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CONTEXTUALIZING DEATH

CONTEXTUALIZING DEATH. Sonya Merrill, MD, PhD Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas September 7, 2005. OUTLINE. Death in the Context of: Two ancient cultures Four major world religions Modern medicine Society The individual. Ancient Cultures. Egypt Mesopotamia. Ancient Egypt.

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CONTEXTUALIZING DEATH

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  1. CONTEXTUALIZING DEATH Sonya Merrill, MD, PhD Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas September 7, 2005

  2. OUTLINE Death in the Context of: • Two ancient cultures • Four major world religions • Modern medicine • Society • The individual

  3. Ancient Cultures Egypt Mesopotamia

  4. Ancient Egypt

  5. ANCIENT EGYPT General Principles • Preoccupation with life and desire to “continue living” after death • Afterlife resembles an improved earthly life • Continuing bodily existence: • mummification • attempts to recover bodies • fear of being eaten by animals • “Ideal” life span: 100 years

  6. ANCIENT EGYPTThe Soul • Ba: the soul which animates the body, represented as a bird flying away at the time of death • Akh: the spirit which survives death and which can be good or evil, equipped with “spells” that are useful after death • Ka: represented by a person’s image or statue and thought to be a “protecting genius” after death • Suyt: a person’s shadow

  7. ANCIENT EGYPTThe Body and its Preservation • Mummification: removal of decay-prone viscera enabling preservation of majority of body parts; process lasting 30-200 days • Step 1: Removal of entrails through left-sided thoracic incision and storage in canopic jars bearing images of the sons of the god, Horus • Liver (human son, Imesty) • Lungs (ape son, Hapy) • Stomach (jackal son, Duamutef) • Intestines (hawk son, Qebekhsenuef)

  8. ANCIENT EGYPTCanopic Jars

  9. ANCIENT EGYPTThe Body and Its Preservation • Step 2: Removal of other organs • Heart: “seat of intelligence” so after removal, wrapped in linen and replaced/sewn into chest cavity • Brain: not always removed as not deemed very important; when removed, long hooked rods inserted into nostrils to snag tissue • Step 3: Application of natron (natural desiccant) • Step 4: Complete drainage of all bodily fluids • Step 5: Wrapping of body in yards of linen

  10. ANCIENT EGYPTThe Body and Its Burial • The Opening of the Mouth ceremony: eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth touched to symbolize opening and person’s revival • Tombs: contained biographical information to preserve occupant’s name and reputation; varied according to importance of deceased • VIP burial arrangements: • Old Kingdom—wooden coffin inside stone sarcophagus • Middle Kingdom—human-shaped wooden coffin with mask over mummy’s head inside stone sarcophagus • New Kingdom—elaborately painted anthropoid nested coffins, e.g., Tutankhamun’s 3 nested coffins

  11. ANCIENT EGYPTThe Body and Its Burial

  12. ANCIENT EGYPTAfterlife: The Rough Guide • How to get there: by boat, sailing on a day-night journey with the Sun God • navigate using basic spells from funerary texts left near the body

  13. ANCIENT EGYPTAfterlife: The Rough Guide • Where to go when you arrive: • Field of Offerings: a land on the western horizon where the deceased work in fields and orchards to harvest offerings for Osiris • Paradise: where the deceased reaps the fruits of his own labor and enjoys a blissful existence

  14. ANCIENT EGYPT Afterlife: The Rough Guide • What to pack: • Deceased require basic provisions to survive in the afterlife • Initially, basic provisions (bread, beer, meat, wine, linens) were placed in tombs • Later, models of provisions were deposited to guarantee that supplies would last forever

  15. ANCIENT EGYPTAfterlife: The Rough Guide • Traveling companions: • Models of servants included for purpose of eternally producing necessary supplies

  16. Ancient Mesopotamia

  17. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAGeneral Principles • Death is inevitable: “when the gods created men, they set aside death for mankind and kept eternal life in their own hands” • The ideal death: surrounded by family and friends while lying on a special funerary bed with a chair on the left serving as a seat for the soul after its release from the body

  18. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAGeneral Principles • Euphemism: speaking of “death” summons it, so instead: • “to cross the Khubur,” “to go up to heaven,” “to go to one’s fate,” “to be invited by one’s gods,” “to come to land on one’s mountain,” “to go on the road of one’s forefathers” • Gradual process: rather than instantaneous end to earthly existence • Individual ancestor is dependent on his descendents’ offerings • After several generations, ancestral spirits are collectivized • Finally, individual is annihilated and recycled into a new soul

  19. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAThe Soul • Etemmu: ghost associated with physical remains • Napistu: life force or “breath of life” • Zaqiqu: birdlike spirit able to fly and slip through small spaces, associated with dreaming as it can leave the body during sleep • Etemmu and zaqiqu descend with the body to the netherworld at death; if the body is destroyed, etemmu is also destroyed, leaving behind only zaqiqu

  20. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAThe Body and Its Burial • Preparation: ceremonial washing, tying mouth shut, perfuming, dressing in clean clothes • Public viewing: before the funeral • Burial: in the ground in a coffin, sarcophagus or tomb • Elites were buried in vaults below their houses or palaces while others were buried in public cemeteries • Last rites: burnt offering • When a king died, his throne, table, weapon and scepter were burned

  21. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAFuneral Customs • Mourning rituals lasting up to 7 days • Family and close friends expected to participate; in the case of royalty, the entire population must mourn • Professional mourners sometimes employed • Funeral laments express mourners’ grief and eulogize the deceased • Physical displays of grief: wearing plain clothes, tearing clothes, wearing sackcloth, not bathing or grooming, fasting

  22. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAAfterlife: The Rough Guide • Where: underground • Climate: dark, damp and dreary • How to get there: cross demon-infested lands, cross Khubur River with the aid of its guardian god, gain entry through 7 gates to the city of the netherworld with its gatekeeper’s permission

  23. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAAfterlife: The Rough Guide • Your hosts: meet the royal couple, Nergal and Ereshkigal, and their courtiers who: • welcome the dead • instruct them in the local rules • show them to their lodgings in the netherworld (size and grandeur do not correlate with the deceased’s earthly behavior)

  24. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA Afterlife: The Rough Guide • How to pack: take as many personal items as you can afford • Travel provisions for the journey: food and sandals (or a chariot, if you were wealthy) • Things you might need when you arrive: food, weapons, toiletries, jewelry • Hostess gifts: to placate the netherworld gods such as Marduk

  25. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA Objects from the Royal Tombs of Ur

  26. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA Afterlife: The Rough Guide • How to have a good time: your happiness after death depends on the quality and quantity of offerings made by your survivors • offerings must be made continually to ensure success in the afterlife • How to have an awful time: if your survivors don’t make offerings, or if your death is violent or premature, your restless ghost wanders the earth attacking people

  27. Four Major World Religions Judaism Christianity Islam Hinduism

  28. Judaism

  29. JUDAISMOrigin of Death • “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” Gen 1.31 • The first humans, Adam and Eve, disobey God Gen 3 • Death is introduced to the world as a consequence of human disobedience: “for dust you are and to dust you will return” Gen 3.19 • Being bene Adam (sons of Adam) makes all future people subject to the penalty of death • Thus death is an inevitable and feared event

  30. JUDAISMWhat happens when we die? • Death occurs when rwh, divine life-giving force that distinguishes living from dead, leaves body • Body returns to dust and rwh returns to air or to God • In ancient Judaism, no guarantee of life after death for individual Jew

  31. JUDAISMWhat happens after we die? • Sheol as metaphor for death: • ghostly, subterranean land of dead • inferior copy of life on earth • not necessarily hell (i.e., a place of torment), but certainly place to avoid for as long as possible as it entails permanent separation from God – even for righteous person

  32. JUDAISMSheol • “The days of my life are few enough: turn your eyes away, leave me a little joy, before I go to the place of no return, the land of murk and deep shadow, where dimness and disorder hold sway, and light itself is like the dead of night.” Job 10.18-22

  33. JUDAISMWhat happens after we die? • The possibility of an afterlife • Hope for individual’s life after death was widespread by Rabbinic period as seen in Dead Sea Scrolls • In medieval times, Maimonides stated that one who doesn’t believe in resurrection of dead isn’t a true Jew • “O my God, the soul which you gave me is pure: you created it, you formed it, you breathed it into me, you preserve it within me; and you will take it from me. But you will restore it to me in the hereafter.” Authorized Daily Prayer Book p. 5

  34. JUDAISMCare of the Dying • Presence at time of death/departure of soul • Recitation of at least last part of Shema (Deut 6.4-5) at moment of death • Shut eyes and mouth of deceased • Place sheet over his/her face • Position his/her feet facing doorway • Do not leave deceased alone before burial

  35. JUDAISMPreparing the Body • Immediate preparation for burial to preserve human sanctity • Close family members should not be present during preparations • All deceased persons, rich or poor, wrapped in same simple, white shroud reflecting belief that all people considered equal • Shrouded body wrapped in prayer shawl with one fringe cut off to symbolize mourning and loss • Cremation and embalming are forbidden

  36. JUDAISMFuneral Rites • Funeral lamentations in presence of deceased • “Rending the garments”: mark of separation with tear made over heart region to symbolize broken heart • Recitation of Psalm 23 and other Psalms pertaining to person’s life • Eulogy praises deceased and expresses grief on behalf of mourners and rest of community

  37. JUDAISMBurial Rites • Burial on day of death: “His body shall not remain all night … you shall bury him on that day.” Deut 21:23 • Simple wooden casket since wood decomposes at roughly same rate as body • In Israel no caskets are used– body is interred only in prayer shawl • In ancient times, after body’s decomposition, bones were preserved in ossuary

  38. JUDAISMBurial Rites

  39. JUDAISMBurial Rites • Kaddish (Aramaic word meaning "holy" or "sacred”): special prayer for deceased recited as dirt shoveled onto grave • Funeral guests must wash their hands after contact with dead (need for purification)

  40. JUDAISMMourning Rituals • Shivah(“seven”): week-long period of mourning, placing aside everyday routine to focus attention on grief • Sitting low as a symbol of "being brought low" in grief • No "luxurious" bathing or cutting hair (no vanity) • Wearing cloth slippers or sandals instead of shoes • Covering mirrors (again, no vanity) • No business transactions • Holding memorial services in home both morning and evening

  41. JUDAISMMourning Rituals • Sheloshim(“thirty”): second, less intense, period of mourning which includes Shivah plus 23 days; mourners return to "normal" routine and activities • Kaddish: repeated at Yahrzeit (first anniversary of death) and at other memorial services (Yizkor) four times yearly

  42. Christianity

  43. CHRISTIANITYOrigin of Death • Shared with Judaism (and later, Islam): • “Original sin” of first humans brought penalty of death not only to Adam and Eve but to all people

  44. CHRISTIANITYThe most important death… • Crucifixion of Jesus • common means of execution of criminals in Roman Empire • “…the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him….” John 19.16-18

  45. CHRISTIANITY…because it ends all Death • Resurrection of Jesus: • “…our Savior Jesus Christ ...destroyed death and has brought life and immortality…” 2 Tim 1.10 • “Death is swallowed up in victory: O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Hosea 13.14/1 Cor 15.54-55

  46. CHRISTIANITYDoctrine of Resurrection • Formulated based on eye-witness accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection as well as on his teachings • “For as by man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” I Cor 15.21-22

  47. CHRISTIANITYWhat happens after we die? • Destination determined by individual’s acceptance or rejection of salvific death and resurrection of Jesus • Heaven • Eternal life for believer in “perfected” body • Life in continual presence of God • Absence of death, pain, grief, war, conflict • Metaphors of “streets of gold”, etc. • Hell • Separation from God • Limited period (annihilationism) or eternal punishment • Metaphors of “lakes of fire and brimstone”

  48. CHRISTIANITYHow is death observed? • During life: through Sacraments • Baptism: “we were buried with him [Christ] through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life [on earth and in the afterlife].” Rom 6.4 • Eucharist: “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” 1 Cor 11.26

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