• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Is There A Culture Or Society That Doesn't Believe In Ghosts?

GNC

GNC

King-Sized Canary
Joined
Aug 25, 2001
Messages
33,634
Are there any cultures in the world that don't feature ghosts, or is it the universal Fortean phenomenon?
 
In E L Bridges `The uttermost part of the world` (or is it `uttermost part of the earth`?) about his life in tieera del fuago (got that wrong!) he describes the Ona and Yarghan tribes as believing in the spirits of the dead, but having no real idea of religion.

Its a fastinating book.
 
Undeath, as an observation or belief, is ubiquitous.
 
A further life even appears to have been hardwired into Neanderthals, given their grave goods and burial practices. The only examples I can think of where people do not believe in an afterlife are the Stoics, who appeared in history at a time when belief in traditional Roman Gods was waning in the ebbtide prior to organised christianity.
 
What about us Atheists?

(Though this does not necisarily mean we dont believe in ghosts, we just have a different theory. Me, Im an agnositic on that one.)
 
Actually I know two separate Christians who were vehement about the non-existence of ghosts. They wouldn't even entertain the possibility. Instead they both insisted that their church advised them that these 'visions' were manifestations of the Devil who used the idea of ghosts as a lure to hoodwink good people into meeting with him 'unawares'.

It's picky, I know. But there you go.;)
 
That is what I was taught growing up. My mom still says that there aren't ghosts, ironic as she grew up in a haunted house. I think there are ghosts, and I never want to meet one.
 
I think most religions don't have any truck with the Spiritualist Church for possibly the same reasons?

Very strange since both rely on faith, and are 'humoured' by our, largely accepted, science-based paradigm.

gl5210 - you might find it comforting to see a ghost if it was someone you knew coming back to say 'look...I'm allright'. This has happened to people in my family who lost people to long painful illnesses as if to say 'remember me like THIS rather than when I was ill'.

I've actually told various people I've cared about NOT to come back after they die to reassure me as I'd be too scared. My Aunt appeared to my three year old son instead. I was reassured that she was allright but was very pleased she'd remembered my request. So therefore I lean towards them being the people I'd spoken to in life rather than anything else who wouldn't have cared less about my feelings on the matter. As for strangers in my home - I'd phone a priest without any hesitation.

And another thing...sorry...my mother saw one of her deceased patients walk past her in a public library. My sister and nephew both saw her deceased friend walking far ahead of her down the road (he was unmistakable as he was 6'4'' with a pink very high Mohican and colourful clothes - they live in a small town) so sometimes you see people out and about and you'd never guess someone else KNEW they were dead and wouldn't believe you if you mentioned it.

Buddhism doesn't have ghosts.
 
Which is why in buddist countries they have so many ghost stories???
 
gl5210 said:
I think there are ghosts, and I never want to meet one.
Click to expand...

Ghosts arn't all bad.

My ghost (the one in my flat rather) is exceptionaly nice, a bit of an atention seeker when anyone new come round but nice none the less.
 
Does the Judaic tradition have ghosts?

Just wondering because in the Old Testement YHWH never promises his followers an afterlife, just keeps telling them that their descendents will proliferate.
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
Does the Judaic tradition have ghosts?

Just wondering because in the Old Testement YHWH never promises his followers an afterlife, just keeps telling them that their descendents will proliferate.
Click to expand...

It doesn't ever come out in the Torah, but it can be validly assumed from other sources that the early Hebrews shared the same basic afterlife belief held by neighboring and preceding groups (Canaanites, Moabites, Akkadians, Sumerians). It was the familiar underworld motif, a concept which seemed pretty grim at the time, but not hellish or unphathomable.

Lots of people have heard of She'ol, the Jewish underworld. Shalu in Akkadian(Babylonian), Shala and other varients elsewhere, from a disputed root meaning either "question, the unknown" or more likely "a hollow place, the grave."

And they clearly had ghosts. Ghosts galore. See Exodus for the famous witch of Endor cycle.
 
Homo Aves said:
Which is why in buddist countries they have so many ghost stories???
Click to expand...

"Buddhist countries." Though sects and isolated cults exist which practice something close enough to their historical religion, it doesn't work that way for the masses of any social rank.

To drive it home, how many Christians do you see in a day who advocate self-castration and abolishment of all personal adornment, material wealth, and sexual experience? Now how many do you see wearing jewlery, buying needless wasteful things, hoarding goods, and *probably privately consuming pornography*?

"Buddhism" usually means "the native pagan animist religion to which Buddha has been added as a god."

Rant's end. Sorry, I live in Alabama day-in, day-out.
 
This page about Laura Bohanssen attempting to tell some African tribespeople the Hamlet story is instructive; this group, the Tiv, did not believe in ghosts- but they did believe in zombies...
http://www.csubak.edu/~bhemphill/Classes/hamlet.html

she had a lot of trouble telling the story, which may have been compounded by a well known phenomenon -

which I sometimes think of as the 'let's take the piss out of the anthropologist' syndrome...
 
"Buddhism" usually means "the native pagan animist religion to which Buddha has been added as a god."
Click to expand...

I think that is it in a nutshell.

Buddisms very different to folk buddism. I learnt that from my Japanese studies, most of what was written about was educated peoples beliefs...the common folks religion was radicaly different.

same goes for Tibets and China

same for Xtianity

(while we are at it, anyone heard of the Theraputae,???)
 
HA, vaguely on topic, I'm doing a write-up on recent interpretaive work on the Mississippian Cult Complex "birdman" motif. Is that possibly what your handle refers to?
 
Kondoru said:
Well?
Click to expand...
This is such a superb question, Kondoru. No I don't know the answer but one would suspect a resounding 'No'. It seems hardwired in? Because we miss the people that die and we hope they're looking out for us, or conversely we're terrified of the idea that some of the people that die won't go away and have evil intent. Plus we have to blame weird experiences on something non-ordinary. etc
 
I'm currently reading Dr Ronald Sutton's book on the history of witchcraft, which goes across as many different societies and histories as are researchable. Witches seem to be inextricably bound with 'conjuring the dead' or 'talking to the ancestors' if you include the shamanic aspect, and there don't seem to be any areas of the world untouched by the belief in some form of witchcraft.
So I would say the answer to your question is a qualified 'no'.
 
Historum Forum:

Maia said:
Every human society has a belief in ghosts and other types of non-corporeal entities, even societies that have had no interaction with each other or are cut off and remote. For example, the inhabitants of America or Australia before contact with the rest of the world. These beliefs are all very similar.
Apart from what is, to me at least, the obvious explanation, that these beliefs reflect reality in some way, how can this be explained?

Rosi said: All cultures have a belief in at least one god too, does that mean god is real?

https://historum.com/threads/why-do-all-societies-have-ghosts.47443/page-6
 
I would put it this way ...

Accommodation of, if not explicit belief in, some sort of ephemeral / spiritual / higher-order / abstract realm distinct from the mundane material world is reasonably universal among all known cultures (note the use of 'culture' rather than 'society').

A majority subset within this set of all cultures accommodates, if not explicitly believes, the notion that within this distinct / parallel / orthogonal realm there are actively operant willful / deliberate agents or agencies. However ... This set of agents / agencies encompasses a wide array of entities such as personal souls, demons, gods, demigods, fairies and yes - ghosts (in the sense of persistent spirits of formerly living persons).

A majority subset within this second set of believers in active agents within another realm accommodate, if not explicitly believe in, the notion of active agents / agencies representing something persisting after a specific living being's death - i.e., what most folks mean when they speak of ghosts.
 
Yes, vis a vis what he said, concordantly.
 
Xanatic* said:
I seem to recall a post by Yithian about how koreans don't believe in ghosts.
Click to expand...
I take it you're not aware of the thriving industry of Korean horror films?! (I watched 'The Wailing' relatively recently)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top