Religion+as+a+Mechanism+for+Bereavement

//huffington post //

People of all cultures have their customs to memorialize the dead and cope with the death of their loved ones. In my research, I have discovered that there are many approaches to dealing with such loss, depending on the culture; for example, the “circles of containment” that are common in Jewish communities or the concept of filial piety that is paramount in many Chinese burial rituals. However, when it comes to the dead, there is one common thread tied to all of the cultures around the world. The majority of bereavement practices among varying cultures center around religious beliefs and spirituality both as a means of comfort for those left behind and as an approach to adding meaning to the lives of the dead. No matter how religiously affiliated an individual may or may not be, the ceremony surrounding their loss and the way those left behind grieve is culturally ingrained into them. In my paper, I will compare the various ways in which those in Chinese, American, Jewish, and Japanese cultures use to memorialize the dead and comfort one another in times of bereavement and show how these culturally driven techniques are all rooted in humanity’s need to explain the unexplainable using religion and spirituality.

Chinese Culture
Chinese culture is deeply rooted in tradition. Confucian ideals that have been in place for thousands of years have cemented many aspects of this ancient culture. A core tenet of Confucian ideology that still shapes Chinese culture today is called filial piety, or the virtue of respect someone has for their parents and ancestry. On the surface, this concept seems universal in nature; however, as compared to other societies, the Chinese hold respect for their families above all else, more so than most other cultures. Following the idea of filial piety, in the burial of the departed, a significant importance is placed on the respect the dead held for their ancestry. Chinese culture also emphasizes the importance of rituals in coping with death. As Biao Chen mentions in her paper Coping with Death and Loss: Confucian Perspectives and the Use of Rituals, the Chinese find comfort in the performance and perfection of the ceremony. These rituals, also based in Confucian ideology, involve meditative personal reflection as well as a shared spirituality cultivation within the community.

Judaism
In the Jewish religion, the mourning process is quite deliberately structured in the Torah and is still followed to this day by many Jewish communities; from the perspective of the grieving individuals, the psychological effects of the loss are broken down into five stages in the Torah (Rubin). Interestingly enough, studies show that there has recently been a resurgence among the secular Jewish population in Israel using religious resources such as local Orthodox rabbis in order to deal with healthcare-related issues (Keshet, Liberman). These studies exemplify the reliance on religion and spirituality in troubling times where people are forced into thoughts of existential crisis. As noted in the paper, people “do not generally bother rabbi with temporary health problems,” but typically with “threatening and stressful life events” (Keshet, Liberman, 1149). This quote shows a theme that is not unique to people of Jewish heritage; even among more secular individuals around the world of many cultures, be it Christian, Chinese, or Japanese individuals, the uncertainty of death seems to lead to a dependence on the abstract – in many cases, faith and religion.

Western Culture & Christianity
Similar to the way Chinese traditions echo those of Confucian ideals, people in more Westernized societies are driven by their Christian ties. Conventional methods of comforting others with idioms such as “he is in a better place” are deeply rooted in the Christian faith. These comforting statements are so deeply woven into the culture that even non-religious people frequently use them. In Clarence Riley’s paper Taking the Sting out of Death, he outlines many techniques he utilizes in an attempt to console those dealing with the death of a loved one as well as people who may be on the edge of death themselves. He mentions in his paper that it is common for dying patients to seek reassurance and “to pursue a relationship with God if they have not previously had one” (Riley). Coming from the perspective of Clarence Riley, who is a Christian Masters of Public Health professor (LinkedIn), this is enlightening in that it provides insight into the minds of those he is trying to console. The struggle of dealing with imminent death leads an individual to a yearning for information that cannot be easily satisfied by means other than what a certain level of spirituality can provide.

Japanese Culture
Valentine’s paper The Role of the Ancestral Tradition in Bereavement in Contemporary Japanese Society examines the changing landscape of the Japanese funeral industry and, more specifically, the dynamic between traditional Japanese culture and the diverse postmodern society that is Japan today. Nevertheless, the melting pot of cultures found throughout the country still have one major similarity – whether in accordance with traditional Japanese culture or not, the majority or people still view death and bereavement through a spiritual lens. Through her research, Valentine theorizes that there are five broad categories of individuals who have considered the “role of ancestral tradition in the experience of losing loved ones in a contemporary context” (16) to varying degrees. While the paper was designed to study how applicable and effective traditional burial practices and rituals are for people who have recently lost loved ones in a modern Japanese society, the majority of the anecdotal experiences shared by the interviewees included, to some extent, a fallback to their own religious upbringing or practices.