17
49.
In fact, distinct religious faiths59 attribute particular importance to the behaviour of the
living in respect of their dead. The Bahá'í faith, for example, sustains the possibility that even
the condition of "those who have died in sin and unbelief may become changed" by the
"prayers and supplications" for their souls by those who survived them60.
50.
According to the cultural tradition of the indigenous community Wayuu (living in the
desert La Guajira, near the Colombian border with Venezuela), there are three stages in one's
passage from life to death and afterlife. The first one takes place when one dies and is buried;
his spirit is converted into "yoluja". At least three years later, one's bones are exhumed and
recollected, and placed in a common grave; the dead person loses his identity forever, and the
sorrow of his close relatives and friends disappears. The "definitive" death takes place when he
is at last forgotten. But his spirit converts itself into rain ("wanülü") and returns to earth61.
51.
Other examples could here be recalled. In the region of the Araucanía in Chile, e.g., the
people mapuche ascribe likewise particular importance to the funerary rites; to them, the
ceremony of the burial is "the expression of solidarity of the community"62. From the mapuche
perspective, "the communication with the dead is cultural, logical, it forms part of the mapuche
cosmovision and religion"63.
52.
The mayas, aztecas and incas, on their turn, believed in life post mortem. To the
aztecas, death formed part of life (cycle of regeneration); to the incas, death was no more
than the passage of this life into the other one. To the maya, azteca and inca cultures, "vivir es
morir y morir es vivir"; life post mortem is not conditioned by personal attitudes, it is a
continuous cycle64. In distinct cultures, the passing of time is seen as reflecting the solidarity
between human generations that, like the stations, succeed each other in time65.
. For a call for the "purification des mémoires", and a "dialogue interreligieux" which consists
in the "accueil des autres dans leurs différence", cf. J. Dupuis, "Le dialogue interreligieux dans
une société pluraliste", in [Various Authors,] Movimientos de Personas e Ideas y
Multiculturalidad (Forum Deusto), vol. I, Bilbao, Universidad de Deusto, 2003, pp. 51-52.
59
. Cf. Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions (transl. from the Persian by L.C. Barney),
Wilmette Ill., Bahá'í Publ. Trust, 2003 [reprint], p. 232.
60
. Cf. S. Harker, Wayuu - Cultura del Desierto Colombiano, Bogotá, Villegas Ed., 1998, pp.
182-183, and cf. pp. 184-186.
61
. P. Pérez-Sales, R. Bacic Herzfeld and T. Durán Pérez, Muerte y Desaparición Forzada en la
Araucanía - Una Aproximación Étnica, Santiago de Chile, Ed. Universidad Católica de Temuco,
1998 (reed.), p. 171.
62
. Ibid., p. 182.
63
. J.L. de León Azcárate, La Muerte y Su Imaginario..., op. cit. supra n. (41), pp. 187, 198 and
219.
64
. A.Y. Gurevitch, "El Tiempo como Problema de Historia Cultural", in Las Culturas y el
Tiempo, Salamanca/Paris, Ed. Sígueme/UNESCO, 1979, p. 264.
65
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