Dorian Mapp

Dr. Christian Perring

ASC 183: Mortality in Cultural Context

January 2000

My presentation is on how certain cultures view death. I will talk about two particular culture the Zulu and Tolupan cultural and how they perceive death.

The Zulu are an African people who live in an area called Zululand located with in the northeastern part of south Africa. The Zulu nation came into prominence and power tanks to one of its leader well known as Shaka about 300 years ago. To understand the Zulu concept of the afterlife we must first aquatint ourselves with a few terms and ideas.

The first is Inkosi Yezulu which means "Chief of the Sky", for hour purpose he is the God of the sky. He is a male and is known as father and is said to be the creator of all people. Although he is the creator of all everything he is most associated with thunder, lightning and the rain clouds. Inkosi Yezulu has a twin, a female known as mother earth. She is who we live on and where we go when one dies (lawson 25).
 

Amalozi, amakhosi and amathonga are all names for the Ancestral spirits. They are the souls of the recently dead who are able to affect the life of the living in numerous was. These ancestral spirits are perceived as positive, constructive and creative. They can also work for the ill of the village (lawson 25). For this reason the ancestors are praised to keep them happy and bring good will to the village. Umsamo is a place in the hut of the chief of his particular Zulu village where religious action takes place. This is also where communication with the ancestral spirits occurs (Lawson 19).

Medicine has a power unto its own. Medicine is used not only to treat illness but also to prevent it. Evil is actions that derive its powers from the God of the sky, the ancestral spirits and medicine. Evil is the twisting of the positive power of these three main powers by a witch for evil use. When one dies no matter the physical cause there is a great amount of fear within the village. The Zulu believe that death was unnatural and if one was not killed by another man then the cause will be seen as a punishment by the ancestors or evil at work ( Lawson 24).
 

The only time there is no such fear is if one dies due to a thunderstorm for example being struck by lightning. they perceive this as a call by the God of the sky to join him in the heavens. These people are not treated as ancestors after death. They are buried and no word is spoken about them.

Now that we are aquatinted with some important terms that will help us understand the way the religion is structured we will go directly to describing what happens after one die. Directly after death one is said to be in an "in-between" place, a type of limbo. One stays with in this in-between place for about A month to a year. The length of time depends on three things. The first reason for this is that during the time after the departed death the village’s chief medicine man will try to figure out the cause of the departed death. This search last for about a month also If the individual was not married he would be in limbo for that time until the cause of his death is found.

If he was married, the widow had to mourn until the end of the year which could be a full 12 month.

After the mourning, taking of medicine and possibly ancestral praying the present Chief which is the head of the house performs what is called Ukubuyisa idlozi, a ritual to "bring home the ancestor"(Lawson 32). This makes it possible for recently deceased to be with his ancestors. He can only do this if he is bought to the Umsamo.

Once the deceased is bought to the Umsamo his position will determine where he goes from there. If a chief dies then his spirit will remain with in this living world to oversee the going on of his house even in death. All others go to the underworld. The underworld is located deep with in mother earth. There is no description of what they think the underworld is like but we can assume that the underworld resembles the lulu village. We can only assume that the underworld is a better place that the living world.

The second People we will look at is the Tolupan Indians of Honduras in central America. To understand the religious concept of the Tolupan Indians we must define a few words. Tomam Pones popawai is the name of their main god who rules over all nations of earth. He is known as grandfather the supreme lawmaker. Tomam the young is one of two sons of Tomam Pones Popawai. He is in charge of the dead. Tyaj Guatecast is known as the chief of the dead Indians and it is his duty to guide the souls off those who have died to the world of the dead. Tata dios is a lower god that is master of the domestic animals.
 

Where you go after death is known as the other world. It is described as a large city where all people get along and Tyaj Guatecast is the main chief. There is no more sickness or death. We all have a house and clothing that never ware out. All of our food is provided for. There is no need to brake your back farming for food or spend long hours fishing. The crops grow anywhere and the fish jump into your boat. Here humans can talk to plants and animals and they talk back (Chapman 234).

After death the body is instantly buried in a cemetery. After being buried the soul of the dead stays in the cemetery for five days. During the five days the dead is preparing himself to enter the other world by washing himself. He/she does this by washing himself with water left on his grave by the living. The dead is able to use the water in the jar because the jar has a hole. It is believed that since the jar is broken it is no longer part of this world and is able to be used by the dead. After the dead drinks the water in the jar and the five days has pass Guatecast comes to lead the dead to the city. If one tries to hide from Guatecast he/she will eventually be found and will sometimes punish them by throwing them in jail when they reach the other world.
 
 

You can walk to the city of the other world by way of one of two roads, the royal road or the long road. The long road is a road filed with briars a plant with thorns. This is the longer of the two roads that lead to the city of the other world. If you take the royal road you will be confronted with two obstacles which you are required to past. The first is a well. This well is in the middle of the road. To get across the well you have to use a rope. If you slip and fall into the well a family of crabs will eat you. The crabs only eat those who did something bad in the living world. This is a sort of punishment that lasts from three to seven days.

The punishment can be extended by the rebirth of the recently dead. He/she would be reborn in the form of an animal that would be killed. The cycle may repeat many times until the crabs’ think that the individual has been punished enough. The individual will then continue on the road to the city of the other world.

The second obstacle is a river called Hol ma sas’ mo’o, the place where no one can pass. To get cross the river you must cry so that Tata Dios can here you and send one of his dogs to carry you across the river. After crossing the river you just have to walk a little further until you finally reach the city of the other world.
 
 
 
 

The feed back I received for my presentation was overall positive. They seem to recognize the amount of time I put into understanding the material with the limited time I had. I agreed it was a bit long but interesting. One concept I should try to get across is the idea in the Zulu culture of there having no hell or a place where you go if you were a bad person in life. Their belief dictates that the living world is where you get punished if you are a bad person. The ancestors in the form off failing crops, bad health and even death punish you. Death unto itself is seen as unnatural and may have several causes, one cause is A for of punishment by the ancestors for doing wrong.

Chapman, Anne. Masters of Animals: Oral tradition of the tolupan indians, Honduras . Amsterdam:Gordon and Breach science publishers, 1992
 
 

Lawson, E. Thomas. Religions of Africa. San Francisco: Harper and Row publishing, 1984