CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN AFRICAN MOURNING RITUALS IN NORTHERN TOGO (Ciaglosc i zmiana w afrykanskiej obrzedowosci zalobnej. Na przykladzie pólnocnego Togo)

• Authors: Pawlik Jacek J.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Rituals connected with death belong to the most complex African ritual practices. They include rituals practised in the period from agony to the end of mourning. Their aim is to properly bury the body of the deceased, help the deceased person's spirit enter the land of the ancestors and accompany the relatives during mourning. The practices change with technical progress, education and impact of monotheistic religions. The article presents the changing form of rituals connected with death in northern Togo. The author first describes the traditional model, which comprises two periods abounding in rituals: - that directly after death - the burial ritual, and that, which takes place two years after death - the mourning completion ritual. Subsequently, he analyses the changes that have started when people began to migrate, had better access to new body preservation techniques and when funeral services were commercialised. In the end, the author describes the impact of education and religion on the changing way of thinking, which induced the change of practices aimed at discovering the cause of death, softened the attitude to 'bad' death and expanded funeral rituals so that now they apply to all the dead.

Keywords

EN

CULTURAL CHANGE; FUNERAL RITUALS (NORTHERN TOGO); IMPACT OF CHRISTIANITY

Discipline

• ANTHROPOLOGY: ANTHROPOLOGY

• Publisher: Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze
• Journal: Lud
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 92
• Pages: 87-108
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Pawlik Jacek J.

• Jacek J. Pawlik, Uniwersytet Warminsko-Mazurski, Zaklad Filozofii i Kultury Chrzescijanskiej, ul. Kard. Hozjusza 15, 11-041 Olsztyn, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09PLAAAA05515