Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
FUNERAL RITES
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: FRA-GAE
del.icio.us it!
|
FUNERAL See also:RITES , the ceremonies associated with different methods of disposing of the dead. (See also See also:BURIAL AND BURIAL ACTS; See also:CEMETERY; and See also:CREMATION.) In See also:general we have little See also:record, except in their tombs, of races which, in a past measured not merely by hundreds but by thousands of years, occupied the See also:earth; and exploration of these often furnishes our only See also:clue to the religions, opinions, customs, institutions and arts of See also:long vanished See also:societies. In the See also:case of the See also:great culture folks of antiquity, the Babylonians, Egyptians, See also:Hindus, Persians, Greeks and See also:Romans, we have, besides their monuments, the See also:evidence of their literatures, and so can know nearly as much of their rites as we do of our own. The rites of See also:modern savages not only help us to interpret prehistoric monuments, but explain peculiarities in our own rituals and in those of the culture folks of the past of which the significance was lost or buried under etiological myths. We must not then confine ourselves to the rites of a few leading races, neglecting their less fortunate brethren who have never achieved See also:civilization. It is better to try to classify the rites of all races alike according as they embody certain leading conceptions of See also:death, certain fears, hopes, beliefs entertained about the dead, about their future, and their relations with the living. The See also:main ideas, then, underlying funeral rites may roughly be enumerated as follows: 1. The pollution or See also:taboo attaching to a See also:corpse. 2. See also:Mourning. 3. The continued See also:life of the dead as evinced in the See also:housing and equipment of the dead, in the furnishing of See also:food for them, and in the See also:orientation and posture assigned to the See also:body. 4. Communion with the dead in a funeral feast and otherwise. 5. See also:Sacrifice for the dead and expiation of their sins. 6. Death witchery. 7. See also:Protection of the dead from ghouls. 8. Fear of ghosts. 1. A dead body is unclean, and the uncleanness extends to things and persons which See also:touch it. Hence the Jewish See also:law (Num. v. 2) enacted that " whoever is unclean by the dead shall be put outside the See also:camp, that they See also:defile not the camp in the midst whereof the See also:Lord dwells." Such persons were unclean until the even, and might not eat of the See also:holy things unless they bathed their flesh in See also:water. A high See also:priest might on no See also:account " go in to any dead body " (Lev. xxi. II). Why a corpse is so widely tabooed is not certain; but it is natural to see one See also:reason in the corruption which in warm climates soon sets in. The See also:common experience that where one has died another is likely to do so may also have contributed, though, of course, there was no scientific See also:idea of infection. The old See also:Persian scriptures are full of this taboo. He who has touched a corpse is " powerless in mind, See also:tongue and See also:hand " (Zend Avesta in Sacred Books of the See also:East, pt. i. p. 120), and the See also:paralysis is inflicted by the innumerable drugs or evil See also:spirits which invest a corpse. See also:Fire and earth, being alike creations of the See also:good and pure See also:god
Ahuramazda, a body must not be burned or buried; and so the See also:ancient Persians and their descendants the Parsecs build Dakmas or " towers of silence " on See also: In ancient times perhaps the bodies of the magi or priests alone were exposed at such expense; the common folk were covered with See also:wax and laid in the earth, the wax saving the earth from pollution. In See also:Rome and See also:Greece the corpse was buried by See also:night, lest it should pollute the sunlight; and a trough of water was set at the See also:door of the See also:house of death that men might purify themselves when they came out, before mixing in general society. Priests and magistrates in Rome might not meet or look on a corpse, for they were thereby rendered unclean and incapable of fulfilling their See also:official duties without undergoing troublesome rites of See also:purification. At a See also:Roman funeral, when the remains had been laid in the See also:tomb, all See also:present were sprinkled with lustral water from a See also:branch of See also:olive or See also:laurel called aspergillum; and when they had gone See also:home they were asperged afresh and stepped over a fire. The house was also swept out with a See also:broom, probably lest the See also:ghost of the dead should be lying about the See also:floor. Many races, to avoid pollution, destroy the house and See also:property of the deceased. Thus the Navahos pull down the hut in which he died, leaving its ruins on the ground; but if it be an expensive hut, a shanty is extemporized alongside, into which the dying See also:man is transferred before death. No one will use the timbers of a hut so ruined. A burial See also:custom of the See also:Solomon Islands, noted by R. H. See also:Codrington (The Melanesians, p. 255), may be dictated by the same See also:scruple. 'There " the mourners having hung up a dead man's arms on his house make great See also:lamentations; all remains afterwards untouched, the house goes to ruin, mantled, as See also:time goes on, with the vines of the growing yams, a picturesque and indeed, perhaps, a touching sight; for these things are not set up that they may in a ghostly manner accompany their former owner." H. Oldenberg (See also:Religion See also:des Veda, p.426) describes how Hindus shave themselves and cut off their nails after a death, at the same time that they See also:wash, renew the See also:hearth fire, and furnish themselves with new vessels. For the See also:hair and nails may See also:harbour pollution, just as the See also:medieval Greeks believed that evil spirits could lurk in a man's See also:beard (See also:Leo Allatius, De opinionibus quorundam Graecorum). The dead man's body is shorn and the nails cut for a kindred reason; for it must be purified as much as can be before it is burned as an offering on the pyre and before he enters on a new See also:sphere of existence.
2. We are accustomed to regard mourning See also:costume as primarily an outward sign of our grief. Originally, however, the See also:special garb seems to have been intended to warn the general public that persons so attired were unclean. In ancient Rome mourners stayed at home and avoided all feasts and amusements; laying aside See also:gold, See also:purple and jewels, they wore See also:black dresses called lugubria or even skins. They cut neither hair nor beard, nor lighted fire. Under the emperors See also:women began to See also:wear See also: Among the Aruntas of See also:Australia the wives of a dead man smear themselves with white See also:pipe-See also:clay until the last ceremonies are finished, sometimes adding ashes—this not to conceal themselves from the ghost (which may partly be the aim of some mourning costumes), but to show the ghost that they are duly sorrowing for their loss. These widows must not talk except on their hands for a whole year. " Among the Maoris," says Frazer (See also:Golden Bough, i. 323), " anyone who had handled a corpse, helped to convey it to the See also:grave, or touched a dead man's bones; was cut off from all intercourse and almost all communication with mankind. He could not enter any house, or come into contact with any See also:person or thing, without utterly bedevilling them. He might not even touch food with his hands, which had become so frightfully tabooed or unclean as to be quite useless. Food would be set for him on the ground,and he would then sit or kneel down, and, with his hands carefully held behind his back, would gnaw at it as best he could." Often a degraded outcast was kept in a See also:village to feed mourners. Such a taboo is strictly similar to those which surround a sacred See also:chief or his property, a menstruous woman or a See also:homicide, rendering them dangerous to themselves and to all who approach them. 3. See also:Primitive folk cannot conceive of a man's soul surviving apart from his body, nor of another life as differing from this, and the dead must continue to enjoy what they had here. Accordingly the Patagonians kill horses at the grave that the dead may ride to Alhuemapu, or See also:country of the dead. After a year they collect a chief's bones, arrange them, tie them together and dress them in his best garments with beads and feathers. Then they See also:lay him with his weapons in a square pit, See also:round which dead horses are placed set upright on their feet by stakes. As See also:late as 1781 in See also:Poland F. Casimir's See also:horse was slain and buried with him. In the See also:Caucasus a See also:Christian See also:lady's jewels are buried with her. The Hindus used to See also:burn a man's widow on his pyre, because he could not do without her; and St Bonif See also:ace commends the self-sacrifice of the Wend widows who in his See also:day burned themselves alive on their husbands' pyres. The tumuli met with all over the See also:north of See also:Europe (in the Orkneys alone 2000 remain) are See also:regular houses of the dead, See also:models of those they occupied in life. The greater the dignity of the deceased, the loftier was his See also:barrow. Silbury hill is 170 ft. high; the tomb of See also:Alyattes, See also:father of See also:Croesus, was a See also:fourth of a See also:league round; the Pyramids are still the largest buildings in existence; at Oberea in See also:Tahiti is a barrow 267 ft. long, 87 wide and 44 high. Some See also:Eskimo just leave a dead man's body in his house, and shut it up, often leaving by his See also:side a See also:dog's See also:head to See also:guide him on his last See also:journey, along with his tools and See also:kayak. The See also:Sea See also:Dyaks set a chief adrift in his See also:war See also:canoe with his weapons. So in Norse See also:story See also:Hake " was laid wounded on a See also:ship with the dead men and arms; the ship was taken out to sea and set on fire." The See also:Viking was regularly buried in his ship or See also:boat under a great See also:mound. He sailed after death to See also:Valhalla. In the ship was laid a See also: For the same reason where the dead are burned, their properties are committed to the flames. The ghost of the See also:warrior has a ghostly See also:sword and buckler to fight with and a ghostly See also:cup to drink from, and he is also nourished by the impalpable odour and reek of the See also:animal victims sacrificed over his grave. Instead of valuable objects cheap images and models are often substituted; and why not, if the See also:mere ghosts of the things are all that the See also:wraith can enjoy? Thus Marco See also:Polo (ii. 76) describes how in the land of Kinsay (Hang-chau) " the See also:friends and relations make a great mourning for the deceased, and clothe themselves in hempen garments, and follow the corpse, playing on a variety of See also:instruments and singing See also:hymns to their idols. And when they come to the burning See also:place they take representations of things cut out of See also:parchment, such as caparisoned horses, male and See also:female slaves, camels, See also:armour, suits of See also:cloth of gold (and See also:money), in great quantities, and these things they put on the fire along with the corpse so that they are all burned with it. And they tell you that the dead man shall have all these slaves and animals of which the See also:effigies are burned, alive in flesh and See also:blood, and the money in gold, at his disposal in the next world; and that the instruments which they have caused to be played at his funeral, and the idol hymns that have been chaunted shall also be produced again to welcome him in the next world." The manufacture of such See also:paper simulacra for See also:consumption at funerals is still an important See also:industry in Chinese cities. The ancient Egyptians, assured that a man's ka or double shall revivify his body, took pains to guard the flesh from corruption, steeping the corpse in natron and stuffing it with spices. A body so prepared is called a See also:mummy (q.v.), and the custom was already of a hoary antiquity in 3200 B.C., when the See also:oldest dated mummy we have was made. The bowels, removed in the See also:process, were placed in jars over the corpse in the tomb, together with See also:writing tablets, books, musical instruments, &c., of the dead. Cemeteries also remain full of mummies of crocodiles, See also:cats, See also:fish, cows and other sacred animals. The Greeks settled in Egypt learned to mummify their dead, but the custom was abhorrent to the See also:Jews, although the Christian belief in the resurrection of the flesh must have been formed to a large extent under Egyptian See also:influence. See also:Half the superiority of the Jewish to other ancient religions lay in this, that it prescribed no funeral rites other than the simplest inhumation.
The dead all over the world and from remote antiquity have been laid not anyhow in the earth, but with the feet and See also:face towards the region in which their future will be spent; the Samoans and Fijians towards the far west whither their souls have preceded them; the Guarayos with head turned eastwards because their god Tamoi has in that See also:quarter " his happy See also:hunting grounds where the dead will meet again " (See also:Tylor, See also:Prim. Cult. H. 422). The See also:legend is that See also:Christ was buried with His head to the west, and the See also: Here the dead were continuing the drinking bouts they enjoyed on earth. The Peruvians mummified their dead and placed them jointed and huddled up with knees to See also:chin, looking toward the sunset, with the hands held before the face. In the oldest prehistoric tombs along the Nile the bodies are doubled up in the same position. It would seem as if in these and numerous other similar cases the dead were deliberately given in their See also:graves the attitude of a foetus in the womb, and, as Dr Budge remarks (Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life, See also:London, 1899, p. 162), " we may perhaps be justified in seeing in this custom the See also:symbol of a See also:hope that, as the See also:child is See also:born from this position into theworld, so might the deceased be born into the life beyond the grave." The late Quaternary skeletons of the See also:Mentone See also:cave were laid in a layer of ferrugineous earth specially laid down for them, and have contracted a red See also:colour therefrom. Many other prehistoric skeletons found in See also:Italy have a reddish colour, perhaps for the same reason, or because, as often to-day, the bones were stripped of flesh and painted. See also:Ambrose relates that the skeletons of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, which he found and deposited A.D. 386 under the See also:altar of his new See also:basilica in See also:Milan, were mirae magnitudinis ut prisca aetas ferebat, and were also coloured red. He imagined the red to be the remains of the martyrs' blood ! Hic sanguis clamat coloris indicio. Salomon See also:Reinach has rightly divined that what Ambrose really See also:hit upon was a prehistoric tomb. Red earth was probably chosen as a See also:medium in which to lay a corpse because demons flee from red. Sacred trees and stones are painted red, and for the most See also:solemn of their rites savages bedaub themselves with red clay. It is a favourite taboo colour. 4. A feast is an essential feature of every primitive funeral, and in the Irish " See also:wake " it still survives. A dead man's soul or double has to be fed at the tomb itself, perhaps to keep it from prowling about the homes of the survivors in See also:search of victuals; and such food must also be supplied to the dead at stated intervals for months or years. Many races leave a narrow passage or See also:tube open down to the cavity in which the corpse lies, and through it pour down drinks for the dead. Traces of such tubes are visible in the prehistoric tombs of the See also:British Isles. However, such See also:provision of food is not properly a funeral feast unless the survivors participate. In the Eastern churches and in See also:Russia the departed are thus fed on the ninth, twelfth and fortieth days from death. " Ye appease the shades of the dead with See also:wine and meals," was the See also:charge levelled at the Catholics by the 4th-See also:century Manichaeans, and it has hardly ceased to be true even now after the See also:lapse of sixteen centuries. The funeral feast proper, however, is either a See also:meal of communion with or in the dead, which accompanies interment, or a banquet off the flesh of victims slain in See also:atonement of the dead man's sins. Some anthropologists see in the common meal held at the grave " the See also:pledge and See also:witness of the unity of the See also:kin, the chief means, if not of making, at least of repairing and renewing it." 1 The flesh provided at these banquets is occasionally that of the dead man himself; See also:Herodotus and See also:Strabo in antiquity relate this of several half-civilized races in the East and West, and a similar story is told by Marco Polo of certain See also:Tatars. Nor among modern savages are funeral feasts off the flesh of the dead unknown, and they seem to be intended to effect and renew a sacramental See also:union or kinship of the living with the dead. The Uaupes in the See also:Amazons incinerate a corpse a See also:month after death, See also:pound up the ashes, and mix them with their fermented drink. They believe that the virtues of the dead will thus be passed on to his survivors. The life of the tribe is kept inside the tribe and not lost. Such cannibal sacraments, however, are rare, and, except in a very few cases, the evidence for them weak. The slaying and eating of animal victims, however, at the tomb is universal and bears several meanings, separately or all at once. The animals may be slain in See also:order that their ghosts may accompany the deceased in his new life. This significance we have already dwelt upon. Or it is believed that the shade feeds upon them, as the shades came up from Hades and lapped up out of a See also:trench the blood of the animals slain by Ulysses. The survivors by eating the flesh of a victim, whose blood and soul the dead thus consume, sacramentally confirm the mystic tie of blood kinship with the dead. Or lastly, the victim may be offered for the sins of the dead. His sins are even supposed to be transferred into it and eaten by the priest. Such expiatory sacrifices of animals for the dead survive in the Christian churches of See also:Armenia, See also:Syria and of the East generally. Their vicarious See also:character is emphasized in the prayers which accompany them, but the popular under-See also:standing of them probably combines all the meanings above enumerated. It has been suggested by See also:Robertson See also: Having in their possession bits of the dead, and being so far in communion with him, the survivors are surer of his friendship. They have ensured themselves against ghosts who are See also:apt to be by nature envious and mischievous. But whatever their See also:original significance, the tearing of cheeks and hair and garments and cutting with knives are mostly expressions of real sorrow, and, as Robertson Smith remarks, of deprecation and supplication to an angry god or spirit. It must not be supposed that the See also:savage or ancient man feels less than ourselves the poignancy of loss. 6. Death-witchery has See also:close See also:parallels in the See also:witch and heretic hunts of the Christians, but, happily for us, only flourishes to-day among savages. Sixty % of the deaths which occur in West Africa are, according to See also:Miss See also:Mary Kingsley—a credible witness—believed to be due to See also:witchcraft and sorcery. The blacks regard old age or effusion of blood as the See also:sole legitimate causes of death. All See also:ordinary 'diseases are in their See also:opinion due to private magic on the part of neighbours, just as a widespread epidemic marks the active hatred " of some great outraged nature spirit, not of a mere human dabbler in devils." 1 Similarly in Christian countries an epidemic is set down to the wrath of a God offended by the presence of Jews, Arians and other heretics. The See also:duty of an See also:African witch-See also:doctor is to find out who bewitched the deceased, just as it was of an inquisitor to discover the heretic. Every African See also:post-mortem accordingly involves the See also:murder of the person or persons who bewitched the dead man and caused him to See also:die. The death-See also:rate by these means is nearly doubled; but, since the use of See also:poison against an See also:obnoxious See also:neighbour is common, the right person is occasionally executed. It is also well for neighbours not to See also:quarrel, for, if they do and one of them See also:dies of smallpox, the other is likely to be slain as a witch, and his lungs, See also:liver and See also:spleen impaled on a See also:pole at the entrance of the village. It is the same case with the Australian blacks: " no such thing as natural death is realized by the native; a man who dies has of See also:necessity been killed by some other man, or perhaps even by a woman, and sooner or later that man or woman will be attacked. In the normal See also:condition of the tribe every death meant the killing of another individual." 2 7. Lastly, a primitive interment See also:guards against the double See also:risk of the ghost haunting the living and of ghouls or vampires taking possession of the corpse. The latter end is likely to be achieved if the body is cremated, for then there is no nidus to harbour the demon; but whether, in the remote antiquity to which belong many barrows containing incinerated remains, this See also:motive worked, cannot be ascertained. The Indo-See also:European See also:race seems to have cremated at an See also:early epoch, perhaps before the several races of East and West separated. In Christian funeral rites many prayers are for the protection of the body from violation by vampires, and it would seem as if such a motive dictated the architectural solidity of some ancient tombs. Christian graves were for protection regularly sealed with the See also:cross; and the following is a characteristic prayer from the old Armenian rite for the burial of a layman: 1 Mary See also:Kingsley, West African Studies (1901), p. 178. 2 B. See also:Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899), p. 48. " Preserve, Almighty Lord, this man's spirit with all See also:saints and with all lovers of Thy holy name. And do See also:Thou See also:seal and guard the See also:sepulchre of Thy servant, Thou who shuttest up the depths and sealest them with Thy almighty right hand . . . so let the seal of Thy Lordship abide unmoved upon this man's dwelling-place and upon the See also:shrine which guards Thy servant. And let not any filthy and unclean See also:devil dare to approach him, such as assail the body and souls of the See also:heathen, who possess not the See also:birth of the holy See also:font, and have not the dread seal laid upon their graves." ' A terrible and revolting picture of the superstitious belief in ghouls which violate Christian tombs is given by Leo Allatius (who held it) in his See also:tract De opinionibus quorundam Graecorum (See also:Paris, 1646). It was probably the fear of such demonic assaults on the dead that inspired the insanitary custom of burying the dead under the floors of churches, and as near as possible to the altar. In the Greek Church this practice was happily forbidden' by the See also:code of Justinian as well as by the older law in the case of churches consecrated with See also:Encaenia and deposition of See also:relics. In the Armenian Church the same rule holds, and Ephrem Syrus in his testament particularly forbade his body to be laid within a church. Such prohibitions, however, are a witness to the tendency in question. The custom of See also:lighting candles round a dead body and watching at its side all night was originally due to the belief that a corpse, like a person asleep, is specially liable to the assaults of demons. The practice of tolling a See also:bell at death must have had a similar origin, for it was a common medieval belief that the See also:sound of a consecrated bell drives off the demons which when a man dies gather near in the See also:air to waylay his fleeting soul. For a like reason the consecrated See also:bread of the See also:Eucharist was often buried with believers, and St See also:Basil is said to have specially consecrated a See also:Host to be placed in his See also:coffin. 8. Some of the rites described under the previous heads may be really inspired by the fear of the dead haunting the living, but it must be kept in mind that the taboo attaching to a dead body is one thing and fear of a ghost another. A corpse is buried or burned, or scaffolded on a See also:tree, a tower or a house-See also:top, in order to get it out of the way and See also:shield society from the dangerous infection of its taboo; but ghosts qud ghosts need not be feared and a kinsman's ghost usually is not. On the contrary, it is fed and consoled with everything it needs, is asked not to go away but to stay, is in a thousand ways assured of the sorrow and sympathy of the survivors. Even if the body be eaten, it is merely to keep the soul of the deceased inside the circle of kinsmen, and Strabo asserts that the ancient Irish and See also:Massagetae regarded it as a high See also:honour to be so consumed by relatives. In See also:Santa Cruz in See also:Melanesia they keep the bones for arrow heads and See also:store a See also:skull in a See also:box and set food before it " saying that this is the man himself " (R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians, p. 264), or the skull and See also:jaw See also:bone are kept and " are called mangite, which are See also:saka, hot with spiritual See also:power, and by means of which the help of the lio'a, the powerful ghost of the man whose relics these are, can be obtained " (ibid. p. 262). Here we have the savage analogue to Christian relics. So the Australian natives make pointing sticks out of the small bones of the See also:arm, with which to bewitch enemies. We may conclude then that in the most primitive societies, where blood-kinship is the only social tie and See also:root of social custom it is the shades, not of kinsmen, but of strangers, who as such are enemies, that are dangerous and uncanny. In more See also:developed societies, however, all ghosts alike are held to be so; and if a ghost walks it is because its body has not been properly interred or because its owner was a malefactor. Still, even allowing for this, it remains true that for a friendly ghost the proper place is the grave and not the homes of the living, and accordingly the Aruntas with cries of Wahl Wahl with wearing of fantastic head-dresses, See also:wild dancing and beating of the air with hands and weapons " drive the spirit away from the old camp which it is supposed to haunt," and which has been set fire to, and See also:hunt it at a run into the grave prepared, and.there See also:stamp it down into the earth. " The loud shouting of the men and women shows him that they do not wish to be frightened by him in his present See also:state, and that they will be angry with him if he does not rest." (Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 508). In See also:Mesopotamia cemeteries have been discovered where the sepulchral jars were set upside down, clearly by way of hindering the ghosts from escaping into the upper world. In the See also:Dublin museum we see specimens of ancient See also:Celtic tombs showing the same peculiarity. For a like reason perhaps the name of the dead must among the Aruntas not be uttered, nor the grave approached, by certain classes of kinsmen. The same repugnance ` to naming the dead exists all over the world, and leads survivors who See also:share the dead man's name to adopt another, at least for a time. If the dead man's name was that of a plant, tree, animal or stream, that too is changed. Here is a potent cause of linguistic See also:change, that also renders any See also:historical tradition impossible. The survivors seem to fear that the ghost will come when he hears his name called; but it also hangs together with the taboo which hedges round the dead as it does See also:kings, chieftains and priests. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] FUNDY, BAY OF |
[next] FUNGI (p1. of Lat. fungus, a mushroom) |