A Climate of Change #2

A CLIMATE OF CHANGE
The universality of death believed by most communities all over the world is a lesson that is learned from studying different cultures. The reaction to death is though reacted upon differently because each community has its myth to explain the origin of mortality. Death is universally believed to be from outside and is unwelcomed, but others seek it when tired or disgusted with life. Many explanations have been given, but in the case of a child’s death, this was a distressful occurrence that required human sacrifice for some communities like the Senufo people of Ivory Coast. The cause was explained using the ecological environment and the owed to natural and supernatural powers.
In many cultures the dead has a place in the community, they are always involved in rituals and various traditions. This, therefore, calls for proper burials and send off to keep the spirit at peace. The land belongs to both the dead and the living, and they co-exist and help each other during various instances. In the case of the names of the ancestors and the dead, communities view this aspect differently; others exercise name avoidance to avoid disturbing the dead spirits while others prefer naming they children to reincarnate the soul of the deceased relative. They are influenced by either anxiety or respect when provoking the dead spirits and choosing to name or avoid the naming of the living.
During the early middle ages, Christianity was the main inspiration that shaped the minds of people in trying to understand death.

But with time the people began believing that they all will die at the end and believed in the destiny. They later came to take death in a more personal perspective rather than in a general manner where each knew he or she would die in their own way. The traditional notions of death then started to be obsolete as more intelligence people questioned the truth of the myths and beliefs and using reason to try and explain this brought a new worldview of death. Burial customs also evolved with time, in that the burial of people away from the village was slowly avoided as saints and martyrs were buried in cathedrals.
According to case studies of various tribes in North America, the view of death was differently viewed despite the existence of the tribes in the same region. Some tribes faced death with vigor and energy, whereby an individual prepared for death by composing death songs that summarized the life of a person. Other tribes on the other hand, unlike the nomadic and hunting groups, feared death in general and in case a member of the tribe dies, there was screaming that lasted a day or more. The body was also cremated, and with it, all the belongings of the person and food, the name of the deceased were also not to be mentioned only until during a later ceremony to commemorate the dead person.
The family was an important factor in the case of the people of Hawaii in spite of the diverse cultures of the immigrants that occupied the country. Each tribe and culture learned to soften their traditions and cultures as they interacted and came to know the cultures of other communities. In multicultural societies, death is viewed from a more advanced view because of the knowledge of the traditions and beliefs of other ethnicities. These differences have been a source of dilemma and confusion, but other social groups have decided to adopt more common and realistic beliefs despite the different lifestyles customs.