This dissertation reflects on the problem of the Vhavenda experience of simultaneous belief in the life hereafter and the Biblical God. The study therefore indicates a systematic analysis of the Vhavenda concept of God as well as of life hereafter with regard to their own traditional and cultural experience. It became clear that Africans through the ages did believe in God. The human beings are created by God and life is a gift from God to the individuals, which means that they believed in God long before the missionaries came to this country. Africans had their own culture and their own religion. It is stated that God was worshipped as the greatest one. His Venda name was Nwali. In certain areas he was called by other names such as Raluvhimba and Khuzwane. This is a clear indication that the Vhavenda worshipped one God although they referred to him in three names; other tribe had other names for him. Burial rituals play a significant role in Venda culture as it a pointer to the new world of the living dead. The burial rites make it quite vivid that bereaved believed strongly and convincingly that the dead is only making a way or taking a journey to his /her final destiny, the new world only know to the deceased .The living are convinced that the deceased have extra - power, as they are nearer to God, and they are now in possession of double powers, the one they had whilst they were still alive and the one they acquired after death. Death is just a process of removing a person from the present of his being into the past .He / she goes to the land of the living dead which is not very different from this one. It is a duplication of this life. He / she will join the deceased members of his /her family. Life will continue just as it has been. Death is not feared but accepted as something natural and inevitable. After all, it is through death that one joins one’s departed fellows; therefore death is not regarded as annihilation. The researcher has found out that there are few things which the African traditional religion seems not to understand or come to terms with regard to Christ and Christianity. In this case, the idea of Jesus as the Son of God and only great ancestor of all humanity seems to be a very strange and confusing concept among African traditionalists. They seemed to be failing to understand that Christ is a new great ancestor not in terms of family mediation only, but in the all inclusive and holistic approach in matters pertaining to faith. Christ Jesus is not only the great ancestor, but is God, mediator and saviour. The Christian eschatology does differ from the traditional Venda belief, in a very important instance, while ‘’eternal life’’ for the Vhavenda means reaching back into the past , joining the living dead whose lives are behind us , the Christian message reaches into the future, the coming of Jesus Christ , the promise of a new Heaven and a new Earth. At the end a number of conclusions reached and a few points for future research added. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Science of Religion and Missiology / unrestricted

no / Cannibals, burials, vampires, human sacrifice, bog people ¿ throughout history our ancestors have responded to death in numerous ways. The past has left us numerous relics of these encounters between the dead and those they leave behind: accounts of sacrifices in early histories, rituals that have stood the test of time, bodies discovered in caves and bogs, remains revealed by archaeological digs. Through these insights into the past, Tim Taylor pieces together evidence of how our ancestors created their universe and asks how we have dealt with the idea of the end and slowly come to create not only a sense of the afterlife but also the soul.

Im folgenden Artikel werden die Grabungsergebnisse des Gräberfeldes Battaune aus den Jahren 1974 und 1975 zusammenfassend vorgestellt. Bei dem Bestattungsplatz handelte es sich um eine spätbronzezeitliche Nekropole der Lausitzer Kultur. Soweit es trotz fehlender anthropologischer Bestimmungen des Leichenbrandes sowie der geringen Anzahl der Gräber möglich war, wurden einige Aspekte der Bestattungssitten analysiert. Abschließend wurde das sogenannte „Grab eines Schmiedes“ mit Gussformen, Kannelurenstein und Dechsel einer gesonderten Betrachtung unterzogen, um die besondere Bedeutung dieser untypischen Beigabenkombination in der Lausitzer Kultur zu erfassen. / The cemetery of Battaune was excavated in 1974 and 1975 and in this article its results are summarized. The burial site dates to the Lusatian Culture (Late Bronze Age ). Although anthropological analyses of the cremations are lacking and although only a small number of graves were excavated, some aspects of the burial customs could be analysed. Finally the so-called “burial of a smith”, which contained casting moulds, stones with cannelures and a neolithic adze, is discussed in detail in order to understand the importance of this atypical combination of burial objects of the Lusatian Culture.

The work deals with the last things of the man from dying, through fear of death, burial and funeral rituals, to the demands that are placed on the funeral service. The work is not focused only on the actual experience of dying and his last period of life, but great attention is paid to survivors, particularly in the context of grieving, coping with loss and consultancy for survivors. In this thesis is provide space for all the various topics that are related to the last things of the man - funeral, cemeteries and funeral services that work closely with the survivors, who come to arrange a funeral. Summarizes the statutory regulations, codexes and regulations, which funeral services must at all times observe. It also mentions the role of undertaker and function of consultancy for survivors.

The Mid-Neolithic site of Ajvide on the Baltic Island of Gotland comprises the burials of 89 individuals within 85 separate burial contexts (Österholm 2008). Some of these individuals were detected with absent skeletal elements, such as the cranium, which have been believed to be represented by the considerable number of dispersed human bone fragments discovered from the site (Burenhult 2002: 33, see also Lundén 2012). These occurrences were initially proposed to be caused by agricultural ploughing, which however has not been done on the fields of Ajvide with the modern machinery of the late 20th century (Burenhult 2002: 31). It was hence the intention of this study to investigate the alternative motives behind these phenomena, by reviewing the statistics between these skeletal materials. The correspondence was additionally analysed with some other selected variables on the available data from these burial contexts. Based on the attained results, it was concluded that the human skeletal remains from the disturbed burials were likely intentionally retrieved to be used in the different ritual activities of the PWC populations on Gotland. / Den mellanneolitiska Ajvidelokalen på Gotland omfattar 85 begravningar av totalt 89 individer (Österholm 2008, Burenhult 2002). Vissa av individerna påträffades utan specifika skelettelement, såsom kraniet. Dessa individer har använts som representanter för tolkningen av den markanta kvantiteten av spridda mänskliga benfragment, som hittats via arkeologiska utgrävningar på lokalen (Burenhult 2002: 33, se även Lundén 2012 och Wallin 2015). Till en början ansågs jordbruksplogningen vara ansvarig för detta fenomen, dock har inga plöjningar utförts med moderna maskiner, eller sedan 1900-talet (Burenhult 2002: 31). Därmed, var syftet med studie att undersöka alternativa tolkningar bakom dessa fenomen. Studien är på analyser av de två olika grupperna med skelettmaterial, som inkluderats i en statistisk modell. Dessutom utfördes en korrespondensanalys mellan andra särskilt utvalda variabler från varje gravkontext. Studien har konkluderat, att de mänskliga skelettresterna från de förstörda begravningarna, hämtades sannolikt avsiktligen för olika rituella aktiviteter som praktiserades av den mellanneolitiska befolkningen på Gotland.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the distribution, forms, and function(s) of iron amulets deposited in the late Iron Age gravefields of Lovö, with the goal of ascertaining how (and so far as possible why) these objects were utilized in rituals carried out during and after burials. Particular emphasis is given to re-interpreting the largest group of iron amulets, the iron amulet rings, in a more relational and practice-focused way than has heretofore been attempted. By framing burial analyses, questions of typology, and evidence of ritualized actions in comparison with what is known of other cult sites in Mälardalen specifically– and theorized about the cognitive landscape(s) of late Iron Age Scandinavia generally– a picture of iron amulets as inscribed objects made to act as catalytic, protective, and mediating agents is brought to light.