Postmodernist Approach to Burial practice - Research Paper Example

Postmodernist Approach to Burial practice School  Teacher Table of Contents Introduction 3 Explanation 3 Conclusion 5 Works Cited 6 Postmodernist Approach to Burial Practice Post modern burial practices have evolved dramatically as the thought process of mankind changed from time to time. The study of cultural anthropology has affected different ancient burial practices in number of ways. The ancient Greeks had different burial practices, similarly Romans used to bury people in totally different styles and according to different creeds.

Explanation The Greeks used to bury the dead in three phases. These phases were carried out primarily by the women. The first phase was to lay out the body with ease, then the official funeral process called ekphora (funeral procession), and the interment of the body or cremated remains of the deceased. The body was first washed then oil was applied all over the body that has some religious importance for Greeks as reflected by Dimitris Loukatos (1908–2003), then the body was dressed and placed on some high place in a phase named prothesis, friends and relatives of the dead were used to come and mourn on the body to pay regards and prayers.

They used to put beautiful flowers and vases around the dead body. Then procession used to go out with cemetery. They did not put anything with the dead body in the grave rather for the symbolic ease for identification they used to put earth mounds, models of tombs, and marble rocks and small statues were used to identify the grave forever so that the relatives do not forget the grave of the dead. Greeks used to believe that immortality comes only with the living character of the dead rather than his belongings.

(Gagarin & Fantham, 2010) In pre modern era, the approach of Romans to burial was a phenomena in itself they used to practice cremation rather than burial. Cremation was a process in which the dead body was burnt rather than buried. This practice was also called inhumation. By the time, in 4th century as Macrobius says, the practice of burning the dead body was perished in Rome and people started to bury the dead body because many tribes having the religious impact said that burning the dead body is a form of humiliation to the Holy Spirit.

The burial process of post modern Rome was also classified in the forms of different steps. The dead body was first dressed in the finest clothes. Then they used to put a coin in his mouth so that he can pay that to Ferry, to get salvation. A number of musicians and mourners used to go with the procession of the burial after 8 days of the first process. The head of the burial procession was called by them as “dominus funeri” with lictors. (Erskine, 2009) The poor people in Rome had different process for burial.

Collective graves were used to bury them. They were short of money so the expense of refined clothes and gold coins were not possible. There was another practice followed by Zoroastrians who used to say that the body should not be polluted with earth so they used to put the bodies above towers so that different vultures and birds come and snatch the body parts. This practice was still carried out in post modern world by parsites. The towers were called as towers of silence. Same practice is done by different tribes in Australia which is known as “tree burials”.

Instead of putting the bodies on towers of silence, they put the bodies on trees and different animals come and chew the bodies for days. Karl Marx has depicted many burial practices some of them show signs of pre modernistic practices that are still going on in many areas of the world. The practice of preserving the body by ice in “bog” in many European areas is also depicted still in many parts of the world. (Lull, Sep2000) A very famous practice of burial in post modernistic world of today known as “burning the widow” or “Sati” is still practiced in some parts of India where on death of husband, it is believed by the people that the widow should burn herself up, they think that it will be a course of salvation for both of them and there is no use to live now for the widow (Singh, 1970).

As said by John Locke, a famous anthropologist, the humans are still in primitive stage with regards to sacred practices and rituals. (Mack, 2009) Conclusion The post modernistic era has still all the glimpse of burial practices depicted by famous anthropologists, in their famous works. The religion plays a key role in different approaches in burial practices and the religious scriptures have been considered sacred to people all along the history (Antes, 2004). The evolution and change in burial practices is very much of less probability because humans cannot change the scriptures as a whole that will affect the collective stance.

Work Cited Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Antes, P. J. (2004). Textual, comparative, sociological, and cognitive approaches. Berlin [u.a.: de Gruyter.p437 Erskine, A. (2009). A companion to ancient history. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell.p418 Gagarin, M., & Fantham, E. (2010). The Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Greece and Rome: Vol. 1-. Oxford: Oxford University Press.p363 Lull, V. (Sep2000). Death and society: a Marxist approach.

Antiquity;, Vol. 74 Issue 285, p576. Mack, E. (2009). John Locke. New York: Continuum.p71 Singh, P. (1970). Burial practices in ancient India: A study in the eschatological beliefs of early man as revealed by archaeological sources. Varanasi: Prithivi Prakashan.