Mortuary Practices and Afterlife of the Choctaw Essay -- Sociology, Tr

The Choctaws thrived in the fertile sandy, red-clay soil, rolling hills, and dense forests, located in the primeval Hills of the east-central region of Mississippi. The estimated population after early European get to was between 15,000 and 20,000 and was the second largest group of Native Americans in the Southeast (Blitz 1988127).The Choctaws in the Southeast were a matrilineal society. Traditionally, women preformed tasks related to domestic life. Among these responsibilities were creating pottery and utensils, intellectual nourishment preparation, and planting and harvesting crops. The majority of their diet consisted of agricultural products such as corn, pumpkins, squash, and beans. Women would also accompany men on search excursions in mark to provide food preparation. After the hunt, women were responsible for transporting the slain animal linchpin to the village for processing of skins, bone, and meat (Carson 1995495-6).The greatest responsibilities of the Choctaw men were run and warf atomic number 18. During the decease and winter months, their primary food source was deer. Their accomplishments on hunting adventures instantaneously reflected upon their social status and importance within the tribe.When a Choctaw tribal fraction became terminally ill, it was common practice for the medicine man to inform the family of imminent death (Swanton 1931170). Upon death, the Choctaws believed that the spirit of the dead continued on a voyage to either the good hunting ground or the bad hunting ground. This journey would take many days, which would require the proper provisions. A pursue would sometimes be slain in order to accompany his overtop on the long journey. After the introduction of horses, they, too, were killed so that the spirit had core of t... ...uilt or fear, and attempt to dodge the stones. Slipping from the log, he would fall into the tempestuous river and over the waterfall, landing in rapidly swirling pool of wate r. Pulling his beaten, tattered, and strip body from the water, the shilup, begins his journey into the bad hunting grounds. Every step is make full with the pain from briars, thorny trees, chestnut burs. The sun never shines and cold winds are always present. Every spirit encountered is an enemy with no safe train to take refuge. Food is scarce, due to unfertile soil, and hunger is constant. The bad hunting grounds are perpetually lonely, with only the joyous sounds coming from the another(prenominal) side of the mountains. The doomed spirits constantly struggle to climb the treacherous mountains, but to no avail. They are eternally destined to an afterlife of destruction (Campbell 1959149-52).