Death and Afterlife

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Death and Afterlife

Death and Afterlife

Soul doctrines; underworld/heavens/reincarnation; funerary customs; ancestor cult.
Why: high-signal domain that often cross-cuts pantheon/cosmology.

Death and Afterlife

What is a person, what exactly happens when that person dies, what—if anything—continues, by what process does it continue, where or in what condition does it exist, how is its destiny determined, and what obligations remain between the living and the dead?

The constitution of the living person; body, soul, self, mind, consciousness, breath, life-force, heart, name, shadow, memory, lineage, and relational identity; the meaning and criteria of death; good and bad deaths; bodily separation, transformation, decay, preservation, and disposal; immediate, intermediate, and final postmortem states; judgment, karma, merit, grace, fate, purification, punishment, mercy, and restoration; heaven, paradise, hell, underworld, ancestor realm, ghosthood, rebirth, transmigration, resurrection, immortality, deification, liberation, dissolution, absorption, annihilation, and non-survival; ancestors, saints, ghosts, revenants, restless dead, and continuing postmortem agency; funerary transition, mourning, commemoration, secondary burial, relics, and remembrance; individual destiny, collective resurrection, world renewal, and the relation between death and cosmic eschatology.

Why: The original framework identifies this dimension through soul doctrines, underworlds and heavens, reincarnation, funerary customs, and ancestor cult. It treats Death and Afterlife as a high-signal domain because it crosses the boundaries among personhood, supernatural beings, cosmology, ritual, material culture, ethics, and communal memory.

Purpose of This Dimension

Death and Afterlife reconstructs the religion’s complete account of personal mortality, postmortem continuity, and the enduring relationship between the living and the dead.

It must determine:

  1. What constitutes a living person.
  2. Which constituents are mortal, separable, transferable, recyclable, resurrectable, or immortal.
  3. What the tradition means by “death.”
  4. Whether death is one event, a process, a transition, a change of status, or several events occurring at different times.
  5. What signs establish that death has occurred.
  6. What happens at the moment of death.
  7. What happens immediately afterward.
  8. Whether an intermediate condition exists.
  9. What—if anything—travels, persists, disperses, sleeps, waits, reincarnates, resurrects, joins the ancestors, dissolves, or ceases.
  10. What establishes continuity between the living person and the postmortem person or successor.
  11. Whether postmortem existence is individual, relational, collective, impersonal, or denied.
  12. Whether destiny is determined by moral conduct, ritual status, faith, knowledge, initiation, lineage, grace, divine judgment, karma, fate, burial, manner of death, or another factor.
  13. Whether the dead can change, repent, learn, purify, suffer, progress, intercede, return, reincarnate, or be aided by the living.
  14. Where or in what condition the dead exist.
  15. Whether afterlife realms are places, states, modes of consciousness, social conditions, symbols, or several simultaneously.
  16. Whether all persons share one destiny or are differentiated by status, conduct, identity, age, manner of death, or religious affiliation.
  17. How the dead remain related to family, descendants, territory, institutions, and society.
  18. What distinguishes ancestors, saints, ghosts, dangerous dead, forgotten dead, and ordinary deceased persons.
  19. How funerary and memorial actions are believed to affect the deceased.
  20. How death doctrines shape grief, morality, social order, care, inheritance, political legitimacy, and communal identity.
  21. How ancient teachings relate to modern medical criteria of death, organ donation, autopsy, life support, body donation, cremation, digital remains, and other contemporary questions.
  22. What evidence supports each doctrine, historical reconstruction, and account of lived practice.
  23. What remains disputed, inaccessible, restricted, metaphysically unresolved, or unknowable.

The completed section should produce seven integrated models:

Consistent Analytical Spine

Every religion should be analyzed through the same ten-stage pathway, even when its answer at one or more stages is “nothing,” “not applicable,” “unknown,” or “the question is rejected.”

Stage 1 — The Living Person

What constitutes a person before death?

Stage 2 — Dying

What biological, social, ritual, moral, or spiritual process leads toward death?

Stage 3 — Death Recognition

What event or signs establish that death has occurred?

Stage 4 — Separation or Transformation

What happens to the body and the person’s constituents at death?

Stage 5 — Liminal Transition

Is there an interval of journey, sleep, waiting, wandering, purification, confusion, or preparation?

Stage 6 — Evaluation or Causal Sorting

What determines the next condition?

Stage 7 — Postmortem Condition

Where, how, and as what does the deceased exist?

Stage 8 — Continuing Relation

Can the dead perceive, communicate with, protect, harm, remember, or depend upon the living?

Stage 9 — Final Destiny

Is the postmortem condition permanent, temporary, cyclical, progressive, reversible, or superseded by resurrection, liberation, dissolution, or final judgment?

Stage 10 — Collective Completion

How does the individual’s destiny relate to the final destiny of humanity, the dead, the cosmos, or ultimate reality?

This spine allows resurrection traditions, rebirth traditions, ancestor systems, neutral underworlds, non-theistic systems, materialist non-survival doctrines, and highly plural traditions to be compared without forcing them into a heaven–hell model.

Complete Death-and-Afterlife Claim Standard

A description is not complete merely because it says:

“The soul goes to heaven or hell after judgment.”

For every major claim, record:

Complete Personhood Record Standard

For every tradition, identify whether the living person possesses:

For every component, record:

Foundational Analytical Distinctions

1. Dying versus Death

Dying is a process.

Death may be defined as:

A tradition may recognize several deaths occurring at different times.

2. Biological Death versus Social Death

A person may be biologically alive but socially treated as dead through:

A biologically dead person may remain socially active as an ancestor, saint, officeholder, claimant, memory, or legal personality.

3. Clinical Death versus Religious Death

Modern medicine may determine death through physiological criteria.

A religious community may additionally recognize:

These classifications must be distinguished, especially where treatment of the body is time-sensitive.

4. Legal Death versus Ontological Death

A state may issue a legal declaration of death.

The religion may hold that the person:

Legal recognition and ontological interpretation are different questions.

5. Death as Event versus Death as Sequence

Possible stages include:

  1. Loss of ordinary consciousness.
  2. Cessation of bodily function.
  3. Departure of life-force.
  4. Separation of soul.
  5. ritual recognition.
  6. disposal of the body.
  7. completion of mourning.
  8. incorporation among ancestors.
  9. final judgment.
  10. resurrection or rebirth.

Do not assume the first stage completes the process.

6. Body versus Corpse

A corpse may be understood as:

7. Person versus Soul

A soul may be:

Do not use “soul” as a universal synonym for person.

8. Soul versus Spirit

A tradition may distinguish:

Another may reverse the distinction or reject it.

9. Self versus Consciousness

A tradition may affirm consciousness while denying a permanent self.

Another may affirm an enduring self that is not reducible to present consciousness.

These positions must not be collapsed.

10. Single Soul versus Multiple Souls

A person may possess:

Each component may have a different destiny.

11. Individual versus Relational Personhood

A person may be understood as:

Afterlife continuity may therefore be relational rather than individually substantial.

12. Survival versus Immortality

Survival after death means some form of continuity.

Immortality may mean:

A surviving soul may later perish. An initially mortal person may later receive immortality.

13. Eternal versus Everlasting

Translation must be exact.

14. Afterlife Realm versus Afterlife State

“Heaven,” “hell,” “underworld,” or “ancestor realm” may be described as:

15. Immediate versus Intermediate versus Final Destiny

A deceased person may:

16. Judgment versus Causal Consequence

A destiny may result from:

Automatic causation is not the same as a judicial verdict.

17. Punishment versus Purification

Postmortem suffering may be:

Do not label every adverse state “hell.”

18. Reward versus Fulfillment

A favorable destiny may be:

19. Heaven versus Paradise

A tradition may distinguish:

Do not equate all favorable destinations.

20. Underworld versus Hell

An underworld may be:

It is not automatically infernal.

21. Annihilation versus Dissolution

These outcomes are distinct.

22. Resurrection versus Resuscitation

23. Resurrection versus Reincarnation

24. Rebirth versus Reincarnation

A tradition may reject the idea that an unchanged self migrates while affirming causal continuity between lives.

“Reincarnation” may therefore be an inaccurate translation.

25. Identity versus Continuity

The postmortem being may be:

26. Memory versus Personal Identity

If the deceased forgets earthly life, ask:

27. Ancestor versus Deceased Relative

Not every dead family member automatically becomes an ancestor.

Ancestorhood may require:

28. Ancestor versus Ghost

An ancestor is commonly integrated into a recognized social relationship.

A ghost may be:

The categories can overlap.

29. Ghost versus Soul

A ghost may be:

30. Veneration versus Worship

The living may:

The tradition’s own distinctions must govern classification.

31. Postmortem Agency versus Postmortem Existence

A tradition may affirm continued existence but deny that the dead can act upon the living.

Another may affirm intense postmortem agency.

Record these separately.

32. Memory versus Presence

A dead person may remain present through:

Do not automatically reduce religious presence to memory or assume memory proves independent agency.

33. Individual Afterlife versus Collective Eschatology

Individual destiny may occur immediately.

Collective destiny may await:

34. Manner of Death versus Moral Worth

A “bad death” may result from:

It need not imply that the deceased was morally bad.

35. Good Death versus Pleasant Death

A good death may mean:

It need not be physically painless.

36. Martyrdom versus Suicide

A tradition may distinguish:

These categories require historical and emic precision. Descriptive analysis must not romanticize preventable self-harm.

37. Symbolic Death versus Biological Death

Initiation, renunciation, conversion, exile, marriage, kingship, and monastic profession may be described as death and rebirth.

These symbolic or social deaths must not be confused with biological death, though they may draw upon the same model.

38. Near-Death Experience versus Death

A person reporting an experience during medical crisis may not have undergone irreversible biological death.

Such reports are evidence of experiences and interpretations, not automatic proof of a complete postmortem state.

39. Reported Encounter versus Metaphysical Verification

A dream, apparition, mediumistic communication, vision, or near-death report establishes first:

Whether the deceased independently communicated is a further question.

40. Doctrine versus Funeral Practice

A funeral may preserve an older worldview than current theology.

A theological doctrine may not affect ordinary funerary custom.

Both must be mapped.

41. Prescribed Funeral versus Actual Mortuary Behavior

Texts may prescribe:

Actual practice may vary because of law, poverty, distance, war, family preference, health regulation, or local custom.

42. Corpse Treatment versus Postmortem Destiny

A tradition may regard treatment of the body as:

43. Improper Funeral versus Failed Transition

Some traditions hold that improper treatment can impede transition.

Others insist destiny is not controlled by human ritual failure.

Record the degree of causal dependence.

44. Funerary Rite versus Mourning

Funerary rites address:

Mourning concerns:

They overlap but are not identical.

45. Mourning versus Ancestor Cult

Mourning may end.

Ancestral obligations may begin precisely when mourning concludes.

46. Relic versus Corpse

A corpse may be treated as polluted, while selected remains later become sacred relics.

The status transformation must be explained.

47. Child Death versus Adult Death

A child may have:

Do not assume adult models apply.

48. Stillbirth, Miscarriage, and Perinatal Loss

Traditions differ over:

These losses must not be erased by adult-centered categories.

49. Missing Body versus Missing Person

Death may be known without remains.

Ask whether:

50. Finality versus Postmortem Change

The dead may be:

Governing Principles

1. Begin with Indigenous Vocabulary

Identify terms for:

2. Map the Living Person Before Describing the Dead

No afterlife account can be understood until the analyst knows what is believed to exist before death.

3. Do Not Assume a Soul

A tradition may affirm:

4. Do Not Assume an Afterlife

A rigorous framework must support traditions or schools that teach:

5. Do Not Force Heaven and Hell

Some traditions possess:

6. Distinguish All Temporal Stages

For every claim, ask whether it concerns:

7. Distinguish All Person-Components

If a tradition recognizes body, breath, shadow, name, heart, soul, and ancestor, do not compress them into one “spirit.”

8. Preserve Internal Contradiction

Several accounts may coexist because they concern:

9. Date and Locate Every Claim

An ancient funerary text, medieval theology, household custom, and contemporary doctrine must not be presented as one timeless system.

10. Distinguish Official, Popular, Local, and Esoteric Models

At minimum, compare:

11. Separate Emic and Etic Conclusions

The evidence framework requires authenticity, independence, and representativeness to be evaluated while keeping insider and outsider accounts distinct.

12. Separate Report from Explanation

For apparitions, near-death experiences, mediumship, dreams, and miracles, report:

  1. What was claimed.
  2. What was experienced.
  3. What was observed.
  4. How insiders interpreted it.
  5. What alternative interpretations exist.
  6. What remains metaphysically unresolved.

13. Do Not Treat Burial Archaeology as Self-Interpreting

A grave good may indicate:

14. Do Not Infer Moralized Afterlife Without Evidence

Differentiated burial does not automatically prove differentiated moral destiny.

15. Do Not Treat Textual Ideals as Universal Practice

Elite funerary texts may describe costly outcomes unavailable to most people.

16. Include Ordinary, Poor, Marginalized, and Unclaimed Dead

Monumental tombs and elaborate funerals frequently overrepresent elites.

17. Include Persons with Atypical Deaths

Investigate treatment of:

18. Handle Suicide with Precision and Care

Record theological, historical, ritual, legal, and pastoral classifications without:

19. Do Not Pathologize Grief Experiences Automatically

Dreams of the dead, sensed presence, hearing a deceased person’s voice, or continuing bonds may possess culturally normative interpretations.

Clinical concern depends on distress, impairment, risk, and context—not merely on the experience’s religious content.

20. Do Not Let Religious Interpretation Replace Medical Care

Beliefs about possession, soul departure, miraculous recovery, or spiritually significant dying must not obstruct necessary emergency, palliative, psychiatric, or public-health care.

21. Treat Human Remains as Persons and Evidence

Human remains may be simultaneously:

22. Protect Sensitive Burial Information

Do not publicly expose:

23. Distinguish Current Medical and Legal Standards from Religious Doctrine

Specific rules concerning:

must be verified by jurisdiction and date when applied to a real case.

24. Preserve Apophatic and Agnostic Positions

Some traditions deliberately refuse precise speculation about the afterlife.

“Unknown” may be an authoritative theological conclusion.

25. Do Not Assume Moral Enforcement Is the Sole Function

Afterlife belief may also provide:

26. Analyze Benefits and Harms

A doctrine may console some persons while terrifying others.

A mourning rule may create solidarity while burdening widows, lower-status persons, or financially vulnerable households.

27. Distinguish Final Doctrine from Pastoral Emphasis

A tradition may possess a severe formal teaching but emphasize mercy in pastoral care—or the reverse.

28. State Confidence Precisely

Use categories such as:

Comprehensive Death and Afterlife Template

Part I — Scope, Terminology, Models, and Evidence

1. Death-and-Afterlife Scope Lock

Questions to answer

Required scope statement

This analysis reconstructs the personhood, dying, death, postmortem transition, destiny, continuing dead, mortuary system, and final individual fate recognized within [religious unit] across [periods, regions, and branches]. It includes [specified doctrinal and lived systems] and excludes [specified materials], while treating sensitive remains, burial locations, and restricted teachings under appropriate controls.

2. Applicability of “Death,” “Soul,” and “Afterlife”

Questions to answer

3. Indigenous Death-and-Afterlife Lexicon

For every major term, record:

Required terms where applicable

4. Master Death-and-Afterlife Model Inventory

List every materially distinct model.

Possible models

Required fields

5. Truth-Status Register

For every claim, mark whether it is treated as:

6. Analytical Level Register

Distinguish claims concerning:

7. Temporal-Stage Register

For every doctrine, identify whether it concerns:

8. Evidence Census

Inventory:

9. Evidence and Confidence

Questions to answer

10. Restricted and Sensitive Knowledge

Questions to answer

11. Metaphysical Claim Protocol

For every postmortem claim, separate:

  1. Traditional assertion — what the religion teaches.
  2. Testimonial fact — what a source or witness reports.
  3. Experiential fact — what a person says was experienced.
  4. Observable fact — what can be externally established.
  5. Historical conclusion — what can be reconstructed.
  6. Scientific conclusion — what empirical methods can evaluate.
  7. Metaphysical status — what remains beyond conclusive adjudication.

12. Death-and-Afterlife Contradiction Register

Record conflicts concerning:

Part II — Constitution of the Living Person

13. Definition of a Person

Questions to answer

14. Body

Questions to answer

15. Soul or Souls

Questions to answer

16. Spirit

Questions to answer

17. Self

Questions to answer

18. Mind and Consciousness

Questions to answer

19. Breath and Life-Force

Questions to answer

20. Heart, Blood, and Vital Organs

Questions to answer

21. Name

Questions to answer

22. Shadow, Reflection, Image, and Double

Questions to answer

23. Memory

Questions to answer

24. Will and Moral Character

Questions to answer

25. Destiny, Fate, Merit, and Karmic Disposition

Questions to answer

26. Social and Relational Personhood

Questions to answer

27. Dividual and Distributed Personhood

Questions to answer

28. Origin of Personal Components

Questions to answer

29. Entry of the Soul or Personhood

Questions to answer

30. Gender, Age, and Status of the Person

Questions to answer

31. Animals, Plants, and Nonhuman Persons

Questions to answer

32. Mortal and Immortal Components

Create a matrix:

ComponentExists in lifeCan separateSurvives deathDurationDestinationFinal state

33. Integration and Fragmentation

Questions to answer

34. Criteria of Personal Continuity

Assess continuity through:

Part III — Dying and the Event of Death

35. Nature of Dying

Questions to answer

36. Preparation for Death

Questions to answer

Exact rites belong under Ritual and Practice.

37. Ideal or Good Death

Possible elements

Questions to answer

38. Bad, Untimely, or Improper Death

Possible categories

Questions to answer

39. Sudden Death

Questions to answer

40. Violent Death

Questions to answer

41. Martyrdom and Witness Through Death

Questions to answer

42. Suicide and Self-Caused Death

Questions to answer

A descriptive framework should never supply methods or romanticize self-destruction.

43. Execution and Judicial Death

Questions to answer

44. Death in War

Questions to answer

45. Death in Childbirth

Questions to answer

46. Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Neonatal Death

Questions to answer

47. Death of Children

Questions to answer

48. Death of Outsiders and Enemies

Questions to answer

49. Death Away from Home

Questions to answer

50. Missing, Destroyed, or Unrecoverable Body

Questions to answer

51. Mass Death, Epidemic, Disaster, and Genocide

Questions to answer

52. Death During Ritual, Pilgrimage, or Sacred Service

Questions to answer

53. Temporary Death, Trance, Coma, and Return Narratives

Questions to answer

54. Near-Death Experiences

Questions to answer

55. Criteria and Signs of Death

Possible criteria include:

Questions to answer

56. Point of Irreversibility

Questions to answer

57. Social and Ritual Recognition of Death

Questions to answer

58. Death Pollution and Corpse Danger

Questions to answer

Part IV — Separation, Transition, and the Intermediate State

59. Moment of Separation

Questions to answer

60. Postmortem Awareness

Questions to answer

61. Proximity to the Body

Questions to answer

62. Proximity to Home and Family

Questions to answer

63. Psychopomp and Escort

Questions to answer

The being’s full profile belongs under Pantheon and Supernatural Beings.

64. Route and Journey

Questions to answer

65. Thresholds and Gates

Questions to answer

66. Liminal Interval

Questions to answer

67. Sleep and Waiting

Questions to answer

68. Purification and Preparation

Questions to answer

69. Examination and Recognition

Questions to answer

70. Provisions and Equipment

Questions to answer

71. Dangers in Transition

Possible dangers include:

Questions to answer

72. Signs of Successful Transition

Possible signs

Questions to answer

73. Failed Transition

Possible outcomes

Questions to answer

74. Postmortem Aid from the Living

Questions to answer

75. Postmortem Choice

Questions to answer

76. End of the Intermediate State

Questions to answer

Part V — Judgment, Moral Causation, and Postmortem Determination

77. Is There Judgment?

Questions to answer

78. Judge or Judging Authority

Possible judges

Questions to answer

79. Tribunal and Procedure

Questions to answer

80. Records of Deeds

Questions to answer

81. Moral Conduct

Questions to answer

82. Intention and Inner State

Questions to answer

83. Faith, Belief, and Allegiance

Questions to answer

84. Ritual and Initiatory Status

Questions to answer

85. Grace, Mercy, and Divine Gift

Questions to answer

86. Karma and Moral Causation

Questions to answer

87. Merit and Demerit

Questions to answer

88. Fate and Predestination

Questions to answer

89. Manner of Death

Questions to answer

90. Social and Ritual Status

Questions to answer

91. Correct Burial and Memorial Support

Questions to answer

92. Intercession

Questions to answer

93. Postmortem Repentance and Conversion

Questions to answer

94. Children and Persons Without Full Capacity

Questions to answer

95. Outsiders and the Unevangelized or Uninitiated

Questions to answer

96. Animals and Nonhuman Beings

Questions to answer

97. Collective Judgment

Questions to answer

98. Temporary Punishment and Purification

Questions to answer

99. Final and Irreversible Punishment

Questions to answer

100. Universal Salvation, Restoration, or Liberation

Questions to answer

101. Second Death and Annihilation

Questions to answer

Part VI — Postmortem Destinations, States, and Modes of Continuity

102. No Personal Survival

Questions to answer

103. Agnosticism and Suspended Judgment

Questions to answer

104. Continuity Through Memory and Descendants

Questions to answer

105. Neutral Underworld

Questions to answer

106. Ancestral Realm

Questions to answer

107. Heavenly or Celestial Realm

Questions to answer

108. Paradise

Questions to answer

109. Infernal Realm

Questions to answer

110. Purgative or Corrective State

Questions to answer

111. Postmortem Sleep

Questions to answer

112. Earthbound Survival

Questions to answer

113. Ghosthood

Questions to answer

114. Reincarnation

Questions to answer

115. Rebirth Without Permanent Self

Questions to answer

116. Transmigration Among Realms or Species

Questions to answer

117. Resurrection

Questions to answer

118. Immortality of the Soul

Questions to answer

119. Bodily Immortality

Questions to answer

120. Deification and Apotheosis

Questions to answer

121. Saintly or Perfected Postmortem Existence

Questions to answer

The postmortem being’s complete entity dossier belongs under Pantheon and Supernatural Beings.

122. Liberation from Rebirth or Conditioned Existence

Questions to answer

123. Union with the Divine

Questions to answer

124. Absorption into Ultimate Reality

Questions to answer

125. Return to Elements or Cosmos

Questions to answer

126. Multiple Simultaneous Destinies

Questions to answer

127. Differentiated Destinies by Social Status

Questions to answer

128. Differentiated Destinies by Manner of Death

Questions to answer

129. Body in the Afterlife

Questions to answer

130. Gender, Sex, and Age After Death

Questions to answer

131. Recognition and Reunion

Questions to answer

132. Activity After Death

Questions to answer

133. Food, Pleasure, Pain, and Sensation

Questions to answer

134. Social Hierarchy After Death

Questions to answer

135. Time After Death

Questions to answer

136. Change and Progress After Death

Questions to answer

137. Finality

Questions to answer

Part VII — Rebirth, Reincarnation, and Transmigration

138. Rebirth Applicability

Questions to answer

139. Transmigrating or Continuing Principle

Possible candidates:

Questions to answer

140. Mechanism of Rebirth

Questions to answer

141. Interval Between Lives

Questions to answer

142. Determinants of Rebirth

Possible determinants

Questions to answer

143. Possible Realms and Forms

Questions to answer

144. Choice and Compulsion

Questions to answer

145. Memory of Previous Lives

Questions to answer

146. Recognition of Reincarnated Persons

Questions to answer

147. Rebirth Within Family or Lineage

Questions to answer

148. Identity Without Memory

Questions to answer

149. Population and Multiplicity

Questions to answer

150. Gender and Social Status Across Lives

Questions to answer

151. Moral and Social Effects of Rebirth Doctrine

Questions to answer

152. Liberation from Rebirth

Questions to answer

153. Voluntary Return

Questions to answer

154. Rebirth Variant Matrix

Community or sourceWhat continuesIntervalDeterminantPossible formsMemoryFinal liberation

Part VIII — Resurrection and Reconstituted Personhood

155. Resurrection Applicability

Questions to answer

156. Resurrecting Agent

Questions to answer

157. Timing

Questions to answer

158. Scope

Questions to answer

159. Body Continuity

Questions to answer

160. Transformed Body

Possible qualities

Questions to answer

161. Memory and Character

Questions to answer

162. Resurrection and Judgment

Questions to answer

163. Resurrection and New Creation

Questions to answer

164. Resurrection and Present Corpse Treatment

Questions to answer

165. Collective and Corporate Resurrection

Questions to answer

166. Realized or Spiritual Resurrection

Questions to answer

167. Resurrection Variant Matrix

Source or branchWho risesWhenBody typeJudgment relationFinal environmentCurrent interpretation

Part IX — Ancestors, Ghosts, Saints, and the Continuing Dead

168. Continuing Dead Census

Inventory:

169. Qualification for Ancestorhood

Questions to answer

170. Recent Dead versus Established Ancestors

Questions to answer

171. Individual versus Collective Ancestors

Questions to answer

172. Biological versus Ritual Ancestors

Questions to answer

173. Deified Ancestors

Questions to answer

174. Ancestor Agency

Possible powers

Questions to answer

175. Duties Owed to Ancestors

Questions to answer

176. Duties of Ancestors to the Living

Questions to answer

177. Ancestor Communication

Possible channels

Questions to answer

178. Saints and Holy Dead

Questions to answer

179. Martyrs and Heroic Dead

Questions to answer

180. Ghosts

Questions to answer

181. Restless and Unincorporated Dead

Possible causes

Questions to answer

182. Dangerous Dead

Questions to answer

183. Revenants and Bodily Return

Questions to answer

184. Forgotten Dead

Questions to answer

185. Unclaimed and Unidentified Dead

Questions to answer

186. Victims of Violence and Injustice

Questions to answer

187. Child Ghosts and Child Ancestors

Questions to answer

188. Relationship Between Ancestorhood and Rebirth

Questions to answer

189. Relationship Between Ghosthood and Final Destiny

Questions to answer

190. Continuing-Dead Relationship Matrix

Dead categoryHow acquiredLocationAgencyDuties owed by livingBenefits or dangersFinal transition

Part X — Mortuary, Funerary, and Memorial System

This part records what each mortuary act is believed to accomplish for the deceased and community. The exact step-by-step performance belongs under Ritual and Practice; the physical tombs, graves, vessels, and remains belong under Sacred Space and Material Culture; burial rights and corpse custody belong under Social Function and Law.

191. Pre-Death Care

Questions to answer

192. Final Words and Final Consciousness

Questions to answer

193. Immediate Treatment of the Body

Questions to answer

194. Custody of the Body

Questions to answer

195. Preparation of the Body

Possible processes

Questions to answer

196. Posture and Orientation

Questions to answer

197. Burial

Questions to answer

198. Cremation

Questions to answer

199. Exposure and Excarnation

Questions to answer

200. Mummification and Preservation

Questions to answer

201. Water Disposition

Questions to answer

202. Secondary Burial

Questions to answer

203. Exhumation and Reburial

Questions to answer

204. Grave Goods and Provisions

Questions to answer

205. Funerary Texts and Instructions

Questions to answer

206. Mourning Period

Questions to answer

207. Lament and Emotional Expression

Questions to answer

208. Funeral Assembly and Social Reclassification

Questions to answer

209. Memorial and Anniversary Rites

Questions to answer

210. Ancestor Incorporation

Questions to answer

211. Funerals Without a Body

Questions to answer

212. Mass Funerals and Collective Memorials

Questions to answer

213. Funeral Economy

Questions to answer

214. Funeral Labor

Questions to answer

215. Corpse Donation, Autopsy, and Scientific Study

Questions to answer

216. Relics and Postmortem Bodily Transformation

Questions to answer

217. Digital Memorials and Posthumous Data

Questions to answer

Part XI — Grief, Mourning, Ethics, and Social Function

218. Emic Theory of Grief

Questions to answer

219. Continuing Bonds

Questions to answer

220. Emotional Regulation

Questions to answer

221. Gendered Mourning

Questions to answer

222. Disenfranchised Grief

Questions to answer

223. Traumatic Grief

Questions to answer

224. Consolation

Questions to answer

225. Fear of Death

Questions to answer

226. Meaning of Life in Light of Death

Questions to answer

227. Moral Motivation

Questions to answer

228. Social Control

Questions to answer

229. Social Cohesion

Questions to answer

230. Ancestor Authority and Social Order

Questions to answer

231. Political Uses of the Dead

Questions to answer

232. Funeral Inequality

Questions to answer

233. Welfare and Care

Questions to answer

234. Funeral and Memorial Economies

Questions to answer

235. Collective Memory and Identity

Questions to answer

236. Secularization and Cultural Persistence

Questions to answer

Part XII — Evidence for Death-and-Afterlife Systems

237. Scriptural and Doctrinal Evidence

Questions to answer

238. Funerary Texts

Questions to answer

239. Tomb and Memorial Inscriptions

Questions to answer

240. Burial Archaeology

Questions to answer

241. Human Remains

Questions to answer

242. Taphonomy and Preservation Bias

Questions to answer

243. Grave Goods

Questions to answer

244. Iconography

Questions to answer

245. Oral Traditions

Questions to answer

246. Ethnography

Questions to answer

247. Dreams and Apparitions

Questions to answer

248. Mediumship and Possession Reports

Questions to answer

249. Near-Death and Out-of-Body Reports

Questions to answer

250. Hagiography and Miracle Traditions

Questions to answer

251. Legal and Administrative Records

Questions to answer

252. Medical and Scientific Evidence

Questions to answer

253. Comparative Evidence

Questions to answer

254. Evidence of Official versus Lived Belief

Questions to answer

255. Death-and-Afterlife Evidence Ledger

ClaimEvidencePeriod and regionEmic interpretationAlternative interpretationConfidenceMetaphysical remainder

Part XIII — Contemporary Medical, Legal, Technological, and Environmental Questions

256. Modern Criteria of Death

Questions to answer

Current standards must be verified by place and date.

257. Life Support

Questions to answer

258. Palliative Care and Pain Relief

Questions to answer

259. Assisted Dying and Euthanasia

Questions to answer

This framework records positions; it does not replace medical or legal advice.

260. Organ and Tissue Donation

Questions to answer

261. Autopsy

Questions to answer

262. Embalming and Preservation

Questions to answer

263. Cremation and Modern Crematoria

Questions to answer

264. Green Burial and Environmental Disposition

Questions to answer

265. Body Donation and Research

Questions to answer

266. Cryonics and Technological Preservation

Questions to answer

267. Cloning, Mind Uploading, and Digital Continuity

Questions to answer

268. Artificial-Intelligence Memorial Avatars

Questions to answer

269. Digital Estate and Posthumous Privacy

Questions to answer

270. Disaster Mortuary Management

Questions to answer

271. Migration and Repatriation of Remains

Questions to answer

272. Cemetery Scarcity and Urbanization

Questions to answer

273. Climate Change

Questions to answer

274. Pandemic and Public Health

Questions to answer

275. Space Burial and Extraterrestrial Death

Questions to answer

276. Contemporary Issue Register

IssueTraditional principleCurrent authoritative positionsJurisdictional lawPractical conflictCurrent resolution

Part XIV — Historical Development, Variation, Comparison, and Integration

277. Historical Development of Personhood

Questions to answer

278. Historical Development of Death Criteria

Questions to answer

279. Development of Afterlife Geography

Questions to answer

280. Development of Judgment Doctrine

Questions to answer

281. Development of Funeral Practice

Questions to answer

282. Syncretism and Combined Models

Questions to answer

283. Missionary and Colonial Reclassification

Questions to answer

284. Secularization

Questions to answer

285. Revival and Reconstruction

Questions to answer

286. Diaspora Variation

Questions to answer

287. Branch Variation

Required matrix

BranchPerson modelDeath eventIntermediate stateJudgmentFinal destinyAncestor relationFuneral implications

288. Regional Variation

Questions to answer

289. Social and Class Variation

Questions to answer

290. Philosophical versus Popular Afterlife

Questions to answer

291. Controlled Comparative Classification

Possible comparative categories include:

Questions to answer

292. Death–Pantheon Integration

Questions to answer

The full profiles of these beings belong under Pantheon and Supernatural Beings.

293. Death–Cosmology Integration

Questions to answer

The full architecture of realms and cosmic eschatology belongs under Cosmology and Myth.

294. Death–Ritual Integration

Questions to answer

Exact performance belongs under Ritual and Practice.

295. Final Death-and-Afterlife Synthesis

One-sentence system statement

[Religion] understands the living person as [personhood model], death as [event or process], postmortem transition as [transition model], destiny as determined by [judgment or causal principles], and final existence as [afterlife, rebirth, resurrection, liberation, dissolution, or non-survival], while maintaining relations between living and dead through [ancestor, memorial, intercessory, or other system].

Expanded synthesis

The final analysis should identify:

Universal Dossiers

296. Universal Personhood Dossier

Required fields

297. Universal Death-Event Dossier

Required fields

298. Universal Death-Type Dossier

Required fields

299. Universal Postmortem-Stage Dossier

Required fields

300. Universal Judgment Dossier

Required fields

301. Universal Afterlife-State Dossier

Required fields

302. Universal Rebirth or Resurrection Dossier

Required fields

303. Universal Continuing-Dead Dossier

Required fields

304. Universal Mortuary-System Dossier

Required fields

Required Analytical Outputs

305. Person-Component Matrix

ComponentFunction in lifeLocationSeparabilityStatus at deathPostmortem destinationFinal fate

306. Death-Stage Timeline

Living preparation → dying → death recognition → body–person separation → liminal interval → judgment or sorting → intermediate destination → final destiny.

307. Death-Type Matrix

Death typeMoral classificationRitual consequencePostmortem risk or privilegeFamily consequenceRepair

308. Postmortem Journey Map

Show:

309. Judgment Matrix

CriterionWeight or roleAuthorityExceptionsMercy or aidResult

310. Afterlife Topology

Map:

311. Immediate–Intermediate–Final Matrix

Person or classImmediate stateIntermediate stateFinal stateTimingConditions

312. Identity-Continuity Matrix

ModelBody continuitySoul continuityMemory continuityCausal continuitySocial continuitySame person?

313. Rebirth Matrix

BranchWhat continuesRebirth mechanismDeterminantsPossible embodimentsMemoryLiberation

314. Resurrection Matrix

BranchWho risesWhenBody formIdentity criterionJudgment relationFinal world

315. Living–Dead Relationship Map

Show:

316. Ancestor and Ghost Matrix

CategoryQualificationSocial integrationAgencyRelation to placeRelation to descendantsFinal fate

317. Mortuary-System Flowchart

Dying care → declaration → body custody → preparation → disposition → mourning → memorial → ancestor or final-status incorporation.

318. Body-Disposition Matrix

MethodTheological rationaleBody statusTimingRemains statusAfterlife consequenceCurrent legality

319. Mourning Matrix

RelationshipRequired durationRequired conductProhibited conductSocial supportEnd condition

320. Official–Lived Comparison

TopicOfficial doctrineLiturgical presuppositionPopular beliefHousehold practiceLocal or esoteric form

321. Historical and Regional Variant Map

Show changes in:

322. Contemporary-Issue Matrix

IssueTraditional principleCurrent branch positionsLegal or medical interfaceUnresolved conflict

323. Social-Function Matrix

Doctrine or practiceIntended functionActual effectsBeneficiariesBurdened personsEvidence

324. Evidence and Confidence Ledger

Every major conclusion linked to:

325. Final Death-and-Afterlife Model

A single integrated diagram must show:

  1. Living person-components.
  2. death trigger.
  3. separation process.
  4. transitional stages.
  5. judgment or causal process.
  6. possible destinations.
  7. relations with living persons.
  8. rebirth, resurrection, liberation, or final cessation.
  9. relation to cosmic completion.

Mandatory Death and Afterlife Deliverables

A completed analysis must contain all of the following.

1. Death-and-afterlife scope declaration

Religion, branches, periods, regions, included models, exclusions, and cutoff date.

2. Terminology-applicability statement

Whether soul, spirit, self, death, afterlife, heaven, hell, underworld, ancestor, ghost, rebirth, reincarnation, and resurrection are accurate terms.

3. Indigenous death-and-afterlife lexicon

Original terms, scripts, pronunciations, meanings, contrasts, and translation limits.

4. Complete model inventory

Every official, popular, philosophical, local, esoteric, historical, and contemporary model.

5. Truth-status register

Literal, revealed, philosophical, symbolic, ritual, popular, disputed, agnostic, and rejected interpretations.

6. Complete personhood model

Every body, soul, self, mind, breath, life-force, name, shadow, heart, memory, lineage, and relational component.

7. Person-component matrix

Function, separability, mortality, destination, and final fate.

8. Personal-identity analysis

Bodily, soul, memory, causal, name, social, lineage, and divine-recognition continuity.

9. Beginning-of-personhood profile

Conception, gestation, birth, first breath, naming, initiation, and gradual personhood.

10. Animal and nonhuman afterlife profile

Soul, death, judgment, rebirth, resurrection, and relation to humans.

11. Definition-of-death profile

Biological, clinical, social, legal, ritual, spiritual, and ontological definitions.

12. Dying-process profile

Preparation, awareness, presence, location, reconciliation, and ideal death.

13. Death-recognition protocol

Signs, authority, timing, reversibility, and body-handling threshold.

14. Good-death profile

Conditions, accessibility, pastoral interpretation, and current adaptations.

15. Bad- or anomalous-death register

Sudden, violent, distant, unburied, improper, premature, and ritually difficult deaths.

16. Martyrdom profile

Qualification, recognition, destiny, relic status, political use, and controversy.

17. Suicide and self-caused-death profile

Historical and current moral teaching, capacity, funeral treatment, pastoral care, family protection, and prevention.

18. War- and execution-death profile

Combatants, civilians, enemies, heroic status, repentance, burial, and memory.

19. Pregnancy-, miscarriage-, stillbirth-, and infant-death profile

Personhood, naming, funeral, mourning, burial, destiny, and reform.

20. Child-death profile

Accountability, destination, ritual status, ancestorhood, and family care.

21. Missing-body profile

Death recognition, funeral substitution, ancestorhood, resurrection, and unresolved mourning.

22. Mass-death profile

Collective rites, identification, graves, memory, justice, and postmortem incorporation.

23. Near-death and temporary-death profile

Medical context, reported experience, traditional interpretation, alternative explanation, and epistemic limits.

24. Separation model

What separates, when, how, where, and with what possibility of failure.

25. Immediate postmortem profile

Awareness, body proximity, home proximity, perception, and agency.

26. Psychopomp and guide profile

Guide, authority, route, protection, and differential access.

27. Journey map

Routes, thresholds, obstacles, provisions, names, and destinations.

28. Intermediate-state profile

Duration, awareness, location, purpose, dangers, aid, and end condition.

29. Failed-transition profile

Causes, ghosthood, wandering, danger, repair, and family consequences.

30. Postmortem-aid profile

Prayer, offerings, merit, intercession, burial, charity, and temporal limits.

31. Judgment profile

Judge, timing, procedure, records, standards, mercy, and finality.

32. Moral-causation profile

Deeds, intention, virtue, vice, karma, merit, fate, grace, and ritual status.

33. Children-and-outsiders judgment profile

Capacity, ignorance, membership, initiation, conscience, and universal standards.

34. Temporary-purification profile

Purpose, duration, suffering, aid, progression, and final result.

35. Final-punishment profile

Nature, duration, proportionality, reversibility, annihilation, and competing interpretations.

36. Universal-restoration profile

Scope, process, freedom, justice, purification, and branch status.

37. Annihilation and non-survival profile

What ceases, when, why, and how non-survival relates to ethics and meaning.

38. Complete afterlife-state census

Every heaven, paradise, hell, underworld, ancestor realm, ghost state, sleep state, purgative state, rebirth realm, and liberated state.

39. Afterlife topology

Spatial, ontological, moral, temporal, and relational map.

40. Body-after-death profile

Subtle body, spiritual body, resurrection body, no body, bodily sensation, and integrity.

41. Identity-after-death profile

Memory, name, recognition, relationships, personality, and continuity.

42. Gender-and-age afterlife profile

Persistence, transformation, maturation, ideal age, and branch variation.

43. Activity-after-death profile

Rest, work, worship, learning, intercession, governance, pleasure, and suffering.

44. Time-after-death profile

Sequence, duration, eternity, timelessness, rate, and relation to earthly time.

45. Rebirth profile

Continuing principle, mechanism, interval, determinants, forms, memory, recognition, and liberation.

46. Rebirth-recognition register

Claimants, evidence, institutional tests, political interests, disputes, and confidence.

47. Resurrection profile

Agent, scope, timing, body continuity, transformation, judgment, and new creation.

48. Resurrection-and-remains profile

Cremation, decomposition, organ donation, missing remains, relics, and material identity.

49. Liberation profile

What is escaped, what continues, who attains it, mechanism, and final status.

50. Union-and-absorption profile

Personal continuity, divine relation, individuality, memory, and metaphysical interpretation.

51. Complete continuing-dead census

Ancestors, recent dead, saints, martyrs, heroes, ghosts, revenants, dangerous dead, forgotten dead, and unidentified dead.

52. Ancestorhood profile

Qualification, incorporation, identity, agency, duties, communication, and final fate.

53. Ghost profile

Person-component, cause, location, consciousness, danger, communication, and resolution.

54. Dangerous-dead profile

Categories, attributed harms, causes, social meaning, treatment, and repair.

55. Living–dead relationship map

Prayer, memory, offerings, dreams, possession, intercession, protection, punishment, and reciprocity.

56. Pre-death care profile

Spiritual preparation, medical care, family presence, reconciliation, and consciousness.

57. Body-custody profile

Family, institution, state, deceased wishes, dispute, and current law.

58. Body-preparation profile

Washing, dressing, preservation, purity, identity, and current health controls.

59. Body-disposition profile

Burial, cremation, exposure, water, mummification, secondary burial, and alternatives.

60. Orientation and grave-position profile

Posture, direction, location, status, and cosmological relation.

61. Grave-goods profile

Objects, provisions, status, protection, symbolism, and alternative interpretation.

62. Funerary-text profile

Content, audience, use, access, social class, and historical context.

63. Mourning profile

Duration, conduct, emotion, kinship, gender, social support, and conclusion.

64. Memorial profile

Anniversaries, names, graves, household memory, communal festivals, and fading individuality.

65. Ancestor-incorporation profile

Timing, rites, remains, names, social recognition, and failure.

66. Funeral-without-body profile

Substitutes, validity, mourning, postmortem effect, and legal recognition.

67. Mass-funeral and collective-memorial profile

Names, remains, ritual sufficiency, politics, and survivor needs.

68. Funeral-economy profile

Costs, funding, debt, institutional fees, poor burial, and status competition.

69. Funeral-labor profile

Body workers, mourners, cooks, grave workers, gender, class, stigma, pay, and health.

70. Relics-and-human-remains profile

Identity, division, presence, scientific testing, display, custody, and repatriation.

71. Grief profile

Emic theory, emotional norms, continuing bonds, trauma, gender, and disenfranchised grief.

72. Consolation-and-fear profile

Hope, judgment, reunion, fear, pastoral use, and psychological effect.

73. Moral-function profile

Reward, punishment, virtue, justice, suffering, and ethical motivation.

74. Social-function profile

Cohesion, ancestor authority, welfare, hierarchy, inequality, political memory, and social control.

75. Contemporary-medical profile

Death criteria, life support, palliative care, organ donation, autopsy, and treatment limits.

76. Contemporary-body-disposition profile

Cremation, embalming, green burial, body donation, cemetery scarcity, and environmental effects.

77. Digital-afterlife profile

Accounts, memorials, AI avatars, data custody, consent, privacy, and identity.

78. Disaster-and-pandemic profile

Emergency rites, identification, public health, mass burial, remote mourning, and later repair.

79. Migration-and-repatriation profile

Homeland burial, transfer, delay, ashes, diaspora cemeteries, and ancestral geography.

80. Official–popular–local–esoteric comparison

Parallel personhood, death, afterlife, ghost, and funeral systems.

81. Historical-development timeline

Personhood, death criteria, judgment, afterlife realms, funeral forms, ancestorhood, and modern reinterpretation.

82. Branch and regional variant matrix

Every significant difference in doctrine and practice.

83. Controlled comparative profile

Structural analogies, historical contact, translation limits, and false-equivalence controls.

84. Evidence and confidence ledger

Every major claim tied to the appropriate evidence and uncertainty.

85. Restricted-knowledge register

Teachings, names, routes, remains, burial sites, images, and records withheld from public disclosure.

86. Final personhood synthesis

One concise statement explaining what a person is.

87. Final death synthesis

One concise statement explaining what death is and when it occurs.

88. Final afterlife synthesis

One concise statement explaining postmortem transition and destiny.

89. Final living–dead synthesis

One concise statement explaining continuing relations with the deceased.

90. Final integrated model

One complete account linking life, death, transition, destiny, memory, and cosmic completion.

Non-Overlap Rules

The framework’s governing method separates supernatural actors from cosmological operation, ritual acts from institutional organization, material forms from symbols, and beliefs from social order. Death and Afterlife necessarily touches several dimensions, but it must retain a precise center: the person’s transition through death and the forms of personal or relational continuity that follow.

Identity and Scope

Identity and Scope determines which religious population, branch, period, and region are being studied. Death and Afterlife determines what those communities teach and do concerning mortality and postmortem destiny.

Historical Context

Historical Context dates changes in soul doctrine, burial, judgment, resurrection, rebirth, ancestorhood, and funerary institutions. Death and Afterlife reconstructs the content of each historical model.

Sources of Evidence

Sources of Evidence evaluates funerary texts, graves, human remains, inscriptions, ethnography, visions, and testimony. Death and Afterlife synthesizes what those sources support concerning personhood and postmortem destiny.

Pantheon and Supernatural Beings

Pantheon profiles psychopomps, judges, death deities, saints, ancestors, ghosts, demons, and other postmortem beings as entities. Death and Afterlife explains how human persons become, encounter, or relate to those beings through death.

Cosmology and Myth

Cosmology and Myth maps the full structure of heavens, underworlds, cosmic cycles, final judgment, and world renewal. Death and Afterlife maps the deceased person’s route and condition within that larger structure.

Ritual and Practice

Death and Afterlife explains what a funerary, mourning, memorial, or ancestral act is believed to accomplish for the dead. Ritual and Practice gives the exact words, gestures, materials, sequence, performers, timing, validity rules, and error correction.

Sacred Space and Material Culture

Death and Afterlife explains the status of corpse, relic, remains, grave goods, tomb occupancy, and postmortem presence. Sacred Space and Material Culture documents the physical cemetery, tomb, body, urn, coffin, ossuary, relic, and memorial object.

Religious Specialists and Institutions

Death and Afterlife identifies the functions needed at death—guidance, preparation, judgment teaching, mourning care, memorialization, and ancestor mediation. Religious Specialists and Institutions analyzes the offices, training, authority, jurisdiction, succession, and accountability of the people and bodies performing those functions.

Social Function and Law

Death and Afterlife analyzes the deceased person’s ontological status and destiny. Social Function and Law analyzes corpse custody, inheritance, burial rights, cemetery access, widowhood, orphanhood, legal death, mourning obligations, and institutional sanctions.

Symbolism and Cultural Expression

Death and Afterlife identifies doctrinally relevant images such as journeys, gates, scales, sleep, light, darkness, bones, seeds, and rebirth. Symbolism and Cultural Expression analyzes their full aesthetic, linguistic, literary, musical, and political meanings.

Contact and Transformation

Death and Afterlife records the resulting mixed, reformed, suppressed, revived, or reconstructed beliefs. Contact and Transformation explains how conquest, migration, mission, colonialism, translation, polemic, science, secularization, and revival produced those changes.

Final Quality-Control Audit

A Death and Afterlife analysis is complete only when every question below is answered yes, not applicable, branch-specific, historical only, restricted, metaphysically unresolved, or explicitly unknown.

Scope and terminology

  1. Is the religious unit precisely defined?
  2. Are included branches stated?
  3. Are included periods stated?
  4. Are included regions stated?
  5. Is the contemporary cutoff date stated?
  6. Are extinct doctrines included?
  7. Are popular beliefs included?
  8. Are household beliefs included?
  9. Are philosophical teachings included?
  10. Are esoteric teachings included without improper disclosure?
  11. Are local mortuary customs included?
  12. Are agnostic and no-afterlife positions included?
  13. Is “death” tested for applicability?
  14. Is “soul” tested?
  15. Is “spirit” tested?
  16. Is “self” tested?
  17. Is “afterlife” tested?
  18. Is “heaven” tested?
  19. Is “hell” tested?
  20. Is “underworld” tested?
  21. Is “ancestor” tested?
  22. Is “ghost” tested?
  23. Is “reincarnation” tested?
  24. Is “rebirth” tested?
  25. Is “resurrection” tested?
  26. Is “immortality” tested?
  27. Is “eternity” translated precisely?
  28. Are indigenous terms recorded?
  29. Are original scripts recorded?
  30. Are pronunciations recorded?
  31. Are semantic ranges recorded?
  32. Are translation limits stated?
  33. Are restricted names protected?
  34. Are metaphysical and historical claims distinguished?
  35. Are current medical and legal claims jurisdiction-specific?

Model control

  1. Is every materially distinct death-and-afterlife model identified?
  2. Is each model assigned to a source?
  3. Is each model dated?
  4. Is each model located?
  5. Is each model assigned to a branch?
  6. Is each model assigned to a social population?
  7. Are official and popular models distinguished?
  8. Are philosophical and liturgical models distinguished?
  9. Are public and esoteric models distinguished?
  10. Are current and historical models distinguished?
  11. Are literal and symbolic models distinguished?
  12. Are spatial and psychological models distinguished?
  13. Are immediate and final models distinguished?
  14. Are incomplete models marked incomplete?
  15. Are contradictory models preserved?
  16. Is every model assigned a stable ID?
  17. Is every major claim linked to evidence?
  18. Is confidence stated?
  19. Are unknowns preserved?
  20. Is a comparative synthesis prevented from erasing plurality?

Personhood

  1. Is personhood defined?
  2. Is the body’s role stated?
  3. Is the corpse’s status stated?
  4. Is one soul or multiple souls stated?
  5. Is spirit distinguished from soul?
  6. Is self distinguished from consciousness?
  7. Is permanent self affirmed, denied, or qualified?
  8. Is mind identified?
  9. Is consciousness identified?
  10. Is breath identified?
  11. Is life-force identified?
  12. Is heart identified where relevant?
  13. Is blood identified where relevant?
  14. Is name identified?
  15. Is shadow or double identified?
  16. Is memory identified?
  17. Is will identified?
  18. Is moral character identified?
  19. Is destiny or karmic disposition identified?
  20. Is lineage identity identified?
  21. Is relational personhood identified?
  22. Is distributed or dividual personhood identified?
  23. Is origin of each component stated?
  24. Is entry of each component stated?
  25. Is location in life stated?
  26. Is separability stated?
  27. Is mortality stated?
  28. Is postmortem destination stated?
  29. Is final fate stated?
  30. Is gender of components stated?
  31. Is age status stated?
  32. Are animals addressed?
  33. Are plants addressed where applicable?
  34. Are nonhuman persons addressed?
  35. Is bodily integrity addressed?
  36. Is fragmentation addressed?
  37. Is reintegration addressed?
  38. Is component loss addressed?
  39. Is component theft addressed where applicable?
  40. Is preexistence addressed?
  41. Is reincarnating principle identified?
  42. Is resurrecting identity identified?
  43. Is ancestor-forming component identified?
  44. Is ghost-forming component identified?
  45. Is personal continuity criterion stated?

Beginning and continuity of personhood

  1. Is conception addressed?
  2. Is implantation addressed where relevant?
  3. Is gestation addressed?
  4. Is quickening addressed where relevant?
  5. Is birth addressed?
  6. Is first breath addressed?
  7. Is naming addressed?
  8. Is initiation addressed?
  9. Is gradual personhood addressed?
  10. Is fetal status stated?
  11. Is miscarriage status stated?
  12. Is stillbirth status stated?
  13. Is neonatal status stated?
  14. Is child status stated?
  15. Is adult status stated?
  16. Is elder status stated?
  17. Is memory continuity addressed?
  18. Is body continuity addressed?
  19. Is soul continuity addressed?
  20. Is causal continuity addressed?
  21. Is name continuity addressed?
  22. Is social continuity addressed?
  23. Is lineage continuity addressed?
  24. Is divine-recognition continuity addressed?
  25. Are duplication problems addressed?
  26. Is continuity without memory explained?
  27. Is continuity after complete bodily loss explained?
  28. Is identity after rebirth explained?
  29. Is identity after resurrection explained?
  30. Is identity after absorption addressed?

Dying and death

  1. Is dying defined?
  2. Is dying a process or event?
  3. Is spiritual preparation stated?
  4. Is bodily preparation stated?
  5. Is reconciliation stated?
  6. Is final consciousness addressed?
  7. Are final words addressed?
  8. Is place of death addressed?
  9. Is presence of family addressed?
  10. Is presence of specialists addressed?
  11. Is pain relief addressed?
  12. Is unconscious death addressed?
  13. Is ideal death defined?
  14. Is accessibility of ideal death assessed?
  15. Is bad death defined?
  16. Is premature death addressed?
  17. Is sudden death addressed?
  18. Is violent death addressed?
  19. Is murder addressed?
  20. Is execution addressed?
  21. Is war death addressed?
  22. Is martyrdom defined?
  23. Is suicide defined by period and branch?
  24. Is impaired responsibility addressed?
  25. Are bereaved families protected from stigma?
  26. Is death in childbirth addressed?
  27. Is miscarriage addressed?
  28. Is stillbirth addressed?
  29. Is infant death addressed?
  30. Is child death addressed?
  31. Is outsider death addressed?
  32. Is enemy death addressed?
  33. Is death away from home addressed?
  34. Is missing-body death addressed?
  35. Is destroyed-body death addressed?
  36. Is mass death addressed?
  37. Is epidemic death addressed?
  38. Is disaster death addressed?
  39. Is genocide or massacre death addressed where relevant?
  40. Is death during ritual addressed?
  41. Is death during pilgrimage addressed?
  42. Is temporary death addressed?
  43. Is coma addressed?
  44. Is resuscitation addressed?
  45. Is near-death experience distinguished from irreversible death?
  46. Is symbolic death distinguished from biological death?

Death criteria and recognition

  1. Are biological criteria stated?
  2. Are clinical criteria stated?
  3. Are legal criteria stated?
  4. Are ritual criteria stated?
  5. Are spiritual criteria stated?
  6. Are social criteria stated?
  7. Is absence of breath addressed?
  8. Is absence of pulse addressed?
  9. Is brain-based death addressed where relevant?
  10. Is circulatory death addressed where relevant?
  11. Is decomposition addressed?
  12. Is soul departure addressed?
  13. Is specialist declaration addressed?
  14. Is medical declaration addressed?
  15. Is legal certification addressed?
  16. Is a waiting period required?
  17. Is reversibility addressed?
  18. Is premature declaration risk addressed?
  19. Is the point of no return stated?
  20. Is residual consciousness addressed?
  21. Is residual presence addressed?
  22. Is body-handling threshold stated?
  23. Is death announcement stated?
  24. Is social-status change stated?

Corpse and separation

  1. Is the corpse still the person?
  2. Is the corpse a former body?
  3. Is the corpse sacred?
  4. Is the corpse impure?
  5. Is the corpse dangerous?
  6. Is the corpse a future resurrection body?
  7. Is bodily damage relevant?
  8. Is decomposition relevant?
  9. Is cooling relevant?
  10. Is soul-body separation immediate?
  11. Is separation gradual?
  12. Is more than one component separated?
  13. Does a component remain in the body?
  14. Does a component remain at the grave?
  15. Can the person reenter the body?
  16. Can separation fail?
  17. Can ritual assist separation?
  18. Can medical intervention interrupt separation?
  19. Does organ removal affect separation?
  20. Does cremation affect separation?

Immediate postmortem state

  1. Is immediate awareness stated?
  2. Is unconsciousness stated?
  3. Is confusion stated?
  4. Is sleep stated?
  5. Is heightened awareness stated?
  6. Can the dead see the body?
  7. Can the dead hear the living?
  8. Can the dead perceive the funeral?
  9. Does the dead remain near the body?
  10. Near the home?
  11. Near the place of death?
  12. Near descendants?
  13. Is immediate agency present?
  14. Can the dead communicate?
  15. Is a guide present?
  16. Is a psychopomp present?
  17. Is a route present?
  18. Are thresholds present?
  19. Are guardians present?
  20. Are dangers present?
  21. Are provisions required?
  22. Are names or passwords required?
  23. Are offerings required?
  24. Is immediate judgment present?
  25. Is immediate rebirth present?

Intermediate state

  1. Is an intermediate state present?
  2. Is it a place or condition?
  3. Is duration stated?
  4. Is time equivalent to earthly time?
  5. Is the deceased conscious?
  6. Is purification occurring?
  7. Is judgment occurring?
  8. Is waiting occurring?
  9. Is wandering occurring?
  10. Is learning occurring?
  11. Is choice occurring?
  12. Can the living assist?
  13. Can the deceased request help?
  14. Are rites time-sensitive?
  15. Can the state be prolonged?
  16. Can it be shortened?
  17. Are dangers identified?
  18. Are successful-transition signs identified?
  19. Is failed transition addressed?
  20. Is ghosthood a possible result?
  21. Is ancestorhood a possible result?
  22. Is rebirth a possible result?
  23. Is resurrection awaited?
  24. Is the state final for some persons?
  25. Is its end condition stated?

Judgment and causation

  1. Is judgment present or absent?
  2. Is a judge identified?
  3. Is a tribunal identified?
  4. Is judgment immediate?
  5. Is judgment repeated?
  6. Is judgment final?
  7. Are records of deeds present?
  8. Are witnesses present?
  9. Is self-judgment present?
  10. Are moral acts considered?
  11. Are omissions considered?
  12. Is intention considered?
  13. Is knowledge considered?
  14. Is capacity considered?
  15. Is repentance considered?
  16. Is faith considered?
  17. Is membership considered?
  18. Is initiation considered?
  19. Is ritual status considered?
  20. Is burial considered?
  21. Is manner of death considered?
  22. Is lineage considered?
  23. Is social status considered?
  24. Is karma defined?
  25. Is merit defined?
  26. Is demerit defined?
  27. Is fate defined?
  28. Is predestination defined?
  29. Is grace defined?
  30. Is mercy defined?
  31. Is intercession defined?
  32. Can merit transfer?
  33. Can living persons aid?
  34. Can the dead repent?
  35. Can judgment be altered?
  36. Are children judged?
  37. Are cognitively impaired persons judged?
  38. Are outsiders judged?
  39. Are animals judged?
  40. Are communities judged collectively?
  41. Are institutions judged?
  42. Is responsibility proportional?
  43. Is moral luck addressed?
  44. Are unequal opportunities addressed?
  45. Is finality stated?

Punishment, purification, and restoration

  1. Is adverse destiny punishment?
  2. Purification?
  3. Natural consequence?
  4. Separation?
  5. Ignorance?
  6. Is suffering bodily?
  7. Mental?
  8. relational?
  9. symbolic?
  10. Is punishment temporary?
  11. Is punishment eternal?
  12. Is “eternal” translated precisely?
  13. Is punishment proportionate?
  14. Is correction possible?
  15. Is learning possible?
  16. Can living persons aid?
  17. Can mercy intervene?
  18. Is annihilation possible?
  19. Is second death present?
  20. Is universal salvation present?
  21. Is universal restoration present?
  22. Are hostile beings included?
  23. Is freedom preserved?
  24. Is restoration final?
  25. Are competing interpretations retained?

Destinations and states

  1. Is no-survival doctrine addressed?
  2. Is agnosticism addressed?
  3. Is symbolic immortality addressed?
  4. Is memory survival addressed?
  5. Is lineage survival addressed?
  6. Is a neutral underworld addressed?
  7. Is an ancestor realm addressed?
  8. Is heaven addressed?
  9. Is paradise addressed?
  10. Is hell addressed?
  11. Is purgative state addressed?
  12. Is sleep state addressed?
  13. Is earthbound state addressed?
  14. Is ghosthood addressed?
  15. Is reincarnation addressed?
  16. Is no-self rebirth addressed?
  17. Is transmigration addressed?
  18. Is resurrection addressed?
  19. Is soul immortality addressed?
  20. Is bodily immortality addressed?
  21. Is deification addressed?
  22. Is saintly existence addressed?
  23. Is liberation addressed?
  24. Is union addressed?
  25. Is absorption addressed?
  26. Is return to elements addressed?
  27. Are multiple simultaneous destinies addressed?
  28. Are status-specific destinations addressed?
  29. Are death-type-specific destinations addressed?
  30. Are all relevant realms inventoried?
  31. Are state and place distinguished?
  32. Is entry condition stated?
  33. Is duration stated?
  34. Is exit possible?
  35. Is finality stated?
  36. Are inhabitants stated?
  37. Is governance stated by cross-reference?
  38. Are popular and official maps compared?

Postmortem embodiment and identity

  1. Does the dead possess a body?
  2. Same body?
  3. Subtle body?
  4. Spiritual body?
  5. Dream body?
  6. No body?
  7. Can the dead eat?
  8. Drink?
  9. speak?
  10. touch?
  11. suffer?
  12. experience pleasure?
  13. Is gender retained?
  14. Is sex retained?
  15. Is age retained?
  16. Do children mature?
  17. Are disabilities retained?
  18. healed?
  19. transformed?
  20. Are wounds retained?
  21. Is identity recognizable?
  22. Does memory remain?
  23. Are relationships remembered?
  24. Is marriage retained?
  25. Is family reunion possible?
  26. Are earthly ranks retained?
  27. Is personality retained?
  28. Can personality change?
  29. Can the dead learn?
  30. Can the dead progress?
  31. Can the dead regress?
  32. Is earthly time experienced?
  33. Is eternity timeless?
  34. Are activities described?
  35. Is final identity stated?

Rebirth

  1. Is rebirth central or peripheral?
  2. What continues?
  3. Is a permanent self denied?
  4. Is causal continuity explained?
  5. Is rebirth immediate?
  6. Is an interval present?
  7. Is rebirth automatic?
  8. Chosen?
  9. assigned?
  10. Are determinants stated?
  11. Is final thought relevant?
  12. Is karma relevant?
  13. Is merit relevant?
  14. Are possible species stated?
  15. Are possible realms stated?
  16. Is human rebirth privileged?
  17. Can gender change?
  18. Can caste or status change?
  19. Can family-line rebirth occur?
  20. Are past-life memories addressed?
  21. Are recognition tests stated?
  22. Are rival claims addressed?
  23. Are political interests addressed?
  24. Is identity without memory explained?
  25. Are population questions addressed?
  26. Is victim-blaming risk addressed?
  27. Is liberation mechanism stated?
  28. Is voluntary return stated?
  29. Are rebirth and ancestorhood reconciled?
  30. Are branch differences mapped?

Resurrection

  1. Is resurrection present?
  2. Is it bodily?
  3. Spiritual?
  4. Transformative?
  5. Who resurrects?
  6. Who is resurrected?
  7. When?
  8. Is there more than one resurrection?
  9. Does judgment precede or follow?
  10. Is the same body restored?
  11. Is the same matter required?
  12. Is divine memory sufficient?
  13. Are cremated persons included?
  14. Are missing bodies included?
  15. Are organ donors included?
  16. Are shared bodily materials addressed?
  17. Is the body incorruptible?
  18. Immortal?
  19. luminous?
  20. Is age restored?
  21. Is gender retained?
  22. Are memories restored?
  23. Are relationships restored?
  24. Is the earth renewed?
  25. Is death abolished?
  26. Are animals included?
  27. Is present symbolic resurrection distinguished?
  28. Are branch differences mapped?

Ancestors and continuing dead

  1. Is every deceased person an ancestor?
  2. Are qualification rules stated?
  3. Is proper funeral required?
  4. Are descendants required?
  5. Is age required?
  6. Is moral status required?
  7. Is social rank required?
  8. Is incorporation required?
  9. Are recent dead distinguished?
  10. Are individual ancestors distinguished from collective ancestors?
  11. Are maternal and paternal lines included?
  12. Are ritual ancestors included?
  13. Are deified ancestors identified?
  14. Is ancestor location stated?
  15. Is ancestor agency stated?
  16. Are ancestor duties stated?
  17. Are descendant duties stated?
  18. Is reciprocity stated?
  19. Is communication stated?
  20. Are dreams addressed?
  21. Is possession addressed?
  22. Is divination addressed?
  23. Are ancestors morally perfected?
  24. Can ancestors harm?
  25. Can ancestorhood end?
  26. Can ancestors reincarnate?
  27. Is forgetting addressed?
  28. Is name erasure addressed?
  29. Are ancestors linked to land and authority?

Ghosts and dangerous dead

  1. Is a ghost defined?
  2. Is ghost distinct from soul?
  3. Is ghost distinct from ancestor?
  4. Does every person produce a ghost?
  5. Is ghosthood normal or anomalous?
  6. Is consciousness stated?
  7. Is body stated?
  8. Is location stated?
  9. Is agency stated?
  10. Is visibility stated?
  11. Is communication stated?
  12. Is danger stated?
  13. Are causes stated?
  14. Is violent death relevant?
  15. Is improper burial relevant?
  16. Is forgetting relevant?
  17. Is suicide treated carefully?
  18. Is child ghosthood addressed?
  19. Are unclaimed dead addressed?
  20. Are victims of violence addressed?
  21. Are collective hauntings addressed?
  22. Is repair possible?
  23. Is exorcism distinguished from assistance?
  24. Can ghosts become ancestors?
  25. Can ghosts reincarnate?
  26. Is final destiny stated?

Mortuary system

  1. Is pre-death care documented?
  2. Are final words documented?
  3. Is consciousness addressed?
  4. Is pain relief addressed?
  5. Is body custody stated?
  6. Are deceased wishes stated?
  7. Is family authority stated?
  8. Is institutional authority stated?
  9. Is state authority stated?
  10. Is dispute procedure stated?
  11. Is immediate body treatment stated?
  12. Is waiting period stated?
  13. Is washing stated?
  14. Is dressing stated?
  15. Is wrapping stated?
  16. Is preservation stated?
  17. Is embalming stated?
  18. Is mummification stated?
  19. Is body orientation stated?
  20. Is posture stated?
  21. Is burial addressed?
  22. Is cremation addressed?
  23. Is exposure addressed?
  24. Is water disposition addressed?
  25. Is secondary burial addressed?
  26. Is exhumation addressed?
  27. Is reburial addressed?
  28. Are grave goods addressed?
  29. Are funerary texts addressed?
  30. Is mourning duration stated?
  31. Is lament addressed?
  32. Is memorialization addressed?
  33. Is ancestor incorporation addressed?
  34. Is funeral without body addressed?
  35. Are mass funerals addressed?
  36. Is funeral economy addressed?
  37. Is funeral labor addressed?
  38. Is poor burial addressed?
  39. Are unclaimed bodies addressed?
  40. Is autopsy addressed?
  41. Is body donation addressed?
  42. Are relics addressed?
  43. Are digital memorials addressed?
  44. Are exact ritual procedures cross-referenced rather than duplicated?

Grief and social function

  1. Is grief defined emically?
  2. Are continuing bonds addressed?
  3. Are emotional expectations stated?
  4. Is restraint addressed?
  5. Is lament addressed?
  6. Is gendered mourning addressed?
  7. Is professional mourning addressed?
  8. Is disenfranchised grief addressed?
  9. Is traumatic grief addressed?
  10. Is suicide bereavement addressed sensitively?
  11. Is child-loss grief addressed?
  12. Is disappearance grief addressed?
  13. Is consolation stated?
  14. Is fear of death addressed?
  15. Is moral motivation addressed?
  16. Is reward-based morality addressed?
  17. Is punishment-based morality addressed?
  18. Is social control addressed?
  19. Is manipulation through fear addressed?
  20. Is cohesion addressed?
  21. Is exclusion addressed?
  22. Is ancestor authority addressed?
  23. Is political use of the dead addressed?
  24. Is funeral inequality addressed?
  25. Is care for mourners addressed?
  26. Are widows addressed?
  27. Are orphans addressed?
  28. Is funeral welfare addressed?
  29. Is collective memory addressed?
  30. Is secularization addressed?

Evidence

  1. Are scriptural sources inventoried?
  2. Are funerary texts inventoried?
  3. Are doctrinal texts inventoried?
  4. Are legal texts inventoried?
  5. Are tomb inscriptions inventoried?
  6. Is burial archaeology assessed?
  7. Are human remains assessed?
  8. Is taphonomy assessed?
  9. Are grave goods assessed?
  10. Is iconography assessed?
  11. Are oral traditions assessed?
  12. Is ethnography assessed?
  13. Are dreams assessed?
  14. Are apparitions assessed?
  15. Is mediumship assessed?
  16. Are near-death reports assessed?
  17. Are hagiographies assessed?
  18. Are miracle claims assessed?
  19. Are administrative records assessed?
  20. Are medical records assessed where appropriate?
  21. Are scientific claims restrained?
  22. Are sources authenticated?
  23. Is source independence assessed?
  24. Is representativeness assessed?
  25. Are elite and ordinary dead compared?
  26. Are women and children represented?
  27. Are poor and unclaimed dead represented?
  28. Are outsider sources critically evaluated?
  29. Are emic and etic accounts separated?
  30. Are testimonial and metaphysical claims separated?
  31. Is confidence stated?
  32. Are unknowns preserved?
  33. Are sensitive remains protected?
  34. Are burial locations protected?
  35. Is destructive analysis ethically controlled?

Contemporary questions

  1. Are current death criteria addressed?
  2. Is brain-based death addressed where relevant?
  3. Is circulatory death addressed?
  4. Is life support addressed?
  5. Is withdrawal of treatment addressed?
  6. Is palliative care addressed?
  7. Is sedation addressed?
  8. Is assisted dying addressed jurisdictionally?
  9. Is organ donation addressed?
  10. Is tissue donation addressed?
  11. Is autopsy addressed?
  12. Is embalming addressed?
  13. Is modern cremation addressed?
  14. Is green burial addressed?
  15. Is body donation addressed?
  16. Is cryonics addressed?
  17. Is cloning addressed?
  18. Is mind uploading addressed?
  19. Are AI memorial avatars addressed?
  20. Is posthumous privacy addressed?
  21. Is digital estate addressed?
  22. Is disaster mortuary management addressed?
  23. Is pandemic adaptation addressed?
  24. Is repatriation of remains addressed?
  25. Is cemetery scarcity addressed?
  26. Is urbanization addressed?
  27. Is climate change addressed?
  28. Is environmental impact addressed?
  29. Is extraterrestrial disposition addressed where relevant?
  30. Are current laws dated and located?
  31. Is analysis distinguished from medical or legal advice?

Variation and transformation

  1. Are historical personhood changes mapped?
  2. Are historical death-criteria changes mapped?
  3. Are afterlife-geography changes mapped?
  4. Are judgment changes mapped?
  5. Are funeral changes mapped?
  6. Is syncretism addressed?
  7. Is missionary reclassification addressed?
  8. Is colonial suppression addressed?
  9. Is grave disturbance addressed?
  10. Is secularization addressed?
  11. Is revival addressed?
  12. Is reconstruction addressed?
  13. Is diaspora variation addressed?
  14. Are branch differences mapped?
  15. Are regional differences mapped?
  16. Are class differences mapped?
  17. Are gendered differences mapped?
  18. Are philosophical and popular differences mapped?
  19. Are current ongoing disputes marked unresolved?
  20. Are historical practices prevented from being presented as current?
  21. Are current practices prevented from being projected backward?
  22. Are controlled comparisons used?
  23. Is historical contact required before borrowing is asserted?
  24. Are false equivalences rejected?

Integration and final synthesis

  1. Is the personhood model complete?
  2. Is the death-event model complete?
  3. Is the separation model complete?
  4. Is the transition model complete?
  5. Is the judgment model complete?
  6. Is the destination model complete?
  7. Is the identity-continuity model complete?
  8. Is the ancestor model complete?
  9. Is the ghost model complete?
  10. Is the funerary model complete?
  11. Is the grief model complete?
  12. Is the social-function model complete?
  13. Is the modern-issues model complete?
  14. Is the evidence model complete?
  15. Is the strongest evidence identified?
  16. Are major contradictions identified?
  17. Are major unknowns identified?
  18. Are restricted teachings identified?
  19. Is metaphysical uncertainty stated?
  20. Is individual destiny distinguished from cosmic eschatology?
  21. Are dead beings cross-referenced to Pantheon?
  22. Are realms cross-referenced to Cosmology?
  23. Are funeral performances cross-referenced to Ritual?
  24. Are tombs and remains cross-referenced to Material Culture?
  25. Are specialists cross-referenced to Institutions?
  26. Are corpse custody and inheritance cross-referenced to Social Function and Law?
  27. Are death symbols cross-referenced to Symbolism?
  28. Are historical changes cross-referenced to Contact and Transformation?
  29. Does the analysis avoid assuming a soul?
  30. Does it avoid assuming personal survival?
  31. Does it avoid forcing heaven and hell?
  32. Does it avoid treating underworld as punishment automatically?
  33. Does it avoid confusing rebirth with resurrection?
  34. Does it avoid confusing ancestor with ghost?
  35. Does it avoid confusing memory with metaphysical presence?
  36. Does it avoid treating grave goods as self-explanatory?
  37. Does it avoid treating elite funerals as universal?
  38. Does it avoid treating doctrinal threat as actual enforcement?
  39. Does it avoid blaming mourners or stigmatized dead?
  40. Does it avoid romanticizing martyrdom or self-caused death?
  41. Does it avoid using religious claims to displace medical care?
  42. Does it avoid using scientific limits to dismiss religious meaning?
  43. Can another researcher reconstruct the person model?
  44. Can another researcher reconstruct the death sequence?
  45. Can another researcher trace every afterlife claim to evidence?
  46. Can a community member identify which model applies to their branch?
  47. Can a bereaved person see where doctrine, custom, and uncertainty differ?
  48. Does the completed section explain death consistently without flattening religious difference?
  49. Does it preserve the possibility that the religion’s most authoritative answer is mystery?
  50. Does it show how death transforms not merely a body, but personhood, relationship, memory, social status, and the imagined destiny of existence?

Only after this audit is satisfied should the analysis proceed to Symbolism and Cultural Expression—the languages of image, sound, color, number, body, dress, poetry, performance, and sign through which death, life, transcendence, identity, and the sacred are made perceptible and communicable.