Sunday, November 23, 2008
History of the dead
I have learned a lot about how Mesoamerican cultures honor, grieved, acknowledge, and care for the dead. Sometimes a major architectural structure within the city is built especially for their passing and magnificent sculptures, murals, and days are created to honor them (just like today). The Maya did not want their people to die. They cherished the living and also cared for the dead. I grew up in a family that always grieved deeply and we constantly remember our dead. I visit my friends, my family, and remember the pets I loved and will never be forgotten. There will be a time when I/we will be considered ancestors and my question to "you" is; will the civilizations of the future continue this long tradition of acknowledging the dead? Will one day everyone not care for the dead? We find out a lot about a culture by the way they treat their dead. We will be ancestors one day and students will study our rituals and beliefs. Will their way of disposing of the dead be more efficient, affordable, and the current way? With today's technologies will everyone begin to create "now that I am gone" movies?
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2 comments:
Deep thoughts on death is a common theme in the world of the thinking man. I think this is an excellent question. Will they remember us? I truly believe that the if we want to continue on as an evolutionary species, meaning reaching higher levels of consciousness, we must always think of love and death. When we honor our dead, it's because we love them. It forces us to reflect on our own mortality. Our preoccupation in this axiom of the human condition (love/death) is what, I'm certain, is the mind-spring of modern-man's societal basis; mostly expressed in the communal unity and manifestation of literature, art and architecture. Those three manifestation is what reminds us to act a certain way; humane. Thus to be human is to love and die. Otherwise we'll be just another non-sentient animal; evolving physically, but not, as most would call it, intellectually. I would call it not evolving spiritually. By the way, this is not to be confused with religion. And I would mean it more than just zeitgeist...
wow your post was really thought-provoking for me, I had been thinking about the way the Mayans honor their dead and compared it to other cultures such as the Egyptians and others but I didn't really relate it to myself so irectly until I read your post. It's crazy to think that one day we will be long gone and other people might be studying our culture and determining knowledge from our civilization based on how we treat our dead. I hope that we wil continue to remember lost people and cultures this way and that the tradition of respectful burying will continue, but it's difficult to predict how different the workd will be by then.
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