Cultural Analysis On Death And The Afterlife :: essays research papers

If there is virtuoso constant in this world, it would surely be final stage. Dying is an unavoidable part of life. Indeed, everything that lives will at sometime die. The panic of death is held by everyone. Perhaps it is the correlation of death with pain or the unknown state of the human consciousness after death, maybe a combination of both, that creates this fear. The fear felt is undoubtedly universal, however, the elans in which it is dealt with be varied and diverse. The concept of human mortality and how it is dealt with is dependent upon ones society or socialisation. For it is the society that has great impact on the individualists beliefs. Hence, it is also possible for other cultures to influence the people of a different culture on such comprehensions. The primary and traditional way men and women have made dying a less demoralize and disturbing idea is though righteousness. Various religions offer the comforting founding of death as a begining for another life or mayhap a continuation for the former. Christians, for example, believe that souls that have lived by the words of their immortal will exist eternally in heaven as godly existences themselves. This conception of an afterlife is generally what we people who are residents of the Unitied States hold to be true. For American culture has its roots in Europe and European culture was and is still influenced by Christian faiths. Similar to Christianity, the Hinduism also eases the fear of death by presenting a life after death. Disimilarities present themselves in the both faiths concerning exactly what kind of afterlife is lived. Believers of the Hindu faith expect to be reincarnated after their demise, either as an animal or human being depending on the manner in which their lives were carried out. These ideals have influenced our culture though our purpose of language and thought. The implications are apparent in the common references to ones past lives. For instance, if someone h as a natural talent for music one may refer to the person as being once a talented musician in a past life. A religion which describes death as a continuation of existance is held by the Crow clan of middle America. They viewed death as a journey with the final coating as a place where all their anscestors have gone in the beginning them. This notion of an afterlife eased the tribes assimilation into Christian culture when colonists came in contact with the Native Americans during the colonial expansion period.