scholarly journals A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Gender Differentiation in Yoruba Burial Rites

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
Opoola Bolanle Tajudeen
Keyword(s):  
Technological Advancement ◽  
Oral Literature ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
Gender Differentiation ◽  
The World ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Language Attitude ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Burial Rite

This paper focuses on socio-hermeneutic study of gender differentiation in Yoruba burial rites. There are many types of oral genres in Yoruba society. These genres have different functions for different occasion. In essence, Ìrèmọ̀jé eré ìṣípà ọdẹ (hunters funeral dirge) and ìsàà ró (women funeral dirge) are used during men and women funeral rites respectively in Yoruba land. Ogun deity is the founder of Ìrèmọ̀jé chant. Ogun was the first hunter with many adherents who were hunters too. Before the death of Ogun, he ordered his adherents to chant Ìrèmọ̀jé during his funeral rites. He also instructed them to do the same during the funeral rites of fellow great hunters, that is, the hunters that were succeeded by viable children. Ìrèmọ̀jé ìsipaọdẹ is specifically for men and not for women. Ìsàà ró is the final burial rite for the aged women in Yoruba land. This burial rite marks the exit of the aged women from this world to the world beyond. In essence, ìsàà ró is a traditional send-forth for the dead. This type of burial rite was popular in Yoruba land in those days but it was more popular among the Oyo-Yoruba than other Yoruba ethnic groups. Ìsàà ró burial rite is often performed by the Alágbaà (chief head of masquerade) from Ọ̀jẹ̀ family (family of masquerades). It is mandatory for the children of the dead to perform this final burial rite for their dead mother because if they fail to do it, things may not be moving well for either the dead in the world beyond or for the children she left behind in this world. The emergence of western civilization has made great changes both negatively and positively on the popularity of Ìrèmọ̀jé and Ìsàà ró burial rites respectively. This paper discovered that there is that of valuable documentation of Iremoje/Isipa (Hunting chants and funeral rites for Men) and Isaaro (The final funeral rites for Women) in spite of the existence of enormous works on Yoruba Verbal arts and oral literature. The implication of this finding reveal that if a study of this type is not promoted, Yoruba traditions and valuable oral renditions would be endangered. This could further prompt Yoruba journeys to extinction as many studies have shown that English dominance of Yoruba is changing the language attitude of Yoruba native speakers oral and written discusses. The Yoruba natives have flair for us of English than the use of Yoruba because of the inherent values of English in Nigeria and the world at large. This paper concludes that, despite the negative effect of western education and foreign religions in the foregoing, the technological advancement on Ìrèmọ̀jé and Ìsàà ró has shown that the future of both genres are bright as long as the Yoruba race exists.

scholarly journals Restriction of burial rites during the COVID-19 pandemic: An African liturgical and missional challenge

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hundzukani P. Khosa-Nkatini ◽  
Peter White
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
African Context ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Church ◽  
Huge Challenge ◽  
Cultural Effect

Burial rites are very common among many Africa communities. In the African context, burials are not the end of life but rather the beginning of another life in the land of the ancestors. In spite of the importance of the African funeral rites, the missional role of the church in mourning and the burial of the dead in the African communities, the COVID-19 pandemic led protocols and restrictions placed a huge challenge on the African religious and cultural practices.Contribution: In the light of the above-named challenges, the article discusses the religious-cultural effect of the pandemic with special focus on the African liturgical and missiological challenges in the context of the COVID-19 restrictions on funerals and burial rites.

scholarly journals PROBLEM OF FUNERAL RITES OF THE POPULATION OF SCYTHIAN AGE IN THE SEYM RIVER BASIN

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-262
Author(s):  
O. O. Bilynskyi
Keyword(s):  
Local Population ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Skull Bone ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
The Common ◽  
Burial Rite ◽  
Grave Goods

The author analyzed the problem of burial sites of the population of Scythian Age in the Seym region. Currently there are several locations associated with the local population. These are the burial sites from the Moiseevo and Maritsa hillforts and the necropolis near Dolinske village. The burials from the Moiseevo hillfort probably date back to the medieval times and the necropolis at the Maritsa settlement belonged to the Yukhniv culture. According to the available data, burial in the territory of this site was carried out after the hillfort ceased to function as a settlement — ca. 4th century BC. Necropolis near the Dolynske village is well known in the literature as an example of ground burials of the forest-steppe population of Scythian Age. However, detailed analysis of the circumstances of discovery of burials and the grave goods suggests that the burials were actually covered by the mounds but they did not survive due to the removal of soil. The grave goods is reminiscent of the nearby Sula necropolises. The lack of common burial sites in the region prompts the search for other burial rites. Traditionally cremations with the further dispersal of ashes are the common types of burial that do not leave visible burial sites but despite the complexity of their detection there are still no finds that would indicate this rite. The fragments of human bones at Shyryaevo, Kuzina Gora and Moiseyevo hillforts are the only hints that could indicate this. A round amulet which was made of human skull bone was discovered at the latter. Stray finds of human remains occurred at the sites of the entire forest-steppe territory in Scythian Age and many sites of Central Europe but the irregularity of such finds at the Seym region demonstrate that they could not be a mandatory consequence of a certain burial rite. The wide variety of analogies offers the options for the reconstruction of special burial practices that could lead to the deposition of human bones. By analogy with other cultures, the cannibalism, temporary burial at the site, and the deliberate storage of bones that may have been obtained from the burials can be assumed.

scholarly journals “Grid′ba in the Ship” and “Quail in the Forest”: A Reading of the Old Russian Folklore Text

Slovene ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 356-360
Author(s):  
Vladimir Ya. Petrukhin
Keyword(s):  
Rite Of Passage ◽  
Old Russian ◽  
The World ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
Wedding Ceremony ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Primary Chronicle ◽  
The Church

In her discussion of the Novgorod Sophia Chronicle, Tatiana V. Rozhdestvenskaya supposed that the folklore text in this source referring to “grid′ba in the ship” and “quail in the forest” is related to burial rites. The text, however, could also be connected with another “rite of passage”—a wedding ceremony, with the wedding retinue in the ship (as matchmakers) and a pie in the stove (as a wedding dish); the quail in the forest seems to be a charm, sending the soul of the deceased female/bride in the guise of a quail to the forest, the world of the dead. Old Russian and Scandinavian parallels—for example, burial in a boat, Olga’s massacre of the Drevlian matchmakers (in the Russian Primary Chronicle), and the attempt described in an Icelandic saga involving the scalding of the bridegroom in the bath—seem to be essential for an interpretation of the text from the Sophia Chronicle. The charm could be intended to prevent the return of a ghost to the world of the living. The charm was perceived as blasphemous in the church, which is why it was crossed out by a pious “censor” and inscribed with the command to “let those hands wither.”

The living harming the dead: Exposure, mutilation and exclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 111-142
Author(s):  
Bridget Martin
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
The World ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines the living exposing, mutilating (including maschalismos) and/or denying funeral rites to the dead and argues that these acts should be understood as harmful interaction between the worlds of the living and the dead. It presents a framework for understanding the umbrella terms “burial” and “exposure” and questions the impact of these on the deceased in the tragic Underworld, considering both physical and metaphysical outcomes. It concludes that acts of desecration resulted in dishonour for the deceased that manifested in a dual-world combination of social exclusion in the world of the dead and eventual disappearance from societal memory in the world of the living.

scholarly journals Cоциальные различия у носителей пазырыкской культуры

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1310-1330
Author(s):  
Maria A. Ochir-Goryaeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Single Tree ◽  
The North ◽  
Pazyryk Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
Quantitative Properties ◽  
The Dead

Introduction. Specialists dealing with the Pazyryk culture keep posing questions about its social structure. Traditionally, scholars ― with due account of outer parameters of kurgans, depths and areas of graves, numbers of buried horses, quantities and qualities of burial utensils ― have tended to identify three groups within the Pazyryk. Goals. The paper aims to analyze Pazyryk burial rites for social differences within the culture. Results. When it comes to social classifications, researchers usually form respective hypotheses on the bases of dimensional and quantitative properties of examined burial facilities. Still, the paper specifically focuses on positions of the buried and on how crouched their legs are. In common burials from minor kurgans, all bodies are placed lying on their right side with heads to the east (faces to the north), and with legs strongly doubled up, i.e. in crouched positions. In elite princely burials from large Pazyryk kurgans, bodies lie in similar positions ― on the left side with heads to the east ― but are stretched to their full heights with slightly bent legs. Conclusions. So, the buried elites can be imagined doing a ‘curtsy’ with legs ‘slightly bent in the knees’, while the commoners would be seen paying deep knee bends or even prostrating themselves. This feature was never viewed as essential since the stretched position matched the shape of coffins carved from single tree trunks. The work compares widths of coffins and heights of mummies to conclude that the stretched position was determined by rites rather than by shapes or sizes of the coffins. Proceeding from previous studies, the paper examines and interprets the discovered aspect in the context of Pazyryk burial rites and related ideas about the world of the dead.

Making Modern Deathways

2021 ◽  
pp. 308-325
Author(s):  
John Parker
Keyword(s):  
Modern State ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
The World ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Sub Saharan

This chapter turns to the most emblematic aspect of the African encounter with death: the funeral. It argues that, as historians of death in many cultures have observed, the weight of tradition borne by funeral rites means that they are often stubbornly resistant to innovation. Contemporary sub-Saharan Africa's anthropological research has shown funerary cultures to be undergoing rapid and often dramatic elaboration. In postcolonial Ghana, this transformation has been characterized above all by the increasing ostentation of funerals, which are seen by many observers as more about the status of the living than the honouring of the dead. The chapter also looks into recent transformations in Ghanaian funerary culture and how biomedicine, Christianity, the cash nexus and the modern state conspired to reshape death and burial in Africa. Ultimately, the chapter considers the ways in which colonial biopower sought to regulate and to secularize death. It then shifts to focus on the ongoing debates over the funeral, that key moment when normal time seems suspended and the world of the living and the dominion of the dead enter into an intense and intimate dialogue.

Lua-lia, the ‘fresh funeral’: founding a house for the deceased among the Kasena of north-east Ghana

Africa ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 448-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustine Kututera Abasi
Keyword(s):  
Funeral Rites ◽  
Dead Person ◽  
North East ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Funeral Practices ◽  
The Dead

AbstractFor the Kasena, life finds in death both its measure and its renewal. Indeed, the dead survive through their descendants and in the world of ancestors. Funeral practices are very elaborate. They not only reflect the social, cultural, religious and psychological values and preoccupations shared by the group but are also a way of elaborating upon them. Social and cultural life is re-invigorated through a person's death and funerals, while the dead person is himself the foundation of his descendants' life.This article, drawing from fieldwork in the author's native area, focuses, in particular, on first funerals for adults. Detailed description is followed by the analysis of surprising similarities between birth and funeral rites. It then examines the ‘house’ or the ‘bedroom’ built in the ground – either in the maternal bedroom itself, or in a neighbouring field towards the east – in order to welcome death as an extension, as a founder in the depths of the survivors' dwelling.

scholarly journals FUNERAL RITE AS A SOURCE OF STUDYING IDEOLOGICAL CONCEPTS OF THE POPULATION OF DAGESTAN OF THE ERA OF THE MIDDLE BRONZE

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-162
Author(s):  
Gamzat D. Ataev ◽  
Tufan I. Akhundov
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
Burial Rite ◽  
Comprehensive Study

The article is devoted to the study of burial rites of the Middle Bronze Age - the most important source for the study of the ideological ideas of the population of Dagestan. The funeral rite is an important ethnographic feature and a conservative element of archaeological culture. Along with the inventory, it is considered a reliable base for identifying the characteristics of a culture, its chronology and boundaries. The aim of this work is to study the burial rite of the population of Dagestan of the Middle Bronze Age based on the analysis of burial monuments, the study of which allows us to identify various religious ideas and rituals of the cult character of the local population. Fundamental shifts in the development of the culture of Dagestan at the turn of the Early and Middle Bronze Age led to the cultural transformation of the region and caused changes in the ideological perceptions of the local population, which was reflected in the funeral rites. This led to an increase in ethnic diversity, mobility of the population, the spread of the burial rite, cromlechs around burial structures, the appearance of burials in log cabins and with carts, the use of ocher, pebble, tree and reed bedding in the funeral rite, etc. All these facts testify to the great diversity of the funeral rite.These events are associated with the significant influence of the steppe tribes on the culture and ideological ideas of local tribes. A comprehensive study of burial structures and rituals of the population of Dagestan in the Middle Bronze Age made it possible to highlight many problems associated with ideological ideas and social organization of society, ethnocultural contacts of the local population with neighboring tribes. The study of the materials of burial monuments made it possible to form an idea of ​​the spiritual culture of the population of the region under consideration: to reveal that the population of Dagestan in the Middle Bronze Age had complex and varied beliefs, among which ideas about the "soul", "afterlife", magical, protective techniques, cults of animals, nature and other cosmological representations, etc.

scholarly journals Igranie z ogniem – rytuały pogrzebowe kultury strzyżowskiej na przykładzie wybranych pochowków z cmentarzyska w Rogalinie

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 63-83
Author(s):  
Anna Hyrchała
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Supine Position ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
The Dead

The text presents newly discovered graves of Strzyżów culture from the Early Bronze Age, located at a cemetery in Rogalin, Poland. The funeral rites of Strzyżów culture are multifaceted. Most of the dead were placed in graves in supine position, equipped with vessels, tools, and ornaments – and then buried. This text, however, discusses burial rites involving the use of fire both in open burial pits and after burial, as well as subsequent practices of opening and disturbing graves. Analysis was supplemented by results of radiocarbon dating.

Ghost, Broken Narratives and the Art of Dying

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
Lars Rømer
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The World ◽  
Art Of Dying ◽  
The Dead

This article investigates how experiences of ghosts can be seen as a series of broken narratives. By using cases from contemporary as well 19th century Denmark I will argue that ghosts enter the world of the living as sensations that question both common sense understanding and problematize the unfinished death. Although ghosts have been in opposition to both science and religion in Denmark at least since the reformation I will exemplify how people deal with the broken narrative of ghosts in ways that incorporate and mimic techniques of both the scientist and the priest. Ghosts, thus, initiate a dialogue between the dead and the living concerning the art of dying that will enable both to move on.

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