essay
Funerary customs and religious symbolism among the Kogi
Native South Americans : ethnology of the least known continent • Boston • Published In 1974 • Pages: 289-301
By: Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The first part of this article is a detailed description of an Ika funeral that was administered by a Kogi priest and observed by the ethnographer, Reichel-Dolmatoff. In the second part, the author refers to Kogi cosmology to explain the symbolism used in the ceremony. In the funeral, the corpse is tied into a foetal position and sewn into a cotton shroud. A section of rope is tied to the hair, its end extending outside the bag. The priest uses the rope to position the corpse in the grave, with the head pointing to the east where the sun is reborn each day. It is then buried with the end of the rope tied to a pole above the ground. The priest returns to the gravesite nine days later to yank the rope free. According to Reichel-Dolmatoff, the ritual symbolizes the deceased's cosmic rebirth from the Mother Goddess, whose uterus represents the universe, to another world.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Religious and educational structures
- Burial practices and funerals
- Cosmology
- Sacred objects and places
- Priesthood
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Kogi
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1997
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- South America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Northwestern South America
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 1996
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- circa 1960s
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- circa 1960s
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 73016694
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Kagaba Indians