‘I want to go!’ How older people in Ghana look forward to death

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
SJAAK VAN DER GEEST
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Rural Town ◽  
Anthropological Fieldwork ◽  
Southern Ghana ◽  
Christian Beliefs

Older people in a rural Ghanaian community indicated that they look forward to death. Traditional ideas of ancestorhood, reincarnation and modern Christian beliefs about life after death had little influence on their resignation. Images of a possible ‘hereafter’ hardly existed. Agnosticism – in a religious guise – prevailed. They saw death foremost as a welcome rest after a long and strenuous life. Their readiness for death did not, however, include an acceptance of euthanasia. Both the young and the old held the view that life and death are and should remain in God's hands. This article is based on anthropological fieldwork in the rural town of Kwahu-Tafo in southern Ghana.

The Religious Functions of Near-Death Experiences

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Schlieter
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Near Death Experiences

This final chapter secures the result of the survey by discussing the religious functions of near-death experiences for affected individuals, but also the functions of the reports for the audience. It outlines (a) ontological, (b) epistemic, (c) intersubjective, and (d) moral aspects. It has been argued that experiencers feel closer to God, are less attracted to religion, and are significantly more inclined to believe in life after death. A function of the narratives consists in the claim that, in atheistic and secular times, individual religious experience is still possible. Several reports argue with a copresence of life and death. Discussing cognitivist approaches, the chapter finally concludes that, given the Latin etymology of “experience,” harboring, among others, the meaning of “being exposed to danger” or “passing a test,” near-death experiences can be seen as a match for conceptions of religious experience as a transformative, gained by surviving a life-threatening danger.

Active Dead or Alive: Some Kenyan Views About the Agency of Luo and Luyia Women Pre- and Post-Mortem

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Significant Part ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Community Agency ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Western Kenya ◽  
Indigenous Religion ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Life After Death

AbstractPaying attention to burial disputes can help us to understand better matters relating to gender, kinship, community, agency, and power. Since Luo and Luyia believe that life after death is a significant part of a person's life, paying attention to 'the hold death has' upon people is important, as are the writing of 'life-and-death histories.' The paper presents three cases, one involving a Luyia woman and two involving Luo women in which the women involved have, in the views of community members, shown the ability to manipulate kinship structures and strictures pre- and post-mortem. The paper seeks to challenge views that have depicted women in western Kenya as passive pawns of a particularly patriarchal form of patriliny. The paper discusses the effect religion has on views about death and burial, and examines the influence of indigenous religion, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Legio Maria on these cases.

scholarly journals MENGANTAR ARWAH JENAZAH KE PARAI MARAPU : UPACARA KUBUR BATU PADA MASYARAKAT UMALULU, SUMBA TIMUR

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Lukman Solihin
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Clifford Geertz ◽  
Free People ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstrakAgama Marapu merupakan akar dari sistem sosial, politik, dan budaya orang Sumba. Di bidang sosial, ia mendasari terbentuknya pelapisan sosial dari kaum bangsawan, orang bebas, dan budak. Di bidang politik, golongan bangsawan mendapat legitimasi sebagai penguasa lokal (raja). Sementara di bidang budaya, agama ini melahirkan ritual yang diyakini berasal dari zaman megalitik, yaitu upacara kubur batu. Upacara ini diselenggarakan secara kolosal dengan melibatkan jaringan kerabat yang luas, pemotongan hewan dalam jumlah besar, penggunaan kain tradisional yang sarat makna, serta berbagai tahapan ritual yang dimaksudkan untuk mengantar arwah jenazah menuju alam leluhur (parai Marapu). Artikel ini mendeskripsikan konsep-konsep dalam agama Marapu dan manifestasinya dalam upacara kubur batu. Konsep-konsep dalam agama Marapu, meminjam analisis Clifford Geertz, telah menjadi model of reality dan model for reality bagi masyarakat Sumba dalam memahami kehidupan dan kematian. Sebagai model of reality, agama Marapu mengandaikan konsepsi ideal tentang kehidupan pasca-kematian, yaitu parai Marapu. Sementara sebagai model for reality konsepsi mengenai parai Marapu menjadi panduan (peta kognitif) untuk memuliakan orang yang meninggal melalui penyelenggaraan upacara kematian, pemberian bekal kubur, dan persembahan hewan kurban. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif, di mana proses pengumpulan data dikerjakan dengan cara melakukan observasi, wawancara mendalam, serta kajian pustaka. Informan dalam penelitian ini adalah kerabat atau anggota keluarga yang hadir dalam penyelenggaraan upacara kubur batu.AbstractMarapu belief is the root of the social, political, and cultural system of Sumba. Socially it underlies the formation of social stratification: the nobles, free people, andslaves. Politically, the nobility have legitimacy as local rulers (kings). Culturally, this belief has given birth to rituals called stone grave ceremony which dates back to megalithic era. The ceremony was held in a colossal way involving extensive network of relatives, large amount of animal slaughtering, the use of very meaningful traditional fabrics, as well as various stages of rituals that are meant to take the bodies to the millieu of an cestral spirits (Parai Marapu).This article describes the concepts of Marapu belief and its manifestations in the stone graveceremony. Borrowing Clifford Geertz’s analysis, concepts in Marapu belief have become a model of reality and models for reality for the people of Sumbain understanding life and death. As a model of reality, Marapu belief counts on ideal conception of life after-death that is Parai Marapu. Whileas a model for reality the conception of Parai Marapu becomes a guide (cognitive map) to honor the dead through the organization of the funeral ceremony, grave goods offering, as well as animal sacrifices. This study used a qualitative approach, in which the process of data collection was conducted through observation, in-depth interviews, and bibliographical review. Informants in this study were relatives or family members who attended the stone grave ceremony.

Belief In Life After Death Among The Zeliangrongs Of Northeast

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 177-185
Author(s):  
Dr Kamei Budha Kabui ◽  
Dr Oinam Ranjit Singh ◽  
Dr. Th. Mina Devi
Keyword(s):  
Human Soul ◽  
Indigenous Religion ◽  
Physical Body ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Good Will ◽  
The Dead

The Zeliangrong people who follow the indigenous religion believe in life hereafter, land of dead, Thuntadijang and Heaven. It is believed that Buh, soul is not born and does not die since it originates from Tingkao Ragwang, the Supreme God. The life and death of man is indicated by the presence or absence of soul. After the disintegration of physical body, human soul goes to Taroilam, the land of death where he will face the judements given by Taroigwang, the king of the dead based on his past deeds. The pious soul will be sent to Tingkao Kaidai, Heaven where he will remain in peace forever. While the good soul who did less bad and more good will be permitted to live in Taroilam. The sinner will be sent to Thuntadijang, a stage of degraded form of life which is almost equivalent to the extinction of life. However, there is no concept of hell and permanent extinction of life in Zeliangrong indigenous religion known as Tingkao Ragwang Chapriak.

Life and Death in Oz

2020 ◽  
pp. 129-141
Author(s):  
Zachary Michael Jack
Keyword(s):  
Brain Drain ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Multiple Generations ◽  
Rural Town ◽  
Creative City ◽  
K 12 ◽  
New Generation ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

This chapter illustrates how the author came to Kansas to seek answers for how to bring a rural town back to life. Like much of the region known as the “Big Empty,” portions of central and western Kansas are experiencing such profound depopulation that they have taken a page from the Homestead Act and begun to offer free land to a new generation of hoped-for homesteaders. The youth out-migration problem there is so pernicious and long-standing that it has now been battled by multiple generations. As far back as 1966, editors at the state's leading newspapers, including the Lawrence Daily Journal-World, owned the problem by name in a column entitled “Our Brain Drain.” Forty-some years later, in 2008, the same story was told by NPR's Noah Adams. The author met up with the good folks of Tescott, Kansas, population approximately three hundred, whose creative city burghers have offered free land to families willing to build a home on the city-owned lots next to the K–12 school the town has fought to keep.

Correlates of Attitudes about “The Right to Die” among 1973 and 1976 High School and College Students

1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Steininger ◽  
Sandra Colsher
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
High School ◽  
Birth Control ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Period Effects ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Right

Attitudes about “the right to die” were studied among high school and college students at three recent points in time. A general item about the right to decide between life and death, and a specific one about that right for the terminally ill were accepted by more than half the students; both were more accepted than an item rejecting life after death. All three items were related to beliefs about religion, abortion, teenage birth control, and the worth of current ideas. The “right to die” items were positively correlated in all groups; the more conservative the students, the likelier they were to disagree with them. Agreement was related to belief in self-determination in moral/social matters. The item rejecting life after death was generally unrelated to the “right to die” items and to liberalism-conservatism, but its acceptance was greater among the more dogmatic college students, and among those derogating ideas and people. Possible reasons for the combined personality and time period effects were discussed; they suggest a potential backlash after more legislation such as the California law is passed, as is currently happening in the area of abortion.

Remembrance of the Deceased in Annual Rituals in Poland

Anthropos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 527-534
Author(s):  
Zdzisław Kupisiński
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
Folk Beliefs ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The People ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Other World ◽  
Christian Beliefs

The article presents beliefs and rituals related to All Souls’ Day typical for folk Catholicism in Poland. It is based on the results of the ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author in Radom and Opoczno regions (central Poland), in the years 1980-1983, 1990-1993 and 1998-2005 (a total of 414 days, 650 interviews with 998 informants), as well as on the literature concerning this and other regions of Poland. The popular remembrance of the dead and care for their graves is noticeable throughout the year. Cemeteries in Poland are often visited by people whose relatives passed over to “the other world,” who place flowers and candles on the graves, tidy them up, and pray. Commemoration of the dead takes on a special dimension such days as Christmas, Easter, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day. Many old All Souls’ rituals disappeared already in the Middle Ages as a result of Christianization and eradication of pre-Christian beliefs. Still, until the 1970s one could observe or reconstruct (relying on the memory of informants) many pre-Christian beliefs and customs that used to be regulated by the ancient ritual calendar based on the solar cycle and the worship of ancestors. The presence of those ancient elements in folk beliefs and rituals indicates a strong faith of the people in life after death, exhibited also by the inhabitants of the area under study both in past centuries and today, although today those customs are given a Christian theological interpretation.

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