Mourning as the Origin of Humanity

In this essay, I suggest that the most original manner of defining humans might be simply to say that they are strange animals who bury their dead, since that which characterizes humanity as such is the refusal to submit to the natural order, this cycle of life and death that rules over all living beings. This explains the importance in all cultures of the practice of funeral rites. The death with which we are confronted is the death of others, and in particular of those who are close to us. Mourning can therefore be defined as the human capacity of having a relation to those who are no longer present in the world. Seen in this light, mourning can be considered as the fundamental mode of being human.