Souls, Ghosts, and Death

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Souls, Ghosts, and Death

• Chapter 8

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Souls and Ancestors

• Soul is a spiritual part of a person and usually
  has an existence after death
• How many souls does a person have?
• Some believe that the soul can travel
• Shamans
• During dreams

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Souls

• There is a lot of variation on what this means
• The concept of a souls is found in all cultures
• Some believe in multiple souls
• Ex. The avenging soul (miusak) of the Jivaro led
  to the practice of headhunting and shrunken heads
  to keep this soul from revenge

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Souls and the Afterlife

• The idea of a soul is tied to death
• Souls may linger with family, go to an afterlife,
  or be reincarnated (into people) or transmigrated
  (into animals)
• The souls final place is not in the physical
  world
• Heaven, Valhalla, Reincarnation

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Examples of Souls

• Yanomamo (Brazil) believe in complex souls
• Main part of soul becomes no borebo at death and
  moves through different layers of worlds
• Other parts of the soul stay in the jungle, some
  stays in the liver of living people, and some in
  an animal that grows alongside that person

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Examples of Souls

• Hmong believe in different numbers of souls
• The soul is connected to health
• A soul can be frightened or stolen
• How does the soul play a role in the novel?

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Examples of Souls

• Hinduism and Buddhism believe in karma (a
  persons actions and consequences) and
  reincarnation
• However, in Hinduism, the soul moves up the
  spiritual ladder and tries to become better each
  time
• Connected to caste system

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Examples of Souls

• In Buddhism, the soul is five different parts
• Physical body, feelings, understandings, will,
  and consciousness
• Through the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold
  Path, the souls will be free of suffering and
  hopefully reach Nirvana

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Examples of Souls

• The Wheel of Life is 31 planes of existence that
  the soul can be reincarnated into
• Includes hells, hungry ghosts, animals, humans,
  and gods

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Ancestors

• Some cultures believe the souls of ancestors stay
  in the home
• They are revered and people also participate in
  ancestor worship
• This belief is directly tied to the importance of
  kinship in the community

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Ancestors

• Ancestors can provide guidance and blessings and
  can also punish inappropriate behavior
• The funeral rituals of the deceased family member
  are an important way to make sure the soul gets
  to its final resting place

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Bodies and Souls

• In some instances people believe the body can
  become disconnected from the soul, though the
  body is still in the realm of the living
• We will discuss
• Vampires
• Zombies
• Ghosts

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Ghosts

• A soul and a ghost may seem very similar but a
  soul is essentially good while a ghost is usually
  bad
• Souls usually go to a final resting place and
  ghosts tend to linger around this world

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Bunyoro Ghosts

• The Bunyoro of Africa see ghosts as the
  disembodied spirit of someone who has died
• They are one source of illness
• You only see ghosts in dreams
• One can catch the ghost (using special techniques
  or rituals) and destroy it
• This idea gives the Bunyoro a way to explain
  illness and death and promotes proper behavior

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The Living Dead

• Vampires and zombies have become very popular but
  they are common in many cultures religious
  beliefs
• They also have historic and scientific beginnings

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Vampires

• Much of the vampire legend in America and Europe
  came from Bram Stokers Dracula
• But the idea of vampires traces its history to
  Eastern Europe

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Vampires

• Vlad Tsepesh, or Vlad the Impaler, was a prince
  in Romania
• Vlad is rumored to have impaled his enemies,
  causing them a slow, painful death
• In Austria, people became obsessed with vampirism
  in the 1800s and commonly unearthed death bodies
  to kill them again

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Vampires

• In todays video Vampire Princess, you will
  look at the Vampire Scare in Bohemia in the 1700s
• You will analyze the religious and scientific
  views of vampires

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Vampires

• What are some common symptoms or characteristics
  of vampires?

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Vampires Scientific View

• When the body decomposes, it fills with gas
• This can lead to a red color of the skin or to
  blood appearing in the eyes and mouth
• Gums recede, which makes canines look larger
• The gas can move, making the body move or sound
  as though it is moaning
• These reasons may have accounted for the idea of
  the undead

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Vampires

• Vikings believed in the draugr, which was an
  animated corpse that wandered the earth
• It had enormous strength and magical abilities
• Could change shape, see the future
• These undead had to be fought and then burned

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Vampires

• Video http//ed.ted.com/lessons/vampires-folklore
  -fantasy-and-fact-michael-molina

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Zombies

• Zombies are closely connected to the Haitian
  practice of vodou
• These zombies are soulless creatures that roam
  plantations they are pitied, not feared
• A psychiatrist, Dr. Douyon, claimed there was a
  powerful powder that could make a person seem
  dead
• You will analyze this in your ICA and HW

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Zombies

• Vampires and zombies have been influenced by
  media and pop culture
• George Romeros Night of the Living Dead (1968)
  is responsible for the stumbling, flesh-hungry
  undead that we think of today

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Zombies

• Zombies are popular because they play on our
  fears of an apocalyptic world, mass plague, and
  social collapse

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ICA

• Read the handout on zombies and vampires and
  then, in groups, answer the questions

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Death Rituals

• Death rituals (including funerals) are an
  important rite of passage for a person to leave
  the living and enter the world of the dead
• They also give people a proper channel with which
  to mourn and help explain what happens after death

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Funerals

• There is a huge amount of variation in the types
  of funerals around the world
• And in the way people treat their emotions
• Some cultures (British, US) emotions are sad but
  subdued
• Others very dramatic wailing is a sign of
  respect

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Funerals

• The point is that there is expected proper
  behavior at these rituals
• In our culture, what is expected in
• Dress?
• Decorations?
• Emotions?

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Treatment of Dead

• There is also variation in how to treat the dead
• People in Victorian era took death photographs
• Photography expensive
• Posed corpses as though the person were still
  alive

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Victorian Death Photos
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Victorian Death Photos
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Disposal of the Body

• This is a very important part of death rituals
  and includes burial, cremation, and mummification

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Burial

• Probably most common
• Can be buried in a specific burial ground, near a
  home or underneath the home
• Dress, position of body, and objects are symbolic
  and ceremonial

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Burial

• For a long part of US history, the poor or
  disenfranchised were buried in unmarked graves
  outside the city
• There are rules to burial grounds
• Some are specific to religion
• Some are for one type of person (military)
• Within grounds there can be simple to very
  elaborate grave markers, mausoleums, etc.

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Secondary Burial

• In some cultures months or years after the first
  burial the body is exhumed and re-buried
• This second phase marks the end of mourning
• Relics, such as bones, can be kept

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Saint Catherine of Siena died from a stroke aged
33 in Rome. However, the people of Siena wanted
her body back for veneration. Realizing that they
couldnt take the entire body back, they cut off
her head and placed it inside a sack. The head is
still on display in Siena, along with Saint
Catherines dismembered thumb.
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After Buddha was cremated, his left canine tooth
was found in the ashes by his disciple Khema, who
gave it to King Brahmadatte so that it may be
venerated. Legends began to circulate, the most
prominent of which was that whoever possessed it
had the divine right to rule Brahmadattes
kingdom. The tooth was said to be responsible for
converting many Indian Kings to Buddhism,
performing miracles each time it was threatened
with destruction. It is now placed within several
golden caskets and displayed only for special
ceremonies.
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Cremation

• This involves turning the body into ashes and
  either storing or scattering ashes
• Some cultures are endocannibalistic
  anthropophagers, or people who eat their
  relatives remains
• Ex. Yanomamo put ashes of relative into their
  food to eat them and keep the relative with them
• Ex. Fore eat the brain of their deceased

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Mummification

• Embalming is used to preserve the body for short
  or long periods of time
• In the US this is used to keep the body preserved
  for the funeral, where it will be seen
• In ancient Egypt, it was used to keep the body
  preserved so it would be used in the next life

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Days for the Dead

• There are days that are connected to the realm of
  the dead
• Halloween came from the Celtic festival Samhain,
  which held that the gates between the living and
  dead were opened
• This changed to Christian All Saints Day, then
  to All Hallows Eve, then to Halloween
• Used to honor those who have died

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Dia de los Muertos

• Mexican ritual, held on Nov. 12
• Way to honor the dead
• Graves and shrines are dedicated with the
  deceaseds favorite things
• It is viewed as a family reunion and celebration
• Elaborately designed skulls and skeletons are
  common, along with flowers (chrysanthemum)
• Connected to their Aztec heritage