Sumerian Funerary Rituals in Context

C. Felli (ed.), How to cope with Death: Mourning and funerary practices in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the International Workshop, Firenze, 5th – 6th December 2013. Pisa: ETS,, 2016

This thesis uses Continuing Bonds Theory to reinterpret kispum, an ancient Mesopotamian family funerary practice, in a new way. Traditional scholarship has portrayed the purpose of the ritual as apotropaic, and that the family dead are feared as hostile ghosts. This study suggests that profound beliefs about life and death in Mesopotamia, and interactions between the family and deceased loved ones can be found in the material and textual evidence. A new perspective focusing on evidence from the second millennium BC in ancient Mesopotamia is used to investigate the kispum ritual using ideas from the archaeology of emotion and Death and Dying studies. Current understandings based on textual based studies and the varied traditions of archaeological investigation are introduced in Chapter 2. Then, using notions of continued bonds, new insights are explored to better understand the ongoing relationship between the living and the dead. In Chapters 3 through 6 textual sources and archaeological evidence are assessed against this background, and against each other, with attempts to correlate textual with archaeological details. In the context of ancient Mesopotamia, this thesis employs new approaches to mortuary archaeology to provide new insights suggesting ways that conventional methods may be enhanced. Finally, this study also brings us back to an archaeology of death which is interested in attitudes toward the dead. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/29251

Taylor/Vandenbeusch (eds.), ANCIENT EGYPTIAN COFFINS, 2018

This thesis uses Continuing Bonds Theory to reinterpret kispum, an ancient Mesopotamian family funerary practice, in a new way. Traditional scholarship has portrayed the purpose of the ritual as apotropaic, and that the family dead are feared as hostile ghosts. This study suggests that profound beliefs about life and death in Mesopotamia, and interactions between the family and deceased loved ones can be found in the material and textual evidence. A new perspective focusing on evidence from the second millennium BC in ancient Mesopotamia is used to investigate the kispum ritual using ideas from the archaeology of emotion and Death and Dying studies. Current understandings based on textual based studies and the varied traditions of archaeological investigation are introduced in Chapter 2. Then, using notions of continued bonds, new insights are explored to better understand the ongoing relationship between the living and the dead. In Chapters 3 through 6 textual sources and archaeological evidence are assessed against this background, and against each other, with attempts to correlate textual with archaeological details. In the context of ancient Mesopotamia, this thesis employs new approaches to mortuary archaeology to provide new insights suggesting ways that conventional methods may be enhanced. Finally, this study also brings us back to an archaeology of death which is interested in attitudes toward the dead. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While analyzing what has gone into this project, I realized that it came to fruition through the influences of several key mentors. For teaching me how to ask insightful questions and think more critically about theory and evidence, I am overwhelmingly grateful to my supervisor, Dr. David Edwards. Without his guidance and urging to look again at ideas and how they are expressed, I would have been unable complete this project. Special thanks go to him for his kindness, vast patience and many hours of mentoring across the miles. I have learned a lot from him. The original idea for this thesis came from my colleague Dr. Dennis Klass, who with his unbounded enthusiasm and confidence, encouraged me to take a deeper look at the evidence for Continued Bonds in ancient Mesopotamian families. I would like to thank Giorgio Buccellati for many years of Akkadian, and he and Marilyn Kelly--Buccellati for seasons of fieldwork at Terqa, and many fond memories.

Journal of Loss and Trauma, 2012

This article describes some aspects of funeral rites among indigenous people of the Badakhshan autonomous region in Tajikistan, for most of whom the religious denomination is Ismailism. The ceremonies focus on ritual purification and seeing off the soul of the deceased person into another world. A set of obligatory rituals and rites are described, including lamp lighting, mourning rules, and memorial foods and celebrations. After analysing a wide range of data, the authors conclude that Western Pamir Ismailites believe that a dead body is inhabited by a corpse demon that brings harm to people. Although the described customs and rituals are generally Muslim and reflect features of the traditional Pamir world view, they are most probably part of the region's pre-Islamic heritage.

Bereavement Care, 2013

The aim of this article is to give an overview of some of the key dimensions of variation in cultural and religious rituals during the immediate period after a death and in the longer term, in order to inform service delivery in multi-cultural societies. For each area we give examples of different customs, and consider their functions and possible impact. Dimensions considered in the immediate period after bereavement are: The time and space given to formal rituals, expression of feelings, assertion of status and disposal of the body. In the longer term, we look at variations in remembering the deceased and in continuing bonds. Throughout we consider the interplay between individual responses and the person's cultural and religious context. Our objective is to provide an accessible introduction for practitioners new to working with bereavement and provide a succinct reference point for more experienced bereavement workers.

Although the Bulsa are often regarded as one of the best-studied ethnic groups in Northern Ghana, their funeral rituals, with their interweaving of innumerable religious rites and secular acts of various kinds, have never been the subject of a general monographic publication 1. In the following investigation, I have limited myself mainly to religious rites and to those in which a rebellion against the existing order is expressed, including those rituals that subvert both traditional values and social roles and break hitherto strictly-observed taboos very openly. 1. Fate of the deceased person's soul (chiik) The basic religious idea of funeral celebrations may lie in preparing a transition of the deceased from the land of the living to the land of the dead. In order to understand this process better, it is necessary to clarify which parts of the human personality are affected by certain rites concerning the deceased. The Bulsa attribute a number of personality components to each person. One of them is nyuvuri (cf. nyueri, 'nose', and 'vuum' life) or the "pulsating life", which is mainly revealed in the respiratory movements. Another component is the "life force" or pagrim, which is not only shown in physical strength but also in the immunity from and resistance against harmful spiritual influences, e.g. ghosts, witches, bush-sprites, etc. (cf. Kröger 1978: 143-145). The personality components mentioned so far play only a subordinate role in burial and funeral rituals. More importantly, there are the functions and activities of the following three components (ibid. 140-143): • The body (nying, pl. nyingsa) • The wen, a divine power associated with an individual but worshipped by sacrifices to a shrine outside the body (Kröger 1982: 6ff and 2003: 254ff) • The soul (chiik, pl. chiisa) The body and its odour (piisim) may be a great danger to the living. Only the initiated grave diggers know exactly how to deal with it. The corpse of a deceased is usually buried on the day of death. This activity usually takes