A morte, categoria lógica no pensamento simbólico

Abstract

In traditional societies, the phenomenon of death is viewed in the logical context of the symbolic thinking of each own culture. In several Indian, African and South American ethnic groups, the fate of the dead is a correlate of the emergence to life, and, mediated by ritual processes, participates of the origin of the newborn. The concept of death as an abrupt gap between two radically separate worlds is exceptional and indeed typical of western mind.