The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual

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I. Purpose and Scope According to Richard Huntington and Peter Metcalf, the purpose of “Celebrations of Death: the Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual” is to construct a broad anthropological synthesis of death through the use of the authors’ first-hand knowledge of the societies of Borneo and Madagascar and the insights of two early theorists of the transcultural significance of death rites. Ultimately, it is the authors’ thesis that the study of a culture’s corpse-related symbology leads to the understanding of its death beliefs. The authors divide their work in three parts. Part I examines those theories that posit that universality in human responses to death suggests a panhuman explanation of funeral rites and death-related behavior. After exploring the emotions of fear and sorrow the authors conclude that, even though strong emotional reactions are nearly universally characteristic of funeral expressions, their apparent uniformity is deceptive because both their range and sentiment are culturally variable. Turning away from emotional universals they next focus on symbolic universals , specifically the use of noise in funeral rites. Again their conclusion is that, while there is a universal connection between noise and expressions of death, its significance is not universal because even within a single culture there are many different correlations present in the use of noise. Part II considers the concept of death as a gradual process of transition from one state of being to another. The authors do this by exploring the symbology of death as it relates to transition. Rejecting Rosenblatt, Walsh, and Jackson’s idea that funeral practices fulfill a panhuman need for psychological readjustment following death, Huntington and Metcalf focus on the meaning of rites in social terms. They first use contemporary field data to test Robert Hertz’s

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