A Specific Culture's Beliefs About the Afterlife - Research Paper Example

Afterlife Beliefs are significant aspects of culture, affecting human behavior. They are transmitted from one generationto another. Culture affects people because it offers them with identity and worldview via which they interpret and comprehend the world they live in. As much as different culture of the world have different view of the life after death, the tragedy and fear of death, and the belief in eternal life is a universal occurrence. Human mind and understanding cannot contact a person’s own death as an internal experience. Human mortality is an inevitable phenomenon, which transcends human understanding throughout their lives (Bauman 115). However, before they die, people witness death of their relatives and friends, for the desire of the survivors after the matter of death, people are prone to thinking about their own mortality (Gillooly 70). In this case, people develop a feeling of uncertainty originating from the fear of the unknown. Therefore, the only way that human beings have formulated to deal with the tragedy and pain of death is to establish an intricate vision of what might happen after death (Berger 61-3). Different cultures in the world have distinct ways of understanding heaven and hell. The idea of how people deal with their mortality is centered in their religion and cultural beliefs. The rationale behind the belief of afterlife needs the ability to view part of the self, which is the soul as having the ability to exist and live autonomously of the physical body. Further, the salience of human mortality makes people belief that there is life after death in order to offer encouragement to people to confront and address the tragedy of death (D’Souza 85-6). The concept of the existence of the soul after death or in eternal world is one that has been practiced by Western and Eastern cultures but there understanding and interpretation is distinct. In West Africa, among the Igbo people in Nigeria, their cultural beliefs started to accept the notion that a person’s conducts on earth and persons behaviors are the main factors that will decide the type of afterlife a person will experience when they die. Their cultural belief asserts that there is heaven, which is an eternal place, occupied by virtuous and pure souls or spirits, and hell exist for the all evil doers or souls. Therefore, in hell, the person who committed sins will be punished and condemned to eternal doom. According to the culture of Igbo people, death does not mean the end of life but it shows the end of physical life and the start of an era of rest after a tedious and tiresome work on earth. This era of rest will continue until the day of resurrection, when everybody will have to encounter to the Supreme God who will in turn judge their earthly behaviors and determine the eternal fate or the fate of their souls. In cultural teachings of Igbo, heaven is viewed as an exquisite and a holy place where all those people who did not commit sins while on earth will consume holy water and enjoy all pleasures of the world, which will lead them to happy and joyous afterlife. In hell, all evil souls will have no chance to neither eat nor drink water, which will lead them to a painful, desperate, and miserable afterlife (Soto 44-7). Since the Igbo, belief that death is not the end of life but a transition to the next world, their culture holds that shift to the next world is via land travel, where a person is expected to move from one part of the land to the other. During this travel, one is supposed to cross-rivers. After a person has successfully crossed the rivers, they reach the other land and join those people who died long before them before meeting God who in turn determines the fate of their soul (Bloch 120). Those who successfully join the underworld, after judgment day, will later join their ancestors and assist them in protecting and watching the affairs of their families on earth, assisting the needy people, and administering punishment to people who commit sins and cause the society to suffer. Among the Igbo, if a person had a good and admirable personality before he or she died, their souls will exist for many generations. The souls of witches and sorcerers who caused suffering and pain to the society are destined to live in caves and dark places but the souls of good people such as good parents and community leader’s lives in safe places such as their gravesides where they were buried (Gennep 41-44). Further, the good spirits will accompany living children. In order to identify the tribulation of death and effectively avert the fear originating from cognitive construction of death, every culture in the world is tied to explain it to something. The purpose of this social construction of death is to avert the fear of death among people and give them hope that when they die, they will have a second life in the next world. This in turn makes people from different cultures understanding the meaning of death. With this understanding and knowledge, people are in a position to realize the promises and fulfillment of their natural quest for eternal life where they will not be in a position to face nor experience the horrors of death. Additionally, people are supposed to understand that human soul or spirit will leave forever in accordance with the way a person lived his or her life on earth. Further, the promises of afterlife gives people hope that even if they die, they will be able to get in touch with those people on earth. The purpose of afterlife is to present the understanding to people that this world is ruled and governed by a supreme being powerful than human beings. Among the Igbo people, they had intricate beliefs about afterlife. To this people, death did not mean the end of a person’s life but it was viewed as a mandatory process that a person had to pass through to enter full happiness and eternity (Bloch and Jonathan 66-9). It should be noted that only the holy and virtuous people enjoyed the eternity and bliss but the wicked faced pain and misery in eternity. This therefore, can be attributed to the manner in which a person chose to live his or her life (Stafford 93-4). The Igbo have their own basis for judgment according to which God will judge people and determine their eternal fate, whether it will be of bliss or misery. Life after death among the Igbo people was known as the ‘grounds of offerings’. Since they are aware that death is a reality, they spent their life arranging and planning for their afterlife because nobody wants to go to hell. According to the historical and traditional mythology among the Igbo, all people would enter the underworld, which was a timid dimension that everybody feared. According to the Igbo cultural beliefs, the spirit, or the soul was a perishable thing, which implied that it was at risk at all times a person lived. This made the Igbo people formulate various rituals on the dead bodies and aspects of the soul. For instance, during burial ceremony, they talked to the dead person and appealed to the ancestors to welcome him in the next world. Further, they mourned the death of a person and consumed traditional alcohol as a way of celebrating the life of the dead person and an indication that their soul will forever live in the next world (Bloch 49-52). They believed that upon death, the soul would be welcome in the next world or underworld by the ancestors where they would stay and go through certain tests while waiting for God’s judgment. On the judgment day, all the bad and good behaviors or deeds would be presented before a person and judgment would be based on these deeds (Perry and Long 74). Those spirits that had good deeds were allowed to enter into eternal life full of happiness while the souls or spirits with evil or bad deeds would be condemned to hell and eternal suffering. The culture of Igbo asserts that without afterlife, human beings have terrible struggles that in the end, we are destined and condemned to lose. Further, it holds the belief that fear of death is normal to all people in the world, and that people should not spend most of their worrying about death and after life. This is because death cannot release human beings from earthly struggles and sufferings but the only way that human beings can be happy is by being optimistic in the sense that they should refuse the idea that life is indeed all they have, and belief that their souls will live forever. Summarily, most people beliefs that the spirit or the soul of a person continues to live even after physical death. This soul maintains and keeps a person’s identity even after death has separated it from the material body. In order for a person to enjoy eternity, they are expected to lead good and virtuous life before they die. Those people who do wrong things are destined for punishment and misery in the eternal life. Works Cited Bauman, Zygmunt. Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992. Print. Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy. Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. New York: Doubleday, 1967. Print. Bloch, Maurice. "Death, Women, and Power." In Maurice Bloch and Jonathan Parry (Eds) in Death and the Regeneration of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Print. Bloch, Maurice, and Jonathan, Parry. Introduction. Death and the Regeneration of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Print. D’Souza, Dinesh. Life after Death: The Evidence. Virginia: Regnery Publishers, 2009. Print. Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. Print. Gillooly, Robert. All about Adam & Eve: How We Came to Believe in Gods, Demons, Miracles, & Magical Rites. New York: Prometheus Books, 1998. Print. Perry, Paul and Long, Jeffrey. Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences. New York: Harperone, 2011. Print. Soto, Gary. The Afterlife. Boston: Graphia Publishers, 2005. Print. Stafford, Betty. The Afterlife Unveiled: What the Dead are telling Us about Their World. New York: John Hunt Publishers, 2011. Print. Read More