The Afterlife of Asabano Corpses

Relationships with the Deceased in Papua New Guinea

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2736582
AutoresRoger Ivar Lohmann (0000-0001-6495-7985, autor correspondente)
Ano2005
Volume44
Fascículo2
Páginas189
Data de publicação2005-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEthnology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0014-1828 • E-ISSN: 2160-3510
EditoraJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3773996
OpenAlexW1537886045
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18
Referências citadas8

remains differently depending on the type of relationship survivors planned to have with the deceased. Traditional methods included corpse exposure with curation or disposal of bones, disposal of corpses in rivers, and cannibalism. Following their conversion to Christianity, Asabano burned or buried their bone relics and commenced coffin inhumation in cemeteries. These practices left distinctive memories and physical records that served as means to alter, enhance, or terminate relations with the deceased who are biologically but not, according to the Asabano, socially dead. (Burial, funerals, death, mortuary, religion) One of the most remarkable achievements of humankind is the belief that death need not end relationships. Ending or enhancing relations with the deceased is widely considered to be a matter of choice for the living. This article is about how this attitude is played out in a remote area of Papua New Guinea. How people there handle an individual’s remains is thought to influence future relationships with the deceased, or even extinguish the life that people assume does not end with biological death. The case has archaeological as well as ethnological

Afterlife · Ancient history · Art · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Literature · New guinea · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies