An Inquiry Into the Metaphysical Causes of Death in Esan Culture
An Inquiry Into the Metaphysical Causes of Death in Esan Culture

Summary/Abstract: This essay focuses on the analyses of the metaphysical causes of death in Esan culture and the implications and evaluations of the beliefs in such causes. It begins by expositing the Esan understanding of death and then discusses how death constitutes mystery for Esan people. It holds that in Esan the question of ‘the why of death’, philosophically speaking, does not admit any satisfactory answer. The study then makes in-depth analyses of the Esan conceptions of the metaphysical causes of death, - as wrought by witches, wizards, diabolic persons, evil consequences, devil, spirits, deities, malevolent beings and God, - the attitudes such beliefs generate and what they imply - that death is bad, one ought not to die and indictment of innocent people as causal agents whenever human death occurs. The study argues that although there is the conception of death as good only for the aged, underneath such belief is the explicit metaphysical conception of all deaths as caused and thus, bad. Contrary to the people’s conception of death as bad, the study argues that death has some relevance to the living and the dead as well as some practical and moral implications for the living. It argues that death influences the people’s behavior and way of life concretely. In the course of inquiry, the study attempts simultaneously an excursion into comparative discourse with some other cultures.

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