How did the ancient people imagine the afterlife? Ideas about the afterlife in ancient Egypt: why the pharaohs built pyramids and how to get into the world of the dead

The time of the emergence of the Mesopotamian concept of the world The idea of ​​the inhabitant of Mesopotamia about the universe in which he lived, apparently, acquired its characteristic form around the time when the Mesopotamian civilization took shape as a whole, that is, in the early era

Practically every religion has ideas about the immortality of the soul and the afterlife, but not every teaching and not everyone in the "next world" promises bright prospects. Both in ancient times and today, people perform complex rituals over the dead in order to alleviate their posthumous fate. Do the deceased need it or "there is nothing there"?

It would seem that it is much easier for a simple hunter or peasant who lives in harmony with nature to believe in death as the irreversible end of human existence than to imagine the continuation of life in eternity. The flower withers and turns to dust, the bird falls to the ground and no longer rises into the air ... Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of the peoples of the planet have developed a stable idea that life continues beyond the coffin, only in a different form.

The other world, into which the souls of the departed after death fall, is present in all pagan creeds, and in none of them is it joyful. The abode of darkness, crying and despair, he appears even for the greatest of mortals.

"I'd rather be alive, like a day laborer working in the field,
Serving a poor plowman to get his daily bread,
Is it not possible to reign here over the soulless dead ... "- Achilles laments his posthumous fate with Homer.

Among the peoples practicing shamanism and witchcraft, it is the sorcerers and shamans who fear death most of all. They hold on to earthly life to the last, striving to use all possible means to prolong it. The spirits with which sorcerers and shamans come in contact during life often reveal their evil will. For example, if a shaman refuses to perform a ritual for some time, then his "entourage" can take cruel revenge - destroy his cattle or even children from his family, and then appear to the "owner" in the form of vicious dogs with bloody muzzles. Having such a mystical experience, shamans and sorcerers are afraid to be in the full power of cruel spirits after death, when the tambourine will no longer help.

Perhaps the most attractive of the pagan afterlife is Valhalla. Unless, of course, you would like to spend eternity in a military camp with endless and rather brutal teachings. In Scandinavian mythology, the afterlife kingdom of the elect, that is, soldiers who accepted a worthy death in battle, is described as a giant hall with a roof of gilded shields propped up with spears. There are only 540 doors in Valhalla, and when the last battle breaks out - Ragnarok - at the call of the god Heimdall, 800 soldiers will come out of each door. Until that time, every morning the warriors put on armor, take up arms and cut themselves to death. By evening, those who fell in battle are resurrected, their severed limbs grow back, and everyone sits down at the tables to feast with abundant libations. At night, beautiful virgins come to the warriors to please them until morning.

When Christian missionaries came to Northern Europe, they began to prove in their sermons that Valhalla is hell, and the endless chopping of human bodies into pieces and their subsequent restoration are eternal hellish torments. Indeed, not everyone will like to end every day with a severed head, even if beautiful virgins are consoled after that. By the way, no one thought about the eternal bliss of the female sex in Valhalla.

The ancient Egyptians, like the Greeks, considered the underworld of the dead to be a difficult, gloomy and joyless place, but did not lose hope after death in some cunning way to get out of it. The famous Egyptian "Book of the Dead" is just an instruction on how to get out of the dark hell and be resurrected. According to this source, insidious traps await the deceased in the afterlife, which must be recognized. If you manage to bypass the underground monsters, the soul comes to the judgment of Osiris, where its life affairs are weighed. The main task of the deceased is to return to earth along with the solar barque of the god Ra, that is, to defeat death. Those who succeed will experience eternal life in an ageless and disease-free body on a fertile land. True, in the Egyptian paradise, society promises to be strictly class: the peasants will continue to cultivate the land there, and the pharaohs will rule the people and bathe in luxury.

The ancient Greek Hades resembles a courtyard at all - Hercules, Orpheus, Odysseus descended there and returned to the world of the living. The theme of deceiving the infernal judges and guards in order to get free and return to the land of the living is present in many Greek myths. This is not surprising: if Hades is a vale of crying, where semi-ghostly souls are forced to wander for eternity, then you need to find a way to escape from it?

About how our Slavic ancestors imagined the afterlife, very little information has survived. One thing is most reliable - they did not consider the afterlife fate of a person to be decided once and for all. Of course, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, the position of a person after death depended on how righteously he lived his earthly life. The cult of the deceased ancestors was extremely widespread: magnificent commemorations were performed for them with obligatory kutya, pancakes and jelly. They especially tried to appease those who died "not their own death" - the Slavs feared that restless souls could harm the living.

Daniel was the first of the Old Testament prophets to speak unambiguously about the resurrection of the dead. "And you go to your end and you will rest, and you will rise to receive your lot at the end of days," says the twelfth chapter of his book. According to Christian teaching, after the fall of the forefathers Adam and Eve, the souls of all the dead, including the Old Testament righteous, fell into hell.

The prophet and Forerunner of Christ John and the righteous Simeon the God-Receiver were the first to preach the coming deliverance to the souls imprisoned in hell. In Christianity, for the first time, the idea appears not just that one can escape from hell in some cunning way, but that hell itself can be destroyed. According to church teaching, after His suffering and death on the cross, Jesus Christ, like all people, descended into hell, but since he is not only a man, but also God, hell could not bear His deity and was destroyed. Christ preached in hell to all people who have ever lived on Earth, from Adam and Eve to His crucifixion. Those of the departed who wished to respond to His preaching were liberated from hell and entered the Kingdom of Heaven.

Nevertheless, the Orthodox Church does not teach about any "passes to paradise", which, according to some popular beliefs, relatives can with a guarantee purchase for a dear deceased. So, if somewhere you are offered a "sealing funeral service" or "a magpie that brings you out of hell," know that you are being deceived. According to Orthodox teaching, the only guarantee for entering heaven is the good will of the deceased to live with Christ and strive for His Kingdom.

We do not like to think and talk about death and in our daily life we ​​usually avoid this topic. Perhaps, it is precisely in this kind of screening, the artificial "shutdown" of thoughts about death that one of the most important life mistakes of a modern person lies. The truth is that by pushing aside thoughts about death, we do not prolong life and do not exclude death.Psychologists have long ago discovered the phenomenon of the hypocritical treatment of death. When a person consciously avoids the topic of death in his thoughts, the subconscious, whether we like it or not, counts down the parts of the life lived, bringing us closer to the last minute. “We feel,” writes the well-known researcher of postclinical death, G. Mowry, “at least subconsciously, that when faced with death, even indirectly, we inevitably face the prospect of our own death.”

So, man is doomed to think about life and death, and this is his difference from the animal, which is mortal, but does not know about it.

Life and death are the eternal themes of mankind's reflections throughout the history of its existence. Prophets and founders of religions, philosophers and moralists, workers of art and literature, teachers and doctors thought about this ... There is hardly a person who, sooner or later, would not think about the meaning of his existence, impending death and achieving immortality. These thoughts come to minds of children and very young people, as can be seen in poetry and prose, dramas and tragedies, letters and diaries. Only early childhood or senile insanity relieve a person from the need to solve these problems.

Most often, a person is faced with the triad: life - death - immortality, since all existing spiritual systems proceeded from the idea of ​​a contradictory unity of these phenomena. The greatest importance in them was given to death and the attainment of immortality in "another life", and human life itself was explained as "a moment given to a person so that he could adequately prepare for death and immortality."

With a few exceptions, for all times and peoples, statements about life most often had a rather negative meaning: “life is suffering” (Buddha, Schopenhauer, etc.); "Life is a dream" (Plato, Pascal); “Life is an abyss of evil” (Ancient Egypt); "Life is a struggle and a wandering in a foreign land" (Marcus Aurelius); "life is the story of a fool, told by an idiot, full of noise and rage, but devoid of meaning" (Shakespeare); "all human life is deeply immersed in untruth" (Nietzsche) and etc. Proverbs and sayings of different peoples such as: "life is a penny", "this is not life, but hard labor", "thin life", etc. speak about this.

The famous Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset defined a person not as a body or as a spirit, but as a "specifically human drama." Indeed, in this sense, the life of every person is dramatic and tragic: no matter how well life develops, no matter how long it is, its end is inevitable.

The attitude of people to the mystery of death is ambivalent: on the one hand, I would like not to know and not think about it at all, on the other hand, we try, on the contrary, to peer and penetrate the mystery in order to deprive it of alienation or hostility.

The desire of people to "master" the phenomenon of death, to make it something understandable and accessible in circulation was manifested in a huge variety of legends, myths, rituals (funerals, orgies, sacrifices, etc.). Thus, death was included in some kind of playful action, thanks to which it began to appear to be included in the order and purpose of the life world of people and no longer seemed so alien.

In Babylonian religion, the idea of ​​an afterlife was rather vague. It was believed that the souls of the dead end up in the underworld and lead a hopelessly dull existence there. The Babylonians did not expect any consolation or reward from the other world, therefore the religion of the peoples of Mesopotamia is focused on earthly life.

In ancient Egypt, the dynastic era, the ideas of the otherworldly existence received, on the contrary, exaggerated development. According to Egyptian beliefs, when a person's body dies, his name continues to live, the soul, flying away from the body into the sky like a bird, and, finally, some invisible "ka", a double of a person who was assigned a special role in the posthumous existence. The fate of the "ka" after death depends on the fate of the body: he may die of hunger and thirst, if during the burial the deceased is not supplied with everything necessary; it can be eaten by afterlife creatures if not protected by magical formulas. If the deceased is properly taken care of and mummified or made into a statue, then the "ka" can outlive the deceased much.

In ancient India, priests taught that the soul does not perish with the body, but migrates to another material body. What new body the soul will receive depends on the behavior of a person in his present life, first of all, on the observance of the rules of his caste: one can incarnate in a posthumous rebirth into a person of a higher caste, and for their violation one can turn even into a lower animal. In the European tradition, metamorphosis - the transmigration of the soul into another body (human, animal, mineral) or its transformation into a demon, deity - is called metempsychosis (the Latin synonym is reincarnation); it became widespread in Ancient Greece, it was adhered to by the religious communities of the Orphic and Pythagoreans, and in the philosophy of Plato it was assigned a key role.

The ideas of ancient Jews about the afterlife of a person are reflected in the Old Testament, where two main views are presented: according to the first, a person dies after death. God created man “from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life ...” (Genesis 2,7). After death, this breath of life remains, representing only an impersonal force common to all people and animals, it returns to God, and the personality as a concrete form of this breath disappears. The existence of the afterlife seems doubtful to them, and from this follows the wish: “So, go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with joy of heart, when God delights in your deeds ... Whatever your hand can do, do it with your might; for in the grave where you go there is no work, no meditation, no knowledge, no wisdom. ”- Ecclesiastes 9: 7; 9:10. According to another view, the human soul continues to exist after death, but the world into which it falls is dark and joyless, this is the country of "the shadow of the mortal and darkness", "what is the darkness of the shadow of the mortal, where there is no device, where it is dark, like darkness itself ”(Book of Job 10: 21-22).

The Slavs retained a patriarchal clan system for quite a long time, with a characteristic cult of veneration of their ancestors. The souls of the ancestors were supposed to dwell in paradise. "Paradise" is a pre-Christian common Slavic word meaning something like a beautiful garden. To this day, the words “vyray” and “viriy” have been preserved in the Belarusian and Ukrainian languages ​​- a place where birds fly away in autumn and where the dead live. The word "scorching heat" is also pre-Christian, it meant the underworld, where the souls of evil people burn. The dead were divided into two categories: "clean", that is. those who died a "decent" death - they were revered and called "parents" regardless of age and gender (there is still a tradition of "parental days"), and "unclean", who were called "ghouls" (suicides, drowned, drunkards, etc.) NS.). They were afraid of the dead, believed that they could rise from the grave and harm people; to prevent the ghoul from leaving the grave, the corpse was pierced with an aspen stake, a tooth from the harrow behind the ears was driven in, etc. Thus, according to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, after death, the activity of not only the soul, but also the body could be preserved.

Not all peoples perceived death as a sad event. So, the Germans (Suevi) had a belief in the resurrection of the dead, this allowed them not to be afraid of death; It was believed that warriors who bravely died in battle should get into the bright palace of the god Odin - Valhalla, where feasts and pleasure await them. The Dacians (Northern Thracian tribes living on the territory of modern Romania) believed that existence after death is much more pleasant than present life, and therefore they met death with joyful laughter, and, on the contrary, they mourned the birth of a person.

For centuries, the best minds of mankind have tried and are trying to at least theoretically refute the unconditional finiteness of human life, to prove, and then to bring to life real immortality. From this point of view, a person should live forever, being in a constant bloom. A person cannot come to terms with the fact that it is he who will have to leave this magnificent world where life is in full swing.

But thinking about this, you begin to understand that death is perhaps the only thing before which everyone is equal: rich and poor, dirty and clean, loved and unloved. Although both in antiquity and in our days, attempts were constantly made and are being made to convince the world that there are people who have been "there" and returned back, but common sense refuses to believe this. Faith is required, a miracle is required, which was performed by the Gospel Christ, "trampling down death by death." It is noticed that the wisdom of a person is often expressed in a calm attitude towards life and death. As the leader of the national liberation movement of India Mahatma Gandhi said, "We do not know which is better - to live or die. Therefore, we should neither over-admire life, nor tremble at the thought of death. We should treat both of them equally. This is ideal. ". And long before that, the Bhagavad Gita said: "Indeed, death is meant for the one who is born, and birth is inevitable for the deceased. There is no sorrow about the inevitable."

A realistic expectation of death requires acceptance of the fact that our allotted time on earth must be limited to a rate consistent with the duration of our species. Humanity is only part of an ecosystem, like any other zoological or botanical form, and nature does not recognize differences. We are dying and that is why the world can continue to live. A modern American philosopher from Columbia University writes in his book Death to Death: “We have been given the miracle of life, because trillions and trillions of living beings prepared the way for us and then died, in a sense, for us. We die in turn so that others can live. The tragedy of the individual becomes, in the balance of natural things, the triumph of a continuing life. " The Greek sage Epicurus said: "Accustom yourself to the idea that death has nothing to do with us. When we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist."

And the Russian saint Ignatius Brianchaninov urged "to mourn for oneself in good time." In his opinion, every Christian is obliged to “remember death” every day and every hour. It is important to live your life, checking your actions and deeds with the last minute of life, which is the true measure of all values ​​in the life of every person.

In conclusion, I can only add. Almost all the theses of this article are reflected and disclosed in numerous works of art. The theme of death in all ages has been loved by artists, real researchers. This process of cognition by means of art has no end. The Moscow art competition in 2008 is a vivid evidence that contemporary artists continue the work started by primitive people, when they tried to depict their ideas about the afterlife with the help of rock hieroglyphs. The difference is that, after centuries, the palette of artistic views on death has significantly expanded, and the similarity - death still remains unknown. Sergey YAKUSHIN, member of the Union of Artists of Russia, member of the Union of Journalists of Russia,
Academician of the European Academy of Natural Sciences

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

CHELYABINSK STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF JOURNALISM

BY DISCIPLINE: CULTUROLOGY

ON THE TOPIC: « The concept of death, the afterlife in the culture of the peoples of the world .

Funeral rite as a consequence of ideas about the afterlife »

Completed by: 1st year student

FZhZ groups - 101

Gomzyakova T.S.

Checked:

Alexandrov L.G.

1. Introduction

2. The concept of death in the main religions of the world

3. Funeral rites of primitive people

3.1. Mousterian cultural period

3.2. Aurignacian cultural period

4. Funeral rites in the culture of the peoples of the world

4.1. Jewish funeral rite

4.2. Korean funeral rite

4.3. Funeral rite of the Moscow lands

4.4. Muslim funeral rite

5. Conclusion

6. References

Introduction

“Death is a great, secret sacrament; it is the birth of man, the transition from temporary life to eternity. It is a mysterious process of decay and, at the same time, liberation from the flesh - for the restoration of that new, subtle, spiritual, glorious, strong and immortal body that was given to the ancestors and lost by them for themselves and all their offspring - humanity. "

monk Mitrofan "Afterlife"

The underworld, the underworld, in mythology is the abode of the dead or their souls. The myths about the afterlife developed from ideas about the afterlife, associated with the reaction of the collective to the death of one of the members and funeral customs. Death was perceived as a violation of the normal life of the collective as a result of the influence of supernatural causes (harmful magic, violation of taboos, etc.). The psychological fear of death, combined with the biological danger emanating from the decaying corpse, was personified in the deceased himself. Therefore, funeral customs pursued the goal of isolating the deceased and with him the harmful effects of death; at the same time, however, there was also an opposite tendency - to keep the deceased close to the living, so as not to violate the integrity of the collective. Hence - the most ancient customs of burial (isolation) in settlements, in dwellings or special houses of the dead, later - in necropolises (cities of the dead) near the settlements. Accordingly, the attitude towards the deceased was also ambivalent: on the one hand, he was revered as an ancestor-benefactor, on the other, they were feared as a harmful corpse or a spirit living near the living. The ideas of the "living dead" endowed with supernatural powers, emerging from the grave, attacking people, bringing disease and death, are present in the mythology and folklore of many peoples. They tried to kill the "living dead" again, to bind, etc., the spirits - to scare away the noise at the funeral, to confuse the road to the world of the living. But the most effective way to eliminate the harmful properties of the deceased while maintaining a connection with him as a patron spirit was considered sending him to the afterlife.

Some of the most backward tribes (Australians, Bushmen, Papuans) did not develop differentiated mythological ideas about the afterlife: the dead could inhabit desert areas, forests or bushes, found themselves in the sea or in the sky; sometimes only the direction in which the deceased were leaving was known. The ideas about the occupations of the dead were vague and contradictory: they could lead an ordinary life of hunters and gatherers, turn into animals and birds, wander the earth, leave their shelters at night, return to the camps of the living. Probably, this dichotomy of the dead, who are in the world of the living, and in the other - the afterlife, associated with the duality of ritual aspirations to preserve the deceased in the grave and remove him to another world, contributed to the mythological dismemberment of the deceased into a buried body and a soul (spirit) living in the afterlife. the world. This dismemberment was not consistent - the soul did not lose its bodily properties and attachment to the body; among many peoples (among the Indians, in Roman and Siberian mythologies), ideas about "burial souls" are known, like ka in Egyptian mythology.
The most common was the idea of ​​a temporary stay of the spirit near the body (grave). After completing the funeral rite and destroying the substrate of the soul - the body - during cremation or in some other way - the spirit went to the afterlife.
The afterlife journey was considered difficult and dangerous: the distant afterlife was separated from the world of the living by streams, mountains, placed on an island, in the depths of the earth or in heaven. For such a journey, the deceased needed boats, horses, sledges, chariots, strong shoes, supplies for the road, etc., which were usually placed in the grave. On the way, there were supernatural obstacles - fiery lakes, boiling streams and abysses through which narrow bridges led (the bridge is a horsehair in Altai myths, among the Quechua Indians, etc.): those who fell off were waiting for a secondary and final death. The guides of souls - animals (usually a dog or a horse), shamans and gods - helped the dead in overcoming these obstacles. The entrance to the afterlife (sometimes a bridge) was guarded by guards: monstrous dogs among the Indo-European peoples, the very masters of the kingdom of the dead; they admitted only the souls of those who fulfilled tribal customs during their lifetime and were buried according to all the rules, those who could pay the guides and guards with the meat of animals sacrificed at the funeral, money, etc. havens.
The underworld, despite the variety of ideas regarding its location, usually fit into the general mythological picture of the world as a distant other world opposing "its" world of the living. At the same time, its placement in horizontal space correlated with the vertical model of the world, dismembering space into heaven, earth and the underworld.

Pictures of the afterlife can completely copy the real world with villages where the dead live in clan communities, hunt, marry, sometimes even produce offspring, etc. - even the landscape surrounding the community in this world is reproduced in myths.

In some mythological traditions, the picture of the afterlife is painted in dull tones: the sun shines faintly there, there is no need, no joy, etc. Such are, for example, ideas about the ghostly existence of insensible shadows in the darkness of Hades and Sheol . On the contrary, belief in a better afterlife is reflected in ideas of abundant hunting grounds, supernaturally fertile fields. , pastures in the afterlife; the dead became young, did not know diseases and worries, indulged in fun, dancing (among some peoples of Melanesia, America).

The doctrine of metempsychosis (reincarnation) - the transmigration of souls - was most developed in Hindu mythology and Buddhism. Many peoples also had the idea of ​​the rebirth of the deceased in the person of a descendant (usually a grandson): hence the transfer of the name of the ancestor to the newborn. In these cases, the afterlife is not the last resting place of the deceased, but a necessary phase in the cycle of rebirth through death. These cycles of human and collective life were correlated in the mythologies of primitive society and the ancient world with seasonal cycles embodied in the images of the resurrecting gods of vegetation. Death, funeral and descent into the underworld of God personified the winter dying of nature. The afterlife merged with the natural world, opposing the social one: the other world combined the destructive forces of chaos with the blessing of fertility necessary for man. Therefore, the dead, removed through funeral rites from this world to another, also merged with the natural elements and were able to influence the life of the collective, sending drought or crops, contributing to the fertility of the human race and livestock, for which with them and, therefore, with the afterlife the world, communication was maintained within the framework of the cult of ancestors. This ambivalent attitude to the afterlife, combined with the predominant focus of community cults on the problems of this worldly economic life, allowed for the coexistence of different traditions in ideas about the afterlife.

2. The concept of death in the main religions of the world

All religions agree that death requires deep thought. In the results of these reflections, however, they do not coincide. Moreover, these conclusions are sometimes ambiguous. Buddhists learn from death - but they also flee from it. Ultimately, this escape is a deliverance from endless rebirth. Rebirth is suffering. Illness, old age and death await the born. Therefore, Buddhists strive to end the process of rebirth. Death reminds us that everything is perishable in the ever-changing stream of being. The reason for each new birth is the thirst for future existence. You can, however, free yourself from death once and for all. Paradoxically, this is achieved already in this life - with the help of death.

Life-affirming Judaism looks at death differently. He believes that its cause is sin, but death expiates sin, preparing a person for Judgment and gaining a share in the life of the century to come, resurrection from the dead at the end of times. Individual human life does not end with death, just as the path of Holy Israel does not end with exile. The Israelites will live in the coming age, all Israel in the land of Israel, like Eden. At the same time, Israel will embrace all who cognize the One True God. This radical change in the world order, which will crown the manifestation of Divine justice, will cover both the life of individuals and the life of the people as a whole - they will gain eternal life. To be Israel is to live. Each person will one day rise from the dead, appear at the Judgment and find the life of the age to come. All the Israelites will be resurrected - the resurrection will take place in the Land of Israel - and will enter into Life. What will happen at the end, you can learn from what happened at the beginning. In God's righteous plan, man was destined to live in Eden, and Israel - forever in the Land of Israel. Therefore, this radical change in the future can be spoken of as the implementation of God's original plan for the creation, the Restoration - the Restoration, which should and was tragically postponed and in which the justice of God's plan for the creation will finally become evident. Resurrection from the dead, redeemed through death, people will be judged according to their deeds. Israel will repent, submit to the will of God, and find her Eden again. The consequences of disobedience and sin will be removed.

Islam and Christianity share the Jewish faith in the Judgment after death and the resurrection of the dead. All agree that a particularly good fate awaits martyrs for their faith. All three religions teach about bodily resurrection. Although many particular points are recognized as unclear, there is a general statement: body and soul unite in resurrection. Then all people appear at the Judgment, and the acquitted are admitted to paradise.

The specificity of the Christian position lies in the uniqueness of the role of Christ. Death is not a punishment, but an opportunity. A person dies and then is resurrected - following Christ, who rose from the dead. Like Judaists and Muslims, Christians believe not only in the immortality of the soul or spirit, but in the resurrection of the body.

Muslims know that they are not able to choose the day of their death, because it is known only to God, who calls to himself the souls created by him. Life is a gift from God, and the duration of this or that life is His blessing.

If the monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) agree on the last Judgment, then the Indian religions - on the connection between the afterlife and the life lived in this world.

Religions can be divided into monotheistic, on the one hand, and Hinduism and Buddhism, on the other. Monotheism affirms life and promises eternal life beyond the grave. Hinduism and Buddhism consider the victory over this world, the way out of it, as a vital goal.

All five religions agree that death overtaking everyone is something very important, a source of wisdom and moral consciousness. However, they comprehend death in different ways.

3. Funeral rite in a primitive society

The general model of the funeral rite of primitive society was proposed by V.S.Bochkarev. Based on the research of ethnographers (A. Van Gennep, V. Ya. Petrukhin), he sees in the funeral rite, first of all, a manifestation of a conflict between nature and culture, that is, a contradiction between a person's desire to cooperate with nature and the inevitability of death of each specific individual. “One of these, but the most dramatic and inevitable collisions is the death of a person, which means a direct and fatal invasion of nature into the sphere of culture, destroying social ties and threatening chaos for the entire collective. To overcome, resolve this conflict, this clash of culture and nature in a primitive society, and the funeral rite is called upon. This is its most important cult function. The problem is solved ideologically, but in the spirit of mythological consciousness, by extending the cultural sphere beyond its borders. If nature, through death, invades culture, then culture undertakes a counter-invasion. She consciously and purposefully carries out the transition, the transfer of a person from life to death, from this world to another, from culture to nature. Thus, the process is, as it were, taken under control by the culture. "

3.1. The first burials in the history of mankind are the burials of Neanderthals belonging to the Mousterian cultural period. In 1908, the Swiss Otto Gauser made an interesting, surprising discovery near the village of Moustier in the Wesera valley (Southern France): he found the grave of a Neanderthal youth who lived several tens of thousands of years ago. In a shallow grave lay his skeleton in the position in which this young man was buried: on his right side, his right arm under his head, his legs bent. Near the skeleton lay flint tools and several burnt animal bones: they were given to the dead on the road to eternity.

After this find, which convinced many that human sympathy and respect for the dead go back to the most ancient times in human history, a number of other similar discoveries were made. The most famous of them, perhaps, is the discovery in 1938 by the Soviet archaeologist Alexei Pavlovich Okladnikov of the burial of a Neanderthal boy of the Moustier era in the Teshik-Tash grotto (Uzbekistan). His bones lay in a shallow depression. Around the skull, the horns of a Siberian goat were stuck into the ground, and they formed something like a fence around the boy's skull. Not far from the grave there were traces of a small fire that burned for a very short time. Perhaps it was a ritual fire related to burial.

According to the adherents of Okladnikov's concept, a characteristic feature of the found Neanderthal burials is their identical location with their heads to the east or west, and not to the south or north, and everywhere: in Western Europe, in the Crimea, in Palestine. A.P. Okladnikov believed that this could not be accidental and indicated a special attitude of people of that era to the dead and death, and even suggested the existence of a certain solar cult among the Neanderthals.

“One thing is essential,” wrote AP Okladnikov, “the Neanderthal has already become convinced that the dead man is not just“ sleeping ”, that in relation to him special cares are needed, qualitatively different from those in relation to a living person. surface of the earth in the position in which death overtook him, and gave him, before the body was still numb, a certain, strictly sustained posture; he did not put it at random, not as it was necessary, but in a certain direction - with his head to the east or west, finally , placed it in a pit and covered it with earth. Hence, it follows that the Neanderthal already had some ideas about a qualitatively different form of existence of the dead after death, that is, the first ideas about “life behind the coffin.” In 1960, the famous American anthropologist and archaeologist R. Solecki in the Shanidar cave (in Iraq) discovered the fossils of nine Neanderthals.A few years later, the French paleobotanist Arnet Leroy-Gouran, examining in a Paris laboratory the soil taken from the excavation together with the fourth Shanidar skeleton, discovered silt was such an amount of plant pollen, "which surpassed all likelihood," and in some places this pollen was in lumps, and next to some of them even the remains of parts of a flower were preserved. From this, it was surprisingly concluded that the grave was thrown with armfuls of flowers collected on the side of the mountain, representatives of the group to which the deceased hunter belonged.

Many ancient peoples placed flowers in the graves of their fellow tribesmen, whose healing properties were well known to them. At first, this ritual pursued a completely utilitarian goal: the deceased was given the opportunity to heal and return to the bosom of his family, which means to the tribe. In addition, a strong aroma interrupted the smell of decay, neutralizing the unpleasant sensation of a dead body. But one day someone noticed that flowers are beautiful, and they became the subject of a gift. The utilitarian-religious function has given way to the aesthetic one. And to this day we bring flowers to the graves as a tribute of love and respect.

For the ancients, the flowers on the grave were supposed to symbolize the very process of life and death: fresh, they delight the eye, evoke a complex range of aesthetic feelings; then their colors gradually fade, the petals begin to fade and fall off; finally, the juices that nourish the life of the flower evaporate, the flowers die. This whole process is like a model of human existence, and it is difficult to say what exactly gave rise to the cult of plants - medicinal functions or their symbolism.

3.2. From the first era of the Late Paleolithic, i.e. with the Aurignacian cultural era, skeletal remains of a person are associated, which are very different in physical type from the Neanderthals in that they represent a higher level of development, more finely formed. Thus, from the era of Aurignac, a new stage in the history of human development begins, marked by the emergence of modern man, whom we designate as Homo sapiens fossilis. These "intelligent" people, also called new people, or neoanthropes, were much more widespread on earth than the Neanderthals, and left behind numerous evidences of high economic, social and cultural development.

From this period, already indisputable burial rites began. There are many known burials related to the Aurignacian. In general, we can say about them that the dead were often buried in the same place where they lived before, and the people themselves left this place. Sometimes they put a corpse right on the hearth, if there was still fire in it, the body was burned or turned into ash and ash. In other places, the dead were buried in specially dug graves, and sometimes stones were thrown around their heads and feet. In some places, stones were placed on the head, chest and legs of the deceased, as if they wanted to prevent the dead from getting up. This was probably caused by the fear of the dead, whose return had to be prevented by all possible means. Therefore, the dead were sometimes tied up and buried in a highly contorted form. The dead were sometimes left in the cave, and the entrance to it was filled up with a large stone. Often the corpse or only the head was sprinkled with red paint. With the dead, many different gifts were put into the grave - jewelry, stone tools, food.

Late Paleolithic hunters buried not only adults, but also children. One of these most famous graves was discovered in Menton (France) in the very small Grotto of Children. In the burial pit, two children were laid very close to each other, and therefore it seems that they died at the same time. The eldest was about ten years old. The children were laid on their backs, arms extended along the body. The burial of a woman turned out to be shallow under the grave of the children, and even deeper was buried an adult man, whose skeleton lay on his back, the skull and leg bones were protected from destruction by large stone slabs laid on stones.

Another one was discovered under this grave. Right at the site of the fire lay the skeleton of a young man on his right side in a crumpled position, so that the heels almost touched the pelvis. An elderly woman was later laid next to her, also in a crumpled position, her knees almost touching her chin. All burials belonged to the Aurignacian era.

The concept of crossing into the other world allows us not only to understand the meaning and essence of funeral rites, but also objectively presupposes that primitive man has ideas about the multidimensionality of space, about the existence of other worlds, about life after death.

4. Funeral rite in the culture of the peoples of the world

Since ancient times, among representatives of various races, peoples, various beliefs and cultures, death has been associated with traditional funeral rites. A funeral rite is a whole circle or a set of ritual and practical actions carried out in the preparation and execution of the burial of a deceased member of society in accordance with the religious and ideological norms prevailing in it. The basis of the funeral rite is made up of customs - generally accepted norms for dealing with the deceased, a number of ideas and rules prescribing a style of behavior in each specific situation and situation. At the same time, the funeral rite pursues two goals: real and illusory. The real purpose of the funeral rite is the burial of the deceased, the deliverance of society from him through the fulfillment of certain religious precepts. The illusory goal is to provide conditions for the “correct” and worthy transition of the deceased and his soul to another world, to maintain “balance” between the world of the living and the world of the dead by performing a series of actions.

4.1. In Jewish funeral rites, first of all, faith in God is expressed, in His mercy and love for His creation - man, hope for God's mercy and for a better afterlife with retribution. When a Jew dies, he usually makes his will alive, asking them to fulfill his last wish. After washing the body of the deceased, it was anointed with fragrant ointment or strewn with a powder consisting of myrrh, the fragrant resin of the myrtle tree growing in Arabia. The body of the deceased was sprinkled with clean water with dissolved salt with the pronunciation of the words of the prophet Ezekiel: "And I will sprinkle clean water on you and be cleansed of all your impurities," thinking with this sprinkling to cleanse the soul of the deceased from sins. Crying for the deceased was necessary for relatives, acquaintances, and in general for the living. Since those who were struck with such grief at first could not take care of themselves, relatives, friends and acquaintances sympathetic to their grief offered them food and a cup of drink in the assurance that grief did not allow them to take care of this necessary need. The coffins of the ancient Jews, like those of other eastern peoples, were built in caves or grottoes shaded by shady trees. These caves were either natural or artificial, deliberately carved into the rock. Among the ancient Jews, only kings and prophets were buried in cities; yet the others are usually out of town. Folk customs testified to the deep respect that the people had for their dead, and the general zeal that they showed for a worthy burial. When a Jew is seriously ill, a rabbi comes to him and reads him a confession. The patient repeats after the rabbi and strikes himself in the chest with every word. Then he reads other prayers after the rabbi, and between them the confessionary prayer Vide, which lists all human sins. The angel of death does not leave the patient and his appearance is terrible for the soul and thrills his victim, over whose head he holds his naked sword. Three drops of fatal liquid quietly flow down from the sword: the first drop takes life, the second makes the corpse pale, and the third decomposes it. At the moment of separation of the soul from the body, when, according to the teachings of the ancient rabbis, "one should enter the house of a dying person and be present at the separation of the soul from the body, for then the human spirit is humbled" (op. R. Tama), two or three married men, with wax candles in their hands, they read prayers near the bed of the dying man. Upon death, they immediately extinguish the candles and put the deceased on the straw next to the bed, face upward, straightening their fingers and closing their eyelids, put a lamp with oil over their heads, and next to them - a vessel with water and hang a towel so that the angel of death can wash and wipe his a sword, or, as other rabbis interpret, so that the soul can wash itself. All the water in the house is poured out into the street so that the angel of death does not wash his sword in it, and what would not poison it. The deceased lies on the straw for about two hours. Then the burialists wash it with warm water and put the corpse on its feet; three burialists perform a ritual of purification, that is, they pour clean water over the deceased, and they say three times: "Togor, Togor, Togor, that is, clean, clean, clean." After washing the corpse, the burials dress it in mortal clothing. Then, the deceased is wrapped in a large linen blanket, the ends of which are tied at the top and bottom and untied only when the body is placed in the coffin. When the body is taken out of the house to the cemetery, it is customary to throw the pot out into the street as a sign that when the body is taken out of the house, all sorrows are taken out of it, and they sing: "charity saves the soul from death." Every Jew who comes across throws some coin in favor of the burialists. The deceased is taken to the cemetery on horseback, but it was considered a special honor among the Jews if the body was carried on a stretcher on the shoulders of four Jews. In those places where the bodies of the dead are carried on horses, the ritual of cleansing and dressing is performed not at home, but in a special room arranged for this purpose in the cemetery, since after the performance of these rituals it is no longer possible to carry the body on horseback, but it is imperative to carry it him on a stretcher on his shoulders.

At the cemetery, the lower part of the coffin is placed in the dug grave or simply lined with boards, the bag is filled with grave earth and placed under the head of the deceased. Two people lower the body into the coffin, then tie a blanket, close the coffin with a lid, and everyone who washed and dressed the deceased, as well as the gravediggers, hammer a nail into the lid, and the others throw three shovels of earth onto the coffin. After the funeral, returning to the house of the deceased, they sit down on the place where he lay and pray for him. Relatives, neighbors, and friends visit and comfort those who are grieving every day. According to the teachings of the Talmudists, "everyone is obliged to console the mourning and mourn the departed." Whoever mourns the death of an honest man, the Talmud says, all his sins are forgiven for the honor he has shown the deceased. (Shabbat l. 25).

4.2. The funeral rite of Korea. First, the body of the deceased is covered with a blanket and left in one of the rooms of the house (or in a special "funeral" room of the hospital), fenced off with a screen. A sacrificial table with a large photograph of the deceased is placed in front of the screen. This is a relatively new custom; earlier, instead of a portrait, just a plaque with the name of the deceased was used. It is customary to fix one or two black mourning ribbons on a portrait, which are located obliquely in its upper corners. This is also a Western influence, because in old Korea, the color of mourning was white, not black. On the table is usually an incense burner, and sometimes a couple of candles and dishes with sacrificial food. All funeral rites are supervised by a "senior in mourning" - the deceased's closest relative (usually the eldest son), or a steward is appointed who has some experience in this gloomy business. The day after the death, the deceased is washed and placed in a coffin, which is again installed behind a screen. At the same time, the "myeongjong", a kind of funeral banner, which is carried in front of the funeral procession, is also being made. It is a long red cloth measuring about 2 by 0.7 meters. The surname and clan ("pon") of the deceased are written on it in white or yellow hieroglyphs. The body of the deceased is in his home or hospital for three days, during which time friends, relatives and colleagues of the deceased can visit the house in mourning and express their condolences. As in the old days, you should definitely bring money to the funeral. In traditional Korea, it could take a long time from death to funeral. In noble families, the day of burial was chosen with the help of a fortuneteller, and sometimes the funeral took place several months after death. In simpler families, funerals were held on the seventh or fifth day. Before leaving for the cemetery, a "ceremony of eternal farewell" is held in the house, which is accompanied by the offering of sacrificial food - fruits and wine. After that, the funeral procession goes to the cemetery. The coffin was delivered to the grave by a special funeral procession. In front of the procession they carried a sign with the name of the deceased (in recent decades it was replaced by a photograph), then a man walked with a mourning banner "myungjong", on which the surname and clan of the deceased were written, then they carried a coffin mounted on a hearse-like stretcher, followed by a stretcher with a coffin the eldest relative in mourning (usually the eldest son), then other relatives in the order of the degree of mourning (this degree reflected the closeness of kinship with the deceased) and, finally, guests. The grave is located on a mountain slope, on which a small area is preliminarily cleared of forest and bushes. Then, on the cleared area, they dig a hole about one and a half meters deep. The coffin is lowered into a pit, and a mourning banner "myeongjong" is placed on its lid, indicating the name and clan of the deceased. After that, the grave is covered with earth. Above the grave, a low, no more than a meter, oval mound is erected. The burials of the spouses are usually paired, with the woman buried on the right and the man on the left (the traditional belief in the Far East that the left side is more honorable than the right). After the grave is covered with earth, a sacrifice is arranged in front of it. The funeral is followed by a period of mourning. During the entire time of mourning, special clothes made of plain unbleached canvas were to be worn. The color of these clothes is white, or rather grayish-white, so for centuries it was white, not black, that was a symbol of mourning in the Far East. In the old days, the duration of mourning was rigidly determined by Confucian ritual prescriptions and depended on the degree of kinship with the deceased. The most prolonged mourning was carried by the closest eldest descendant of the deceased - the eldest son or, if he was absent, the eldest grandson, who, together with his wife, was in mourning for 3 years.

4.3. In ancient times in Japan, it was customary to bury noble people with one of the friends of this person and his servants. Subsequently, when they ceased to be buried alive, they themselves ripped open their stomachs. Sometimes, instead of people, they buried clay images of a person. In Japan, it was customary to put a model in the grave instead of the objects themselves. So, for example, if a person during his lifetime had the right to carry a sword or several swords, then during burial a model of this sword was placed in his grave. Since the 19th century, it has become customary not to bury the corpses of rich people, but to burn them, accompanying this action with a magnificent ceremony in front of a large crowd of people. The Japanese believe that the richer and more magnificent the funeral is, the easier it will be for the deceased to live in the next world. The procedure for burning a corpse was as follows. The relatives of the deceased, an hour before the funeral procession exits, leave the house and go to the burial place, and the men must be dressed in traditional white clothes and colorful bedspreads. They are followed in a palanquin by a priest dressed in silk and brocade, and then his assistants in black crepe robes follow. They are followed by a man in a gray robe with a torch in his hand, followed by a chorister, singing hymns. Behind the singers, two in a row, are all those participating in the funeral procession, then - servants with spears, on which the name of the deceased is written. Behind everyone, they carry a stretcher with the deceased, dressed in a white robe, as well as in a cassock made of writing paper, which is covered with various sayings from the law. The body is given the appearance of praying with his head bowed and with folded hands. The body is usually burned on a mountain on which a funeral pyre is prepared. Here the stretcher stops and sets the coffin on the fire. Even when the stretcher with the deceased approaches the fire, those present raise a scream and cry, accompanied by the sounds of tympans. The fire, in the form of a pyramid, is made of dry firewood and covered with a piece of silk cloth (moire). On one side of the fire there is a table with food, sweets and fruits, and on the other side there is a brazier with coals and a platter with pieces of aloe wood. The high priest, with everyone present, begins to sing hymns. After that, the priest three times circles the torch around the head of the deceased and, having done this, passes the torch to the youngest son of the deceased, who sets the fire on the side of the headboard. Then everyone starts throwing pieces of aloe, fragrant resin into the fire and pouring oils and so on. When the flame engulfs the entire fire, everyone disperses in reverence, leaving the table with food to the beggars, which are usually abundant at rich funerals. On the next day, relatives and friends of the deceased come to the place of the burning of the corpse and collect ashes, charred bones, teeth and put them in a porcelain vessel, cover them with silk or brocade. This vessel is kept at home for seven days, after which it is transferred to the family crypt. The poor are buried in the common cemetery. Fragrant flowers and herbs lay in the coffin. The grave itself is then planted with flowers, shrubs and trees. Relatives and friends have been keeping the grave in proper shape for several years, and some take care of it throughout their lives. Mourning from white canvas should be worn only by close relatives of the deceased.

4.4. The following funeral rite was typical for the Moscow lands. If the patient does not recover, but dies, they take him out of bed, put him on the bench, wash him as thoroughly as possible, put on a clean shirt, linen pants, new red boots and wrap him in a white cloth that covers the whole body and looks like a shirt with sleeves. they fold his arms crosswise on his chest, sew a canvas at the head of the bed, also on his arms and legs, and put him in a coffin, which is placed on a funeral stretcher until the next day. If it was a rich person or a nobleman, then the stretcher is covered with velvet or expensive cloth. If he was a poor person, then the stretcher covers him with his own caftan, and they carry him to the cemetery. In front of him are four girls - mourners, next to the girls on both sides of the coffin, there are (in no particular order) priests and monks, relatives: father and mother, wife, children. Arriving at the church, they put the coffin in front of the altar and leave it to stand for eight days, if the deceased is a noble person, the coffin is guarded day and night, candles are lit, priests and monks sing, fumigate the coffin with incense and myrrh and sprinkle holy water once a day. During the turn, prayers are read and funeral hymns are sung. Before burial, a priest approaches the deceased, reads a prayer, asks for forgiveness from him, for which he sinned against him and puts a paper in his right hand for St. Peter, which says that the deceased lived well, honestly and in a Christian way. After that, the coffin is closed and lowered to chants. In the grave, the deceased is believed to be facing the east. The priest prayerfully takes a shovel and throws the earth on the coffin three times, and everyone present does the same, crying and lamenting. A gravestone cross, a monument with a cross is installed at the feet of the deceased, turning it with its face to the west, so that the face of the deceased is directed to the holy cross. After the funeral, everyone goes home, rejoicing and rejoicing in memory of the deceased, the same is done on the third day after the funeral, as well as on the ninth and twentieth days. When forty days are completed, all the friends and relatives of the deceased will come together, call the monks, priests and everyone who attended the funeral and prepare for the soul of the deceased a special dish of holy blessed bread (kutia and prosphora). Every year mass is served on him on the day of his death. The sadness lasts no more than six weeks: after this, the widow may marry another husband, and the widower may marry another. According to Christian traditions, cremation must be avoided, and the body must be buried.

4.5. Burial according to the Muslim tradition. They close their eyes to a deceased person and read a prayer. Make the last ablution; all martyrs are traditionally buried without washing, so as not to wash away the "blood of martyrdom" from them. The bodies of these dead are buried in clothes, without putting on a shroud. As usual, the body is covered with a shroud: men - consisting of two pieces of cloth, women - from five. The funeral prayer is necessarily read. The funeral procession can be either on foot or on horseback. The main thing is to show maximum respect for the deceased. Women were allowed to participate in the funeral procession, but not recommended. Excessive burial is prohibited in Islam, since all the dead are the same before God. It is advisable to equip the grave with a niche and strictly orient it towards Mecca. They lower the bodies of the deceased with their feet forward, place the dead in the graves on their right side, facing the Kaaba. So that the earth does not fall on the body of the deceased, pebbles, reeds and leaves are placed on top, and only after that they are covered with earth, at the same time performing a prayer. The surface of the grave rises above ground level by the width of the palm and is marked with a tombstone. Mourning for the wife and husband lasts four months and ten days, for the other dead - three days and three nights.

Conclusion

The emergence and existence of funeral rites is associated with the phenomenon of the existence of Homo sapiens in nature. One of the most important psychological factors in the birth of funeral rituals was the formation of such a phenomenon of a person's spiritual life as morality. Caring for the deceased, the desire to protect his ashes from the destructive forces of nature are manifestations of an already emerging morality. On the other hand, the emergence of burial rituals testifies to the complication of the work of consciousness, to the presence of already certain ideas about the nature of life and death.

The evolution of human consciousness, changes in the field of social life led to the development and complication of funeral rites. Reflecting the emergence of property inequality, burial structures, the volume of burial implements acquire a hypertrophied size, changes in the worldview of an archaic person, the emergence of religious rites and cults contributed to the transformation of burial rituals into a funeral cult.

The central ideas of the funeral rituals were the idea of ​​immortality and the closely related idea of ​​reincarnation, i.e. the idea of ​​the continuous stream of life, the wheel of transformation, the transition from one life to another. A fertile soil, where the sprouts of ideas of reincarnation gave powerful shoots, was the cult of ancestors, with its ideas about the continuity of generations, about the influence of legendary progenitors on the emergence of a new life (images of ancestors - as a container for storing souls, embryos - the latter, according to the ideas of the archaic, could to move, to be reborn in the body of a newborn human of a member of the genus).

The mythological ideas of ancient man were clothed in the form of totemism, with its global idea of ​​kinship of all forms of existence, when animals, plants, stones, and even heavenly bodies entered the circle of human blood relatives. Archaic consciousness was dominated by the laws of identity and metamorphosis, when everything was adequate to each other and to the large cosmos. Not surprisingly, the assumption that the death of a person in the archaic world could be perceived as the death of a star, a beacon, and rebirth after death was considered as the formation of a new world, the creation of the world. Indeed, it is known that such burial structures as a mound and a pyramid were original models of the Universe, symbols of the world mountain.

In all likelihood, the two main types of burials that existed in humans are associated with certain ideas about the posthumous existence of the soul - the corpses laid and the corpses burned. In one case (especially if it is mummification), this is the desire to preserve the body, the individual appearance of a person after death, in the other, it is a clear desire to get rid of the body shell. Apparently, such features in the semantics of funeral rites are explained by the specific ideas of individual cultures, groups about metapsychosis.

Death, rituals of transition to a new state existed in the consciousness, worldview of an ancient person in the context of a myth, well-known to him, mythological images and ideas, life and death, birth, growing up, extinction - everything was regulated, marked by rituals and rituals, the adherence to which was a guarantee well-being, uninterrupted flow of life, births. In this context, funeral rites should be viewed as a reenactment of this part of the myth, which is dedicated to death and departure. The living and the dead were participants in this sacrament, this tragic mystery, where everyone and everything - the deceased, the burial structure, the objects in the grave, illustrated these sacramental actions.

The deceased are the inhabitants of the vast space where the wise ancestors are; it is not only the world of the past, but also the future, which cannot be avoided. They are connoisseurs of the future, so sorcerers-predictors turned to them. The dead turned out to be intermediaries between their living descendants and the gods. Physical death was not an absolute end, life was considered to continue after death, and the connection between a person and his relatives was not interrupted in the grave. Moreover, the living and the dead depended on each other. The well-being of the dead is tied to the attention they receive from the living, while the existence of the living is largely determined by the care they have given to the departed.

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