) but we also mourn in an outward public way (the mourning customs or rituals of our particular society). According to the Cancer.net (2015), in the wake of chaos and confusion created by death customs and rituals help bring a sense of routine and normalcy as well as provide ways for the community to support the bereaved

There are many different types of people in the world. Different hair color, skin color, languages, religions, talents, etc. but there is one thing we all have in common, we all die. There is no one who can out run the long arm of death. People can however, have different attitudes and feelings towards death. For example, “Some of us know for sure that death is the implacable enemy of life. Others of us know for sure that death is the portal though which we enter a higher form of existence,” (Kastenbaum, 2012, p. 38). With these different feelings about death come different ways to mourn or celebrate the life of those lost. In Tibet there is a ritual performed by Tibetan Buddhist known as “Sky Burials”. The purpose of this paper will be to discuss the details of this ritual and where it originated.

Whether death is sudden or prolonged, anticipated or unexpected, it leaves many family members and friends feeling the effects of loss. Eventually they are expected to come to terms with the death and eventually let go and move on. All human cultures participate in ritual mourning, a set of symbolic rites and ceremonies associated with death. The rituals associated with death have a clear and important function. According to sociologists Victor Marshall and Judith Levy, “Rituals provide a…means through which societies simultaneously seek to control the disruptions of death and to make it meaningful…The funeral exists as a formal means to accomplish the work of completing a biography, managing grief, and

The rituals pertaining to the ancient Egyptian civilization are both fascinating and the backbone for modern funeral practices today. The funerary culture of the ancient Egyptians show some of the earliest work in regards to the care of the deceased. While very little is known directly from the Egyptians themselves, Ancient Greeks, historians and the myriad of finds thanks to past and present archeology have helped shed light on the culture of embalming and death care practices.

This article focuses on a sacred ritual in Famadihana, Madagascar that allows families to remove their ancestors from the ground every five to seven years, and basically give them an entire new burial all over again. In Madagascar, there are two classes in society; the living and nonliving and they both are essentially celebrated. Guests travel long distances for a sacred ritual as a special occasion where they either bring alcohol or money to lay alongside the corpse after they are returned to the tomb to represent the ending of the cycle of life and death. Although the deceased body has decomposed a significant amount, it actually makes the ritual even more special. The family members take the corpse off of a shelf and remove the deceased

Like mentioned earlier, “customs differ within the various Buddhist sects and from one country to the next.” When it comes to funerals in particular, some can be very simple, while others can be more traditional based. When it comes to preparing for the death and funeral for the deceased, the practices are mentioned to revolve “peace and serenity.” For the funeral event, the ritual is to have an altar with an image of the deceased along with any offerings and the image of the Buddha. There will always be an open casket during the ceremony, along with having either a monk or any one available to perform Buddhist rites and sermons. The body of the deceased will be dressed in casual clothing. It is traditional or the family members to wear all

Death is a global event that we will all experience throughout our lifetime. How we respond to the mental conception of death is specific and highly influenced by our cultural worlds (Nikora, L. W., Masters-Awatere, B., & Te Awekotuku, N, 2012). Māori often act as if the Tangihanga is one of the only things that they possess, which has not transformed over time and have a proclivity to argue that it is one of the customs that absolutely remains as theirs and theirs only. This essay will look into the Māori cultural death system which is withal identified as Tangihanga and how the designation of death has transmuted over time.