CHAPTER V 



BUKIAL AND FITSTERAL CUSTOMS 



There appear to have been two distinct methods of burial among 

 the Winnebago — simple inhumation and platform burial. Within 

 recent times, owing to the influence of their Algonquian neighbors, 

 platform burial has entirely disappeared and inhumation alone is 

 practiced. It has even become customary to erect a typical Algon- 

 quian burial-hut over the grave (see pi. 54, b). 



When the old culture was still intact inhumation was definitely 

 associated with the lower phratry and platform burial with the upper 

 phratry. Whether this marked difference in burial customs was 

 merely another example of that specialization in function so char- 

 acteristic of these two divisions of the tribe, or whether it was due 

 to distinct historical origins, it is difficult to determine. I am, 

 however, inclined to regard the latter interpretation as by far the 

 most probable. 



All the customs are described in full detail in the various accounts 

 that follow and in Chapters VII and VIII. Each clan seems to have 

 had a few details peculiar to itself, but, in the main, the rights were 

 identical. They may briefly be divided into the following sections: 



1. Preparation of the body for burial. 2. Rites in the house of 

 the deceased, consisting mainly of speeches of consolation to the 

 bereaved. 3. Speeches addressed to the deceased and the narration 

 of the myth of the journey to spirit land. 4. Rites at the grave. 

 5. The recounting of war exploits by specially invited warriors, at 

 the grave. 6. The elaborate four nights wake at the home of the 

 deceased. 



Description of Funeral Customs and Wake 



Informant, member of the Thunderbird clan : ' When an individual 

 dies his relatives get some one to bury him and the chief mourner 

 will also invite some person to talk to the corpse before it is buried. 

 The person addressing the dead man or woman tells the deceased how 

 he is to go (to spirit land) and what he is to do on the way there. 

 The body is then dressed by the person who is going to bury it. All 

 the relatives come to the lodge and the deceased is dressed in his best 

 clothes; beads are put around his neck, bracelets on his wrist, rings 



' This description is a generalized one. 

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