This week, our discussion will be a little different.

Please find an article or video that in some

way expresses end-of-life care, death rituals, and/or mourning rituals in a particular culture
and/or religion and compare this to end-of-life rituals in the United States. You may use one
of the resources in the Recommended Resources list or find another resource outside of the
classroom.

Summarize the article or video (and include a citation and reference) and connect it to at least
one of this week's Learning Resources (also be sure to cite it).

An excellent response will be at least a summary of 3-4 paragraphs in length, using complete
sentences and concise language. Please cite at least 2 of this week's Learning Resources in
your response. Remember to assume that your reader knows nothing of the subject.

Your initial post is due on Sunday evening at 11:59 p.m. ET. In addition to your main
post, please respond to at least 2 other students' posts by Tuesday evening at 11:59 p.m.
ET.

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 Indian culture
Us rituals
compare

For this week’s post I will discuss the death rituals of the Native American culture. In the native
American societies, they display a high admiration for life. Death is not considered a taboo topic
amongst them. The dying process is not something that is feared but embraced. According to the
article, The Native American Way of Death, death is considered a natural occurrence within
life, something to be accepted rather than feared. (Cox, n.d.) The Native American community
views life as a spiritual journey where you find your purpose and fulfill it. The traditional
healer in Native American groups is called Shamans. The shaman administers both physical
and spiritual medicine. The treatment is a process that not only heals the physical illness but
also ministers to the spiritual needs that must be addressed to bring the person back into
harmony or balance (Highwater 1975). Because of this they prefer to use a holistic approach
to medicine. They are close knit and during the dying process coming together is a form of
social support. The disposal of the dead is different throughout tribes. I find it interesting that
one form of disposal is a tree burial. Tree burial might have reflected a culture that lived
among trees historically and was attempting to return to its “roots.” (Cox, n.d.)
In the US, death is considered a bit of a taboo topic. Americans tend to hold funerals as a form
of respect for the dead and a form of support for those grieving. Most Americans have the
same overview of life and death however, historically African Americans have lived closer to
death than whites. Race, social class, as well as age can affect your views of death. It can be
debated that for African Americans, death is the basis of fear, particularly the fear of unnatural
death. (Moore, J. and Bryant, C., n.d.) Those living on the lower end of the socio-economic
ladder tend to fear death based on experience in their communities. If the area has a high
crime rate or prone to illness that may spark another source of fear within a community when
it comes to death. In the black community we experience death at a higher rate and experience
funerals so much one could say funerals are just a way to start the grieving process. So many
Blacks died untimely deaths that funeral anguish came to be rehearsed as a dimension of the
culture's engaged ritual rather than as the reason for the occasion. (Holloway, 2002)
In comparison to the Native American culture, US culture has the same ultimate outline.
America is super diverse, so you have people that follow different religions, who grew up in
different communities, so they all have different perspectives on death. In the Indian culture
there are different tribes, and each tribe has different way of respecting the deceased.
Cox - Chapter 62 : The Native American way of death. Handbook of Death and
Dying. http://sk.sagepub.com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/reference/death/n62.xml
Moore & Bryant - Chapter 58: Black funeralization and culturally grounded
services. Handbook of Death and
Dying. http://sk.sagepub.com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/reference/death/n58.xml

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 Many people, specifically in the African American community do not regularly go to doctors.
It can be sometimes a surprise when someone dies because it is so sudden and not a topic that
is easily discussed. I had a relative die last month of cancer and know one knew about it til
just a few months before his passing.

It has also been suggested (Masamba and Kalish 1976:26–28As Masamba and Kalish (1976)
comment, “Today, it seems that the presence of violent death in the Black ghetto induces fear”
(p. 26)
these “different problems” do make a difference
It is important to find your purpose and fulfill it. everyone has a purpose, and
once you find your purpose and fulfill it your life is over.

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