Maori Funeral: Tangi Ceremony

This a topic I have been meaning to write about for a while.  In Grade 11 (Ugh 2005/2006....) I had the opportunity to go to New Zealand with on a Rugby tour. While there I billeted with a Maori family, and was briefly introduced to some of their customs.  One particular thing that stuck in my mind was how elaborate and detailed a funeral was. I never experienced one while I was there but was told about how important they were and some other facts related to them, like the deceased was not to be left alone at anytime during the funeral. I just have never taken it upon myself to really look up the whole process until now.

When looking I found and interesting web post by Rachel Sawaya titled, " What to do and How to Behave at a Tangi."  This post detailed protocol and ediquette surrounding a traditional Maori funeral.  According to this post, a tangi is held at a marae, which is a meeting house not unlike the Bighouse associated with first nations of the Northwest Coast.  These ceremonies can last for several days and visitors are allowed to stay as long as they wish, sleeping at the  marae is allowed, though a small donation is expected.  When entering the marae the hosts of the tangi will perform a welcoming ceremony called a powiri.

The individual for which the tangi is being held is often placed in an open casket.  It is very important not to leave the body unattended at anytime during the ceremony as the spirit of the loved one is believed to be very close by.  Vigil is held over the body at all times and friends and family will talk to, wail over and touch the body in an attempt to lessen the pain of the passing for those left behind.  Burial of the body is often a traditional non-maori burial depending on the individuals religious beliefs.  It is thought that after burial the spirit of the deceased continues north to the very tip of New Zealand where it then departs for the Maori homeland of Hawaiki.

Here is the web post in question take a look if you have time:
http://rachel-sawaya.suite101.com/what-to-do-and-how-to-behave-at-a-tangi-a198812

Possible Neanderthal Burial Ground

It's funny how you stumble upon some of the most interesting things when you are trying to do research on a completely different topic!  So it was with this topic.  While searching for sources on avalanches and such for one of my Geography classes I stumbled upon a an article from the Discovery Channel website with, I'll admit, a bit of a sensationalist title.  The title of the article read " Did the Neanderthals Believe in the Afterlife?" this was followed by a subheading explaining "A possible Neanderthal burial ground suggests that they practiced funeral rituals and possessed symbolic thought before modern humans." This instantly put me off the article.  Having researched the Neanderthals earlier this term for my article assignment, surely I wouldn't have missed out on a discovery of this magnitude.  I decided to read on and the article made reference to a paper published in Quaternary International.  I instantly stopped reading the Discovery Channel page and moved over to the UVic library website to try and locate this paper,  and locate it I did.  The particular paper in question was published in April of last year and was simply titled "The excavation of buried articulated Neanderthal skeletons at Sima de las Palomas (Murcia, SE Spain)," (Walker et al. 2011)

While definitely not as sensationalist as the Discovery Channel writeup this paper published some very interesting findings.  The topic of the paper was the discovery of three reasonably complete 50,000 year old Neanderthal skeletons in a cave near Murcia, Spain.  However, what was exceptionally interesting about this discovery was that these three skeletons were articulated (Walker et al. 2011, pg 1).  In many cases this may not be significant, the bodies may have been disturbed and limbs moved, for example and animal may partially dug one up.   However, these finds are significant due to the fact that they all appear to be articulated the same way and no clear signs of being disturbed suggesting the articulation was intentional (Walker et al. 2011, pg 9). Acollection of Mousterian artifacts were also located in the same layer as the remains were found, though they did not seem to be have an association with the body as far as grave goods are concerned (Walker et al. 2011, pg 10). Each skeleton found at this site seems to have been placed on its side with its hands placed near it head (Walker et al. 2011, pg 10).  Apparently  this is a theme that has been noted with several Mousterian age skeletons and is seen as an indicator of intended burial in some Neanderthals and non-Neanderthal humans from the time (Walker et al. 2011, pg 10).  


I find this sort of discovery absolutely amazing for several reasons.  In the academic community there are are two very distinguishable views on Neanderthals. One, that they were stupid clumsy and brutish near humans and two, that they were in fact a lot closer to humans in terms of nature and intellect than originally thought.  I for one, believe that Neanderthals are not given enough credit most of the time.  The paper aforementioned clearly outlines what the authors deem to be another example of intended interment. This may indicate that burial could have been a part of Neanderthal culture, something that has been seen as uniquely human until not that long ago. I look forward to any discoveries to come.




Reference:
Walker M.J., Lopez-Martinez, M.V., Ortega-Rodriganez, J., Haber-Uriarte, M., Lopez-Jimenez, A., Aviles-Fernandez, A., Polo-Comacho, J.L., Campillo-Boj, M., Garcia-Torres, J., Carrion-Garcia, J.S., Del Toro, M.S.N., Rodriguez-Estrella, T., (2011), 'The excavation of buried articulated Neanderthal skeletons as Sima de las Palamas (Murcia, SE Spain),' Quaternary International

Here the Discovery Channel article mentioned (best taken with a grain of salt lol):
http://news.discovery.com/history/neanderthal-burial-ground-afterlife-110420.html 
 

WOW funeral: Online Gaming and Social Rules

World of Warcraft is currently the largest massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG).  This game allows players to immerse themselves in a fantasy world while at the same time interacting with characters created by other real people.  Starting in 2007 and up until about a year ago, I used to play World of Warcraft, also known to the gaming community as WOW.  I really enjoyed the game, many of my friends from back home played it so when I went off to UVic, the game allowed me to continue interact with them on a regular basis, albeit in a more limited way.  As is the nature with any MMORPG, I interacted with many different people and created a rather large in game social network.  Some of the people I played with on a regular basis were from as far away as Australia.  However as time went on, friends stopped playing and I lost interest in the game, finally stopping my subscription about a year ago.  Nevertheless, a few days ago I was thinking back on the game and remembered a certain event  which had occurred in-game and caused quite a bit of controversy about a year before I started playing.

The event to which I am referring was a player versus player (PVP) raid on an in-game funeral being held.  First of all, the fact that a funeral was being held in-game is significant in itself.  In a game where ones character cannot die, funerals have no real meaning.  However, this funeral was being held by close friends of a girl who had passed away suddenly of a stroke.  Since the game had been such a major part of her life and since people who had known here were spread across the world it seemed like a logical way for them to pay their respects to her.  The event was publicized on the games website with a distinct request that no one from the opposing faction come and break it up as it would be held in a neutral zone.  This is where the problem occurred. Despite this blatant plea for no disruptions, as the funeral progressed, a large party from the opposing faction appeared at the site and proceeded to attack the characters involved in the procession.  This attack essentially ended the ceremony and forced those people there to pay their respects to leave the area.

 This attack broke no in-game rules as it occurred on a PVP server where open world combat is encouraged.  What bothered (and still bothers) me about this is that is breaks some very substantial moral rules.  One can argue "Yes but its just a game," and I would be forced to agree. If this funeral was being held for someone who had decided to stop playing that would be one thing but this was being held for someone who had actually DIED. Friends met in game, while maybe not necessarily as close as friends met in person are still friends and obviously they cared quite a bit about this girl.  Interestingly enough I found an article published about the morality of ganking, a word commonly associated with being ganged up on in WOW. It deals directly with the event that I have outlined here and goes into great detail about the break from human morality experienced in games such as WOW.  An action such as breaking up a funeral would never happen in real life, I hope. The author of this paper however, suggests that actions such as those taken by the opposing faction during the in game funeral, may indicate underlying morality issues in the real lives of those who took part (Goguen 2009, pg 4). 

With games becoming more and more detailed, providing gamers with a world that directly immitates our real world, it is interesting and a little disturbing to wonder how issues related to real world death will play out in-game.  How will common decency and immorality surrounding these issues be policed or mitigated by the games administrators? I guess the only way I can find out is to start playing again.........no....no I think not.

Reference:

Goguen, S., (2009), 'Dual Wielding Moraliy: World of Warcraft and the Ethics of Ganking,' Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Oslo.

Heres a link to the paper regarding the event:
http://bu.academia.edu/StaceyGoguen/Papers/123215/Dual_Wielding_Morality_World_of_Warcraft_and_the_Ethics_of_Ganking

Also here is a video of the event in question:

A Great Surfer Remembered

This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to visit the Oahu, one of the beautiful Islands of Hawaii.  While I was only able to spend one week on there, in that time I was truly touched by atmosphere, culture and overall laid back and friendly nature of everyone I met.  My experience with Hawaiians, whether an local or ex-pat, was good.  In my time on Oahu I noticed that the local residents of the Island had a special and unique way of going about the everyday activities we take for granted.  This is a very difficult feeling to express and I really can't provide a concrete example of what this difference is. It simply feels different, more relaxed. In the future I have every intention of going back. In the meantime however, I regularly catch myself procrastinating from doing homework and the like, looking at pictures and reading articles from the Islands. As with past blog articles I've posted, I came across this topic while NOT doing the homework I should have been doing.  While browsing surfing videos from Hawaii I came across a video which showed the memorial service for the late great surfing legend Andy Irons. 

This was not your typical memorial service.  What struck me the most about this video was the nature of the memorial itself.  Hundreds of people, friends, family and locals alike all joined together to pay respects to the deceased three time world champion.  What was truly unique however, was the fact that this memorial was held out in the ocean, with most guests paddling out on surfboards forming a sort of flotilla around a central boat in which the immediate family and friends of Irons stood.  From here the video documents several speakers, and eventually ends after his ashes have been placed in the ocean.  As a showing of respect to the surfer, many guests threw flowers and leis in the ocean as is local tradition.  The unconventional nature of this memorial fascinates me, its truly something I would never expect to see in Canada.  That being said, and having been to Hawaii and had a very small taste of what it was like to live there, the nature of this memorial does not strike me as unusual.  The Hawaiian people have a wonderfully unique way of doing things. Maybe its this uniqueness that made my experience there so unforgettable. Nevertheless, having watched this video, I am convinced that wherever Andy Irons is now, he was happy that day.

R.I.P Andy Irons

Facebook Memorial



It's crunch time.  Just over two weeks of school left and the projects and tests are piling up. No better time for a little procrastination. That 100% what I was doing when I came across an article off google that prompted me to write.  This article in question was from The Telegraph newspaper and was regarding the growing trend of memorial pages on Facebook.  This form of memorial started simply, as friends and family member posting on a the deceased persons page.  The deceased person's Facebook page becoming a sort of online gravestone or monument where their loved ones could visit and pay their respects and reflect upon good times and memories had.

This really caught me off guard. I had never really considered that if someone were to die suddenly, their Facebook page would endure. This article is somewhat dated, being from 2009. However, for me it still brings to light several issues with this form of memorial.  Prior to the publication date of this article, Facebook memorial pages were litterally just the deceased's original page.  This was a problem for many as some posts to these persons walls would appear in friends and families news feeds. In some cases, especially for those suffering from grief, these updates from a deceased loved one could be tortuous. On Oct. 26, 2009 Facebook announced it would be introducing memorial pages.  These pages would still allow for friends and family to post comments but would not allow anyone to log on to the account and would also not send out notifications or news feeds. Nonetheless, there are still problems with this.  For example, up until recently the reconnect feature on Facebook could occaisionally still suggest you try to reconnect with the deceased. Upon further searching on the internet I also came accross some extremely disturbing instance when these pages had me utilised by some demeted individuals to continue spewing hateful comments at those deceased.  These things asside I like the idea of Facebook memorial.  With the ever increasing power of social media more and more people having access to Facebook, there is no telling how popular this trend may become.

Have a look for yourself, try googling "Facebook memorial" it truly amazed me how many results it returned.

Here is the Telegraph article in question:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6445152/Facebook-introduces-memorial-pages-to-prevent-alerts-about-dead-members.html

Website Review

The purpose of this blog post is to assess and critique a website related to the topic of Neolithic Burials.  This will be done using the rubric created by our group.  In doing this, the goal of this post is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the webpage and suggest areas for improvement. Please see rubric below.

The website selected for this assessment was www.knowth.com. This webpage give and overview of several different Neolithic passage tombs located in the British Isles.

Grading for this website is as Follows:

A. Presentation 3.5/5
The presentation for this website is not too bad however, it fails to catch my eye. It was only upon visiting it for a third time that I realized that the content on the page was actually quite good. Pictures are used quite well to supplement. However, I really would have liked to see some other form of media, for example a google map of the area or a video.

B. Mechanics and Clarity 3.5/5
Of all the reading I did on this webpage no blatant grammar or spelling errors stood out to me.  Overall this webpage reads very easily and is clear and concise.  I would like to have seen references used to validate the information presented. In text citation would also have been useful. Subtracting 0.5 for no referencing and citations.

C. Thesis Statement and Depth of Research10/10
 This was difficult to assess as it was not really a research oriented webpage so there was no clear thesis statement.  However, the information provided supported the topic of  Neolithic tombs extremely well.  Supplementary reading is suggested at the bottom of each page allowing one to further their knowledge of the sites discussed. Overall very good.

D. Research 4/10
Since this is not a research oriented webpage this is also quite difficult to assess.  However, as was mentioned earlier, there was little to nothing in the way of references which are required to make a good informative webpage.

E. Synthesis of Material 10/10
 Information presented on the main page was extremely well supported by information in subsections.  Additionally, extra reading suggested at the bottom of each subsection gave an opportunity to further my knowledge on each site if I so chose. Very well done.


TOTAL  31 / 40 or 78%

Overall this website is very well done. It is informative and concise which allows information to be read easily and understood.  Extensive use of pictures in text also helped convey information to the reader.  However, the distinct lack of sourcing detracted from the overall usefulness of this information.  Pictures and information used in the webpage is not referenced at all which led me to doubt the accuracy of data.  Nonetheless, I still really liked the webpage.



  

Ashes to Ashes

It has been quite a while since my last post and for that I am sorry.  School crept up on me rather quickly and to make matters worse I have been battling some form of cold for the better part of two weeks.
Over the past few weeks I have had the chance to read many an article related to the whole topic of death and burial. One particular article stood out to me and has compelled me to write.  This article was titled "Disney Disputes Pirate Ride Ashe Scattering," and as one can expect from the title, it was about a woman who allegedly was scattering ashes of a loved one while on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in the park.  This really got me thinking: Where and when is it appropriate to scatter ashes? What lengths would I go to scatter the ashes of a loved one? 

Frankly, this subject is quite a difficult one to discuss since almost every person has a varying opinion on the matter. I have never had the experience of scattering someones ashes. My Grandfather was cremated after he passed away and as a family we decided we would scatter his ashes but since he left us no instructions as to where we haven't really decided on a fitting place.  As far as ash scattering goes, I feel that it is important to do ones best to fulfill the dieing wish of those whose ashes are being scattered.  However, what if that requires one to do something that is legally, or socially unacceptable?  This is where this topic really becomes difficult.  In terms of the Disneyland incident, the line was crossed.  This was an area that people use on a regular basis and has to be by park employees rather than be washed away by weather. But what harm is it really doing?  Human ashes are more or less inert, they can't really do any more damage than the ashes from  the bottom  of a campfire.  If the lady in question from the Disneyland article had been caught sprinkling campfire ashes I doubt there would have been an article written.  The real problem with the scattering of ashes in public place like Disneyland is the stigma surrounding it.  Psychologically, these ashes are still tied to the deceased person and the mind instantly connects them (no matter how hard I try not to) with a dead body.  When I think of it this way,  what went on on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride strikes me as, for lack of a better word, gross.  But I really can't blame her, nor can I judge her doing what she has be accused of.  If a loved one of mine requested that some of their ashes be scattered at Disneyland, then I would be damned if they weren't. Though I doubt that I would be quite so blatantly obvious as to do it on the ride itself. What it comes down to is that I would do everything in my power to scatter the ashes where requested, although I would also attempt to make as little impact on those around me as possible. Anyway, more food for thought.

Here's a link to the article in question:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3876673&page=1#.T10FIPVy3Q8