A Re-examination of Hertz: The Living and the Dead

M & H examine the "tripartite" nature of Hertz's analysis: The Corpse (& the burial), the Mourners (& the living), The Dead (& the dead) in an attempt to answer the following questions:

• Why is the corpse feared?
• What is the origin of the horror that surrounds it?
• Why are some corpses feared more than others? 
• Why are some corpses disposed of differently than others?

Hertz Argument is explicitly SOCIOLOGICAL because it suggests that "significant deaths" are noticed, whereas "less significant" deaths are not (and they are both treated differently and feared differently). 

• the death of important members of society leave a large hole in their fabric and can threaten their function 
• why the fear reaction varies in degree
• why some funerals are large or small
• may be applied to grand funerals everywhere
• About the SOCIAL ORDER
• ANCESTOR WORSHIP-world of the dead structures the world of the living
• The corpse must go through a TRANSITION/TRANSFORMATION and until it/they is "reconstructed", it if feared because part of its spiritual essence is left behind where it threatens the living with further death 
• why the death of a person may cause anxiety and fear
• the ritual process is also explained
• apples to death rites in particular
• similar to Van Gennep's notion of the liminal transition of the living
• The corpse in its liminal state is polluting
• kin are contaminated by death because they partake in death rituals through obligation
• each severed relationship leave the mourner "impure"
• widow is the most disfigured (gender dynamics are revealed here)-she must go through a liminal phase where her identity is readjusted.
• about the extinction of the social person

THE BERAWAN  (of Borneo)

the Berawan practice a two stage death ritual which occur between 6 months and 5 years apart. In order to understand their practices, one has to look at their notion of the "soul"

• the person has two parts, the body and the soul (user/telenak)
• the soul changes its nature in different contexts
• the soul is not eternal and changes to something else shortly after death (spirit-bill)
• the bill live in the land of the dead and do not age or change, unlike spirits, or the living
• ILLNESS
• soul loss is the cause of most devastating illnesses, and if the soul wanders to the land of the dead, the person dies
• curing practices center around the recovery of the soul & its restoration into the body of the person.
• the route to the land of the dead is a river which one paddles up
• physical death (to lose breath)
• the journey of the soul and death songs
• instruct the dead on how to make the final journey. part of second death ritual
• first song coaxes other souls playfully not to run off with the dead person and is ribald especially referring to members of the opposite sex
• second song is most important and instructs the soul on its final journey up river. it is serious and sung by rapping the bamboo used to wash the corpse on the coffin. the soul is instructed to paddle up river passing important cultural sites which are named. referring back to mythical utopia from which they migrated
• eventually the soul arrives at the mouth of a stream where the soul searches for betel leaves and the song abruptly ends after 8 hours since it is assumed the it will be guided by those from the land of the dead from here.
• the soul and the body separate and the soul wanders. In the secondary burial, the body which is decomposed and unable to welcome the wandering soul is recognized and the soul, having had the time to become a spirit is guided back to the land of the dead. Between this is a liminal period.
• Why are some Berewan death rituals abbreviated, lacking secondary burial?
• not a mistake according to Berewan (not due to modernization and the loss of tradition)
• soul is put in a tomb, but still talked about and fed (rice is offered during the full moon to ensure the ghost will see it and come)
• the ghost is still feared. mourning continues after the corpse has been taken from the house, and is gradually relaxed over time. mourners still observe many taboo behaviors as a way of placating the dead (especially women)
• songs are not sung because it is too early, and would not do the corpse any help getting entrance to the land of the dead.
• FULL RITES of secondary burial are celebratory in nature, rather than instrumental.
• ALL PARTICIPATE in the GREAT FEAST, which allows all the opportunity for reed contact with the sacred dead (ancestors who are summoned) return from their successful habitation in the land of the dead to bring good fortune.

OTHER EXAMPLES of SECONDARY BURIAL: Ma'anyan, Toradja, Balinese, Iran and Mambai

• Assumption: When secondary burial occurs, the fate of the corpse is a model for the fate of the nonmaterial component of the person
• Secondary burial entails the collection of "relics" at least a few months after initial temporary "burial"
• Ideology which follows this reasoning:
• dying is a slow process of transition from one spiritual state to another
• the process of spiritual change is disagreeable, in the same way that decomposition of the corpse is disagreeable
• Other things which may be found?
• an emphasis on decomposition in symbols or statements about the recently dead
• a fear that corpses may be reanimated
• an assumption that the malice of the recently dead will gradually wane, being replaced by the benign influence of the long dead ( may even be good)
• recently dead hover near human habitation
• the long dead are removed and anonymous
• Indonesia: Ma'anyan, Toradja and Bali
• M: Similarities and differences
• have a communal secondary CREMATION of coffins periodically which is marked by a festival (before this coffins are in graveyards away from community)
• Corpse transitions from AMIRUE-ADIAU-AMIRUE
• Ritual specialist for ADIAU is always a woman, she chants to ensure the behavior of the corpse will not be malignant until the cremation when it simultaneously enters the land of the dead
• widow is restrained
• The corpse is associated with transition of the soul, or it would be cremated immediately like it sin Hindu custom in India.
• T:Similarities and differences
• corpses are stored out in the open in rough hut some distance from the village guarded by a slave who must care for the remains and make sure they are safe from witches.
• Corpse changes from TANOANA-ANGGA_TANOANA
• every few years a mass second funeral takes place, but a ceremony may happen more frequently if there are bad omens (sickness, bad crops, etc.)-attributed to unquiet dead-shaman summons the ANNGA and instructs them through chant to wash and dress for their entrance to the underworld-do this by climbing through a hole and dropping onto the branches of a bettlenut tree. 
• the slave is freed at this moment but shunned by the community
• bundles bones are made into small effigies with the addition of a mask (face)
• bone bundles are placed in a small wooden box and stored together in a cave of the ancestors 
• widow treated as in Berewan
• Bali: similarities and differences
• see social status differences in burials, where those of higher status have secondary burial of cremation if they can afford it. Others receive simple burial only
• commoners are buried without a coffin. Priests and nobility are left outside for view on platforms of in houses attended by a slave like in the T. Minimum of 42 days (is money is raised for cremation)-briefest required.
• mass cremations of commoners happen periodically where burial grounds are upturned and bones are haphazardly collected. crude effigy built around bones with herbs and flowers, which is later bundles and laid beside another small effigy (with the spiritual component) these packed into a decorated cremation tower accompanied by a noisy procession to the sea cremation grounds by a circuitous route meant to trick the spirits, mock struggles for control the remains.
• ashes are strewn into the sea
• combination of HINDU and indigenous beliefs and practices, depending on caste
• Iban: NO SECONDARY BURIAL (Borneo)
• do not practice secondary burial nor do they share these conceptions of the dead
• rapid funerals
• corpse quickly carried away, stuffed in a hollow log wrapped with rattan and buried in a shallow grave at the graveyard
• graveyard if full of old bones dug from their shallow graves by wild pigs and other animals 
• living and dead are engaged in a struggles for the near dead and the living yell-"come back!" during the process of death. (unlike Berewan where dead must be coaxed into accepting new souls)
• the close proximity of the dead is why the corpse is disposed of so quickly
• 3 days after death, a ceremony ritually feed the dead and they are no longer expected to harass the living
• M: (East Timor) No secondary Burial/but ideas about dissolution of the corpse
• this culture is a PROBEM for Hertz's analysis.
• They leave the dead in their homes and sit and watch while the corpses rot away for as long as they can stand the smell. Then they wish them away to be disposed of
• later their betel nut bag (1 year) is ritually buried as they are sent to the sea. (if they are). Otherwise first the dead leave through a bamboo pole through the roof
• death is not frightening, and the dead are the source of the life of the earth. they are benevolent

CONSIDERING THE LIMINAL BODY in American Culture

1. what do we think about organ donation?
2. how do we feel about not recovering a body?
3. Do we feel bodies are contaminating?
4. How do we feel about viewing dead bodies (on the news, in portraiture, in person)?
5. How do we feel about handling dead bodies?
6. Whats all this about vampires and zombies?