Learn about fascinating end-of-life rituals from cultures around the world.
My guest Gary Wederspahn is a board member of the Final Exit Network and the author of a book and many articles on cross-cultural communications and relations. He has served as a Peace Corps Director in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ecuador and has traveled in over 20 countries. He shares his passion for studying end-of-life rituals and traditions wherever he has traveled, including slides from many different countries. Learn more at these websites:
www.thegooddeathsocietyblog.net
This episode includes:
- What is appreciative inquiry and how it facilitates conversations
- Why studying end-of-life traditions introduces you to the values and deep culture of societies
- How end-of-life care has been outsourced here in the U.S. to our detriment
- Mayan traditions around death in Guatemala during Dia de los Muertos
- Three-part community cremation rituals in Bali
- The “thin veil” between the living and the dead that is perceived in many cultures
- How “continuing bonds” with ancestors help strengthen the family
- The use of cremated ashes to make burial beads in Korea
- How Vietnamese funeral processions resemble funeral parades in New Orleans
- Ceremonial kites flown in Guatemala city to honor their ancestors during Dia de los Muertos
- Zoroastrian custom of leaving corpses in “Towers of Silence” for vultures to consume
- Ifugao people in high country of Philippines keep bodies of their ancestors in rafters of the house and bring them out during special events
- “Bone collecting” ritual after cremation in Japan
- Igorot hanging coffins in the Philippines
- Tibetan sky burial also depends on vultures; Sioux burial platforms similarly rely on ravens to consume the body
- How Gary’s exposure to the rituals of other countries has informed his own decisions for the end of life
Links mentioned in this episode:
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