Well, actually...
Recently I finally found a fanfiction.net review from several months ago that made me want to clarify a few things.
I didn't invent anything in One Kind of Good-bye. Burial by exposure is still practiced in our modern world, despite it having been banned in a lot of places because of increasing populations, hygiene concerns, and cultural imperialism, and historically it has been one of the most common funeral practices. Sea burial, by sea goers and the occasional coastal society, is also not all that unusual. Beliefs about reincarnation that include a span of time spent in the afterlife to reflect and reqroup are also a reoccuring element in funeral practice. Many of these beliefs include community or family or society specific guardian spirits that watch over and/or take the dead. Washing the body, of course, is so common as to be one of the few things in human practice that approaches a constant. Aang's explanation of the Air Nomads' pre-burial practice is a heavily cut down summary of the basic intent and usage of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as well as the very, very basics of its contents. Very basic. Very, very, very basic.
I did shift all of this around some: the Water Tribe's cultural influences are broad enough that sometimes it's hard to know where it would be most appropriate to go with their cultural practices that we don't get a look at in the series (sea burial is not the most common practice among Arctic peoples, but there's the whole elemental thing - I waffle about this a lot), and while the Air Nomads are somewhat more specific, I still took liberties. Where the the ideal candidate to read to and instruct the dying and recently deceased person is, in Tibetan practice, their teacher (which makes perfect sense), in this story Aang implies that the Air Nomads considered a student the deceased was close to to be the ideal guide.
I do actually have reasoning for that - part of it is simply that Air Nomads appear to consistently reach such old ages that by the time they die, most of them will no longer have teachers. The primary remaining earthly attachment will be to their students. In this case it is appropriate for the students to pick up the teaching from their teachers at their deaths and send them on with reassurances, exhortations, and love.
Anyway! I didn't make anything up! Nothing in that story is completely out of my fertile imagination except the story itself, and even that grew out of conversations I have had about mourning and death with people I am friends with.
I just. Want to say this. The practice, rituals, and beliefs I have the kids talk about in that story are nothing I dreamed up. They are things people really do.
This entry was originally posted at http://tiamatschild.dreamwidth.org/6429.html. Please feel free to comment there using OpenID. Or here! It'll be read either way, is what I'm saying.
I didn't invent anything in One Kind of Good-bye. Burial by exposure is still practiced in our modern world, despite it having been banned in a lot of places because of increasing populations, hygiene concerns, and cultural imperialism, and historically it has been one of the most common funeral practices. Sea burial, by sea goers and the occasional coastal society, is also not all that unusual. Beliefs about reincarnation that include a span of time spent in the afterlife to reflect and reqroup are also a reoccuring element in funeral practice. Many of these beliefs include community or family or society specific guardian spirits that watch over and/or take the dead. Washing the body, of course, is so common as to be one of the few things in human practice that approaches a constant. Aang's explanation of the Air Nomads' pre-burial practice is a heavily cut down summary of the basic intent and usage of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as well as the very, very basics of its contents. Very basic. Very, very, very basic.
I did shift all of this around some: the Water Tribe's cultural influences are broad enough that sometimes it's hard to know where it would be most appropriate to go with their cultural practices that we don't get a look at in the series (sea burial is not the most common practice among Arctic peoples, but there's the whole elemental thing - I waffle about this a lot), and while the Air Nomads are somewhat more specific, I still took liberties. Where the the ideal candidate to read to and instruct the dying and recently deceased person is, in Tibetan practice, their teacher (which makes perfect sense), in this story Aang implies that the Air Nomads considered a student the deceased was close to to be the ideal guide.
I do actually have reasoning for that - part of it is simply that Air Nomads appear to consistently reach such old ages that by the time they die, most of them will no longer have teachers. The primary remaining earthly attachment will be to their students. In this case it is appropriate for the students to pick up the teaching from their teachers at their deaths and send them on with reassurances, exhortations, and love.
Anyway! I didn't make anything up! Nothing in that story is completely out of my fertile imagination except the story itself, and even that grew out of conversations I have had about mourning and death with people I am friends with.
I just. Want to say this. The practice, rituals, and beliefs I have the kids talk about in that story are nothing I dreamed up. They are things people really do.
This entry was originally posted at http://tiamatschild.dreamwidth.org/6429.html. Please feel free to comment there using OpenID. Or here! It'll be read either way, is what I'm saying.