Facts for Prelims (FFP)
Source: IE
Context: Palaeoanthropologists have uncovered evidence that suggests that Homo naledi, an extinct human species, may have buried their dead and carved meaningful symbols in a cave.
- These behaviours were thought to be unique to our own species – Homo sapiens – and the Neanderthals.
The debate around burying the dead is based on differences between what scientists called mortuary behaviour and funerary behaviour.
- Mortuary behaviour is evident among chimps and elephants, for example, when they keep watch over a dead body or physically interact with it, expecting it to come back to life.
- Funerary behaviours, on the other hand, are social acts by creatures that are capable of complex thought and understand them to be separate from the rest of the natural world. They understand the significance of what death is.
