SCAN 2202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Burial, Grave Goods, Birch Bark
28 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Oseberg ship burial is located in: norway. Viking age mortuary behavior: dealing with non-christian burials. It is not that of the 20th century. They are similar to various traditional cultures in. Asia, africa, and south america, where mortuary behavior differs considerably from the norms established by european societies. Tibetan sky burials, the smoked mummies of wamena in west papua, predator burial among the maasai, etc. It has a distinct internal logic, which may be unclear to the outsider, but to the individuals of the specific culture, they make perfect sense, and relate to the mythology, cosmology, and general beliefs in that culture. What is clear is that regardless of how unclear the logics associated with these rituals are to us, they represent human universals of loss, separation, memory and the certain concern for a possible life beyond this one. This was true for the viking culture, too.
