How are death rituals indicative of aspects of identity?
… with in their various momentos. These momentos ranged from flower petals to flint, foetal positions to facing east, animal bones to horns, and other adornments and rituals supplementing the basic corpse. This ritualistic approach evolved from Neanderthal and especially Cro-Magnon times. Like paleoanthropologists one can attempt to delineate the identity of our forefathers, but by studying their death rituals, as opposed their skulls and bones, and using aetiology rather than phenomenology. The ideas associated with death, the fears, hopes and orientations one has towards it, are not intrinsic. Death is socially constructed, learnt from public symbols such as religious and funerary rituals, which in turn reflect aspects of social affiliation and identity. It could be said that death is a catalyst, which when put into contact with any cultural order, reveals the central concerns and beliefs of a person. James Barron Hope said, “‘Tis after death that we measure men”. As …
