A Climate of Change #2

A CLIMATE OF CHANGE
Death among all the cultures and the human race is seen as universal in some of its factors, but the reaction to death is diverse. Knowledge about cultures and traditions help to view death from different perspectives rather than our cultural view. The origin of death for many race and people are often derived from myths that explain different aspects that convince the people of a certain ethnic group. The cause of death is a question that is debatable in various communities but linking the cause to the environment has been the source of answers and valid explanations to this cultures. Because the health of a community is due to keeping a good relationship with their environment.
The burial of the dead in traditional communities was a crucial part of sending off and resting of their spirits peacefully. Every community considered the dead as the members and dwellers of the village and owners of the land of the living. In death, the people showed respect and grief by loud screams of shedding silent tears that were elemental in appeasing their spirits. During childbirth, good grandparents that could act as role models were reincarnated by naming of newborns after them. Names were also suggested by ancestors to expectant mothers in dreams in the case of Hawaiians. But other communities discouraged this practice and entirely avoided the names of dead individuals to avoid provoking the spirits and to avoid conjuring painful memories in modern day communities.
The western culture during the middle ages shared a common view on death as a bond between the universe and divine law.

Christianity was also a significant influence in what people believed during this time with Christians more relaxed about the thought of dying because of the hope of an afterlife. As time evolved, the people began to anticipate death, and this kept them ready to die. This thus became a formal affair controlled by the dying person and surrounded by family and friends. But in the case of Christians they dying person were prepared to for death by prayer and absolving of sins to make them worthy of Gods kingdom in the afterlife.
In the case of African traditions, death was not seen as the end of a person’s life as well as his or her role in the tribe’s activities but opens up a new mode of participation in a new living way. The Nandi community in Kenya used age groups to pass a male member from different levels of warriorhood until they become old men, then ancestors and finally become the anonymous dead. Mexicans viewed death as an equalizer where even the wealthy could not escape while the Asian cultures believed in the proper burial rituals where objects were placed strategically to harmonize the elements. The Celtic traditions rooted their beliefs on nature and had sacred places and times to bury the dead and also specific periods for communication between the living and the dead.
The people of Hawaii were a multicultural community that involved many immigrants from different parts of the world, thus was enriched with a diverse cultural and ethnic blend. The main feature of this people was the belief in the family and the household, unlike other tribes that concentrated on the community as a whole. The Japanese people also considered the importance of all the members of the family in various events like burials and thus preferred cremation unlike the Chinese who opted ground burial. Despite the diverse nature and culture of these Hawaiian communities, the all kept their identity, but they all agreed on the importance of family.