Sociology

The concepts of death, burial and afterlife have been of interest since the first prehistoric grave site was found bearing not only bones, but flowers and other necessities for the afterlife.  The afterlife, itself, is a bundle of unknown that many have tried to unravel and explain, but even in this day of modern science, no real and actual answers have been forthcoming for this concept of life after death.  However, before one can talk about death, funerals, and afterlife, one must first understand the concepts and ideals in relation to those abstract concepts.  For the fact remains that the concepts differ based on religion and cultural traditions. Even in the way they are celebrated or administered varies by traditions, locations, and religions.

Therefore, the essay will start with the definition of time.  This abstract concept is varied as well.  The basic idea  when someone thinks of time is the time as understood by the clock, the seconds, minutes, and hours of the day, and then the days, weeks, months and years.  However, this is a manmade construct, and as such is influenced by man.  One example of this is the Emperors of China.  As one emperor was deposed another came forth and with this new emperor came his version and understanding of time (Adam 2006).  Other types of calendars were based on the moon and lunar cycles.  Others were even more complex using several heavenly bodies to determine the time, such as the Mayan calendar that used the sun, moon and the planet Venus to keep track of time (Adam 2006). However, eventually the Romans gave the world the calendar that is used today, but even some people argue about the ways in which the days are viewed.  At least now, the basics are equivalent, and it is only semantics that differ.

So to define time will be to acknowledge the way in which the human race currently acknowledges the passage of specific periods of history and current events.  This broad definition encompasses most parts of time and thereby is fine for this essay.  The end of time is death, or the action in which the body is no longer viable. After death, in most cultures come the funeral and burial rituals and rites.  In most cultures and in most religions there is a concept of afterlife, a time where the mind and body separate and the mind or essence goes to another place or body (Adams 2006 Bonsu  DeBerry-Spence 2008 Browne 1980 Davies 2002 Harding 2005 Lee 2008 Metcalf  Huntington 1991). The frustrating part that these definitions to not encompass every possible option or belief system in the world.  To try to undertake that task would be almost impossible, so instead in this essay the focus will be on the way in which time and modernity effect the concept of death, burial and the afterlife, as well as looking as several types of rituals for the deceased persons around the world (Browne 1980 Davies 2002 Metcalf et al 2005).  There are no hard core facts in any of these topics, but a basic understanding is all that is needed to really understand the need to be sympathetic to those around the world and in your neighborhood as to how they understand and celebrate death.

As stated the concept of time is very broad in that it is a way to keep track of past and current events.  However, through history, man has created a universally accepted way to keep time globally.  All nations use this machine and only vary with other nations in relation to their location from one another.  Manmade time started out for two purposes.  The first was to know the seasons and understand the planting time from the harvest.  The other is the use of time was created in monasteries to ensure that the nuns and monk were worshiping at the appointed times and day and using the right types of worship (Adams 2006).

When man began living in villages or in cities, then time gained a new definition.  Time was comparable to money and man needed to earn money so he sold his time. As technology and industry have made new roads and the information and communication became almost instantaneous has created a problem with the historical concept of time is money.   However, the fact remains that the time of man is still tied to the corporation or business and time is still money, but is utilized in different ways (Adams 2006).
The only release from the concept of time is the death of the person.  This one fact connects all the people in the world.  The only difference in the concept of death between nations is how they celebrate the event, and give a new perspective on an event that disrupts the community and the family (Bonsu et al 2008).  

Asante Death Rituals
Samuel Bonsu and Bent DeBerry-Spence (2008) spent time with the Asante tribe in Asante, Ghana learning about the groups understanding of death and the rituals that surround the death of one of the community.  This group of people do not fear death, and accept it as part of life.  This is not what makes this group unique.  The fact is that the Asante have created elaborate rituals surrounding their dead in burial and funeral rites.

The study surrounded approximately 18 families and informant that would allow the researchers to talk to them and answer questions.  The included the researchers in all aspects of the death ritual and ranged in social classes from the poorest to royalty.  The informants led them through the ceremonies and taught them of the ritual.  The researchers also found outside texts that instructed the community, but the real learning came from oral traditions and the evaluation of the death rituals the community participated in (Bonsu et al 2008).

In Asante, when a person dies, the family of that person gets together, all members.  They put aside their differences and take up their places in the elaborate ritual.  They all complete their part of the ritual and present a united front (Bonsu et al 2008, 701). In the sense of the untied front, there were stories of wives and mistresses forgiving each other for the death ritual of the one they both loved (Bonsu et al 2008).  This was the expectation of the family and the tradition of the community and would be upheld no matter how bad the rift was between the people.

After the burial, the funeral ritual took place.  This is where the real ceremony took place, in that food was served and a festival ensued.  As the partakers ate and drank they donated money or other items to the family of the deceased in a show that they cared for their community and to ensure they maintained their good name.  The more a person donated, the better their reputation.  The same is true for those people that did not have a good name, or did not have a good reputation. Their funerals were bare, no celebration, no party, and the cheapest coffin around (Bonsu et al 2008).

The discrepancy was based on several things.  The first was the way in which the deceased led their life.  If they were lazy and did not keep up social obligations, they were not celebrated.  However, if the person was active in the community and kept up social and family obligations, the celebration would sometimes drive the family into debt.  For those that were celebrated, they were also given a celebration 40 day after being interred to guide them onto their place as being minor ancestral gods and goddess.  Only the good and reputable made it as ancestors (Bonsu et al 2008).

Bonsu et al (2008) used two distinctions in the concept of the Asante death ritual.  The first distinction was the consuming for the community which is based on the community ties and belief systems than hold the community together.  The other distinction is the consuming for security which includes the monitoring of how the funerals are presented and any updated additions or subtractions from the celebration are noted.  This is also the distinction that incorporates the ways in which they work within the community to ensure they have a good name for the future and to ensure that they will get giant celebrations and become ancestor.

It was through these death rituals that members of the community were bound to the community even when their lives were lived in other areas of Ghana or around the world.  The death rituals are an intricate part of their national tradition and even were more important than some of the religious rituals, and the communities show no signs of stopping.  In fact, the death rituals are a major source of jobs and economy for the Asante communities (Bonsu et al 2008).

Religious Influence of Death
Religions around the world influence the culture of their nations in the concept of how to understand and accept death, and in many instances the afterlife.  In 2005, Stephen Harding, Kevin Flannelly, Andrew Weaver, and Karen Costa conducted a study on death anxiety and acceptance. What they discovered was that people can accept death but still fear it and vice versa.  They also discovered that religion influenced anxiety of death negatively, but positively influenced the acceptance.  Other result showed that belief in God and atheism both showed high positive levels of acceptance, but only the atheists showed low levels of anxiety in the concept of death (Browne 1980 Davies 2002 Metcalf et al 1991).

What should be noted is that this was a minor study in the concepts of death anxiety and death acceptance using only one denomination of religious influence.  Other studies have looked at the differences between religions such as the study of Tapany, Nicki, and Jarusawads study of Buddhists and Canadian Christians.  They found that the Buddhist tended to be more influenced by religion the Christians were more accepting of their death and the consequent afterlife.

The other limitations within are that they did not consider other religions in respect to the death anxiety and death acceptance, nor did they include cultural factors. Further studies need to be completed to understand the true value of religion and culture on the concept of death (Harding et al 2005).  This study shows just the surface of the ways in which culture and religion can affect the concepts of death and afterlife.

Death and Afterlife
For many years, death and afterlife were considered taboo to discuss or talk about in any place except at funerals and sometimes in church.  Several researchers believe that the death taboo was created by the Enlightenment and the dismissal of religion.  They did not believe in an afterlife, and therefore, the concept of death should not be discussed.  Death was the end of everything (Browne 1980 Davies 2002 Metcalf et al 2005).

In recent years there has been a revival of the concept of death, and the taboo of death has been eliminated and alleviated first by the romanticism era, the re-enchantment of religion and then by the religions of the modern world, including New Age concepts of afterlife. Most religions show the afterlife as being the place where your soul goes upon death, such as heaven (Harding et al 2005), or the way in which the soul evolves through spiritual enlightenment and reincarnation as in Buddhism and New Age movements (Harding et al 2005 Lee 2008).  In both the outcome is normally a better life than is currently being lived, or another chance to right wrongs (Lee 2008).

Another aspect that is lending more proof to afterlife is the Near Death Experiences (NDE) of people who have died and then been resuscitated.  The subjects normally talk of beauty and seeing relatives, or watching as the doctor resuscitates them.  For many in the New Age movement and in parapsychology this is all the proof that is needed for acceptance of life after death.  While their will always be skeptics there will also be believers.  Many believers are also using NDE to explain the evolution to higher spirituality as is believed in Buddhism and New Age (Lee 2008).  This is a wonderful consideration, but the truth is that nothing is certain in the realm of death and afterlife.

Conclusion
Time is a major factor in the discussion of death.  One can not understand death without first acknowledging the concept of time.  Time is based on manmade machines that keep track of the past and the present as well as the cyclical seasons and times for specific holidays and actions.  Death, on the other hand, is the end of time, at least for the person who has died.  It is often said that their time was up meaning that he had lived a life and it was his time to die.  Other than when someone died, death was not discussed except in hushed tones and only when necessary.

However, in recent years, and through the study of other cultures, the concept of death is changing.  The fact remains that while many people accept the fact that they will die someday, they are still afraid of death and the concept causes them much anxiety.  Studies are beginning to look at this anxiety in regards to religions, but they also need to be studied in relation to culture.

A perfect example is the Asante, Ghana community.  They respect life, but they live for death.  That sounds morbid, but because they live for death, they live good lives and keep their reputations good and clean.  They all want their funerals to be big celebrations full of joy, dancing and food.  If they live in a bad way or deny social obligations, they will never have their giant funeral and they will never make ancestor.  These rituals coincide with the religious beliefs that have inundated their nation in the last 200 years.

This alone proves that more research should be conducted.  Each religion has their own belief system and when these systems are incorporated with local traditions and rituals, new belief systems are created.  This includes the religions that are global, because each nation gives and takes to their religions and it is through these traditions, rituals and religion will people understand the concepts of death and learn how to sympathize with those in other countries and of other religions.  These types of actions will create a smaller and more unified world in which to live.