agencyAFTERLIFE
Although there is a wide variety of belief about the afterlife from a cross-
cultural perspective, this richness possesses a common thread that con-
cerns the destiny of the individual after death. Within many cultures, it is
the soul that survives in contrast to the perishable body, although the soul
is not always considered immortal. Among the Native American Ojibwa,
there is a belief in two souls: body- or ego-soul and free-soul. The latter
soul possesses a separate existence from the body, being able to travel
during sleep. After death, the free-soul becomes a ghost that is eventually
reunited in the afterlife with the body-soul.
Afterlife beliefs are often reflected by a culture’s conception of heaven
and hell. These beliefs frequently have social consequences reflected by
notions of good and bad behavior and rewards promised for positive
actions. These types of conviction are evidence that earthly existence helps
to determine one’s destiny in the afterlife. In many religious cultures, some
form of judgment determines whether or not one’s deeds merit a pleasant
or painful destiny. These destinies are conceptualized as a paradise akin to
a heaven or a painful place like hell, although such a clear distinction is not
always the case, however, because some religious cultures believe in a
more ambiguous or shadowy place, such as the ancient Jewish notion of
Sheol, a dark place where the dead are inert. For the ancient Egyptians, the
dead go to the underworld of Osiris where the deceased confesses to sins
that he/she did not commit, tries to establish his/her righteousness, is judged
by a panel of gods, appears before Osiris, and his/her heart (location of
emotions and intellect) is weighted against a feather, a symbol of cosmic
harmony and justice (Ma’at). Those with heavy hearts are thrown to a
hideous monster made of many different animals.
Further reading: Obayashi (1992); Taylor (2001); Vecsey (1983)AGENCY
This is a relatively new concept in the field, borrowed from the philo-
sophical writings of Donald Davidson and Charles Taylor. Donaldson is
interested in agency and interpretation that he claims includes the pattern
of interaction between speakers and their environments. The irrational
is internal, for instance, to an agent, and is a matter of not adhering to
rational norms. Thus, irrational behavior is a failure to conform fully to
the rational pattern of the remaining agent’s attitudes and behaviors.