The Dark Side of Humanity by Robert Parkin

Author:Robert Parkin [Parkin, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781136646201
Google: RoXxYbAuZ60C
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-10-12T04:42:58+00:00

DEATH AND DUAL SYMBOLIC CLASSIFICATION

A number of recent authors writing on death have taken inspiration from Hertz’s article on right and left as well as or instead of that on death itself. One example is Hicks’s work on the Tetum, of Timor. Here, we also return more explicitly to the theme of creation. This depends on the ‘regulated’ coming together of the sacred and the’secular’ (Hicks prefers this latter term to the more usual ‘profane’, 1976: 20-1), which normally have to be kept separate. Sickness involves witches, and death involves a corpse, both of which are ‘anomalous’ (following Mary Douglas) in being secular and sacred at the same time. Exorcism and death ritual are both designed to achieve this separation and to put everything back in its proper place, which as far as death ritual is concerned means the orderly transfer of the deceased to the next world (ibid.: 125). Although it is this aspect of Hertz’s work, i.e. dual symbolic classification, that Hicks cites here rather than that on death, he makes use of the overall framework of the latter and he has some useful points of his own which bear upon it.

First, he points out that the Tetum are generally uncertain whether the soul has reached the land of the dead or when – hence the greater concern with the fate of the soul than with the state of the body or the mourners, and the greater amount of accompanying ritual. ‘This uncertainty explains why each of the three stages for the soul is much longer than for the corpse and kin …’ (1976: 124). This suggests that although Hertz may be right regarding concern for the corpse, its complete actual decay need not always be important: either this is disregarded, or else it is assumed to have taken place, as must be the case if there is no exhumation and reburial as such. As Humphreys makes clear (1981: 5-6), bones are not the only possible metaphor for permanence, so that awareness of their physical presence is not always important. Not only can they be symbolized or replaced by other objects, but tombs or monuments may be found instead. That this is not only a matter of the West and its individuality, despite Humphreys’ stress on this point (1981: 5-6), is shown by the example of the Merina of Madagascar, where tombs bring agnates together in death while removing the individuality they had in life (see Bloch 1971, 1982). However, Humphreys is right in pointing out that the dead do not always suffer this lack of differentiation (1981: 10). It is here particularly that the West stands out, allowing individuality to the dead as to the living, at least while the memory of the relatives is still alive, and even longer in the case of the famous. Apparent symbols of permanence may turn out to have a more instrumental purpose, as in parts of tribal India, where unmarked stones and megaliths are often thought to fix the soul in place.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.