Tribal funeral practices around the world

Dancing on the grave - encounters with death by Nigel Barley (published by John Murray, 1995, ISBN 0 7195 5286 9, hardback, 240 pages, £19-99). Reviewed by Nicholas Albery.

As one would expect from the author of the riotously funny book The Innocent Anthropologist, Nigel Barley's book on death and dying, Dancing on the grave, is a witty string of amazing anecdotes.

'Recognise that our ingrained habits are not given by nature'

I regret that Barley refuses to make recommendations for our culture based on his survey of practices around the world - "there are no simple solutions to our own problems to be derived, off-the-peg, from the usages off others. No ready-made ceremonial or image will make death immediately 'all right'; and turn its sting into a kiss." The only lesson we can learn, he says, from the enormous variety of ways of dealing with death in different cultures, is to recognise that our ingrained habits are not given by nature and are therefore not necessarily immutable.

He is somewhat scornful of 'bereavement counsellors' - "it is not surprising that a culture where disposal of the dead has been entirely taken over by paid professionals should make grief management the next marketable skill." But he also pokes fun at the 'd-i-y' natural burial movement for trying to get away from paid professionals:

'd-i-y, making your own coffin, interring it in the garden, is like the budgie laid to rest in a cigar box writ large'

"The stress on d-i-y, making your own coffin, interring it in the garden with a bit of poetry, is like the budgie laid to rest in a cigar box writ large ... The concern of d-i-y activists with the wrapping of the body - no hardwood coffins, biodegradable fittings, recycled paper containers - echoes exactly their protests at the unnecessary wrappings of fish fingers." For us to be devoured by plants and trees is, he adds, "all very well - even poetic - by animals unpleasant. Thus, in a sense, we all die vegetarian deaths".

But mostly Barley swoops around the world, like a vulture picking up juicy titbits. You may care to share the tasting of his feast that follows - but do not be disgusted, rather agree with Montaigne that "Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice". As to why each of the practices is thought to have evolved, you will have to read Barley's astonishing book.

- For Australian Warramungas, the etiquette of mourning requires the men to gash their thighs with deep wounds;
- Amongst the Bwende of Central Africa, the obligation to cry may last so long that women have been known to go blind from the constant weeping;
- The Betsileo of Madagascar mark a funeral with orgiastic and incestuous sex;
- The Dogon of Mali, once they have performed funerary rituals for an absent man, will refuse to recognise him if he happens to return alive.
- The Javanase are said to show a lack of hysteria about corpses due to a belief that the dead provide the living with a lesson in unengaged aloofness.
- The Merina in Madagascar take the bodies out of the tombs to dance and talk with them, and to show them recent changes in the area before returning them to their tombs.
- A mixed Buddhist-Taoist religion in China used to preserve celebrated priests, sometimes by lacquering the body with gold. The priests would be expected to co-operate in reducing the amount of work required, by fasting before death so as to dry out the body.
- The Mbuti pygmies in Africa refuse to recall the dead, and their names are forbidden to be spoken.
- For the Jivaro, the rotting of the body allows re-use by the living of the dead person's face, identity and name.
- Dogon widowers of women who have died in childbirth have to have sex with a stranger in order to be cleansed, even if they have to resort to rape.
- In the Lower Congo, the body of a Bwende VIP would be turned and smoked over a slow fire. Once dry, perhaps a year later, it would be wrapped in mats and cloths, creating a figure three times its original size, then buried standing upright, with, underneath it, several slaves pinned down in the tomb and buried alive.
- The Nuba of Southern Sudan practise circumcision exclusively on the dead.
- Among the Karo Batak of Sumatra, it is said that a banana would be inserted in a dead girl's vagina and a dead boy's penis would be wrapped in warm bamboo.

'In Ancient Rome, it was considered wicked to execute a virgin. The ethical problem was solved by having her raped by the jailer'

- In West Africa, an Asante woman who dies in childbirth is insulted by all the women of the village and dumped on the rubbish heap.
- In Ancient Rome, it was apparently considered wicked to execute a virgin. The ethical problem was solved by having her raped by the jailer.
- In some developing countries, death from old age is so rare that cultures will deny natural death entirely, with almost all deaths attributed to witchcraft and sorcery.

'His ashes are to be mixed with breadcrumbs and scattered on the steps of the National Gallery, there to be reprocessed by pigeons as action painting'

Finally, I enjoyed the plans of a London art critic for the disposal of his remains - his ashes are to be "mixed with breadcrumbs and scattered on the steps of the National Gallery, there to be reprocessed by pigeons as 'action painting' that will communicate his views on such art to the Gallery's trustees".

This webpage forms part of the Global Ideas Bank (www.globalideasbank.org).

Book Orders: To order the Creative Endings book in which this piece appears or any of the other books that make up the Global Ideas Bank. "; echo $mb_link; echo "
"; if ( session_is_registered('navigation')) { echo " Return to Message Board's last display of selected messages"; } ?>