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6. Abusing and Eating the Dead
- University of California Press
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S I X d ABUSING AND EATING THE DEAD There are good reasons to behave well toward the dead. Usually we do so. Furthermore, there are many examples of people who have devoted themselves to correcting a perceived injustice to their own dead. Here, though, we explore the opposite response. Abuse of the dead has been widespread throughout the centuries, almost always coexisting with traditions of respect. To neglect this shadow side would restrict and distort our view of humankind’s dealings with its dead. We would fail to learn from these stains on the moral fabric of society. Even worse, we would miss out on some interesting stories. WHY SHOULD WE TREAT THE DEAD WELL? Why do we usually treat the dead well? There are plenty of good reasons . Here are some of them. First, we usually treat each other well, don’t we? Therefore, we are just being our polite, responsible, and caring selves when we do the same with those who are no longer with us in person. Continuity, then, is one plausible basis for treating the dead well. The dead have been deprived of life and therefore of all the experiences , opportunities, and satisfactions that life can offer. This loss is felt even more deeply when people seem to have died before their time or have suffered greatly. We should therefore do what we can for them as they leave this life, and perhaps in their next life as well. Compensation 1 7 6 for what the dead have lost, then, is another reason for treating them well. Honoring the dead is a way to comfort the bereaved and help them to move through the grieving process with less pain. We participate in public and private rituals that are beneficial to the family survivors. Consolation for the living is, therefore, another reasonable reason for treating the dead well. Failure to honor the dead could sully our reputations and damage our relationships. Conformity, then, may serve as a sufficient reason to show proper respect toward the dead. Our turn will come. We know this very well even though we may seldom allow ourselves to think about it. A death that is close to us and the events that ensue after it remind us that others will one day observe our passing. We should therefore keep the Golden Rule shining brightly by setting a good example now. Cycling communal spirit by treating the dead well today might be a wise investment to assure that this spirit will still be flourishing when we make our exit. Our religious faith and tradition may require us both to carry out specified actions with respect to the dead and to express a particular type of emotional response, be it extreme anguish or unbridled joy. How and why these traditions originated are a separate topic. Once established, though, ritualized responses toward the dead can possess a power of the sacred that goes far beyond social conformity. Conviction in our religious faith and tradition, then, may demand that we follow the well-established ways; furthermore, we will feel better for having done so. Beware of the Discontented Dead We have identified six pretty good reasons for treating the dead well without even mentioning what some observers would consider to be the most powerful of all: fear of the dead. Sir James George Frazer placed this phenomenon on center stage with an influential book entitled The Fear of the Dead in Primitive Religion. He offered many examples in support of his belief that this was both the most common and the most terrifying fear in “primitive” societies throughout the world. Frazer latterly received his comeuppance from anthropologists with more field experience and methodological savvy. He was the urban outsider describing and interA B U S I N G A N D E A T I N G T H E D E A D / 1 7 7 [3.80.164.96] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:24 GMT) preting people whose ways of life were very different from his own. Frazer, like many other writers of his generation, tended to be judgmental and oblivious to his own biases. Furthermore, his own “field research” consisted of visiting British museums where the “natives” were obliging and a proper lunch (although, again, British) never in doubt. Nevertheless , Frazer digested firsthand reports by those who did have direct contact with a variety of world cultures. Report after report fell into a clear pattern...