Ritualuri funerare, simboluri primordiale, portalul lumii de dincolo în imaginarul unui homo psychologicus

Abstract

Death, this universal and eternal motif, constitutes a point of intersection between biology, philosophy and culture, going beyond the mere cessation of physical existence to become an essential dimension that shapes and reshapes the human condition. Far from being merely a final event, it is a metaphysical concept around which fundamental questions about meaning, identity and ephemerality revolve. Before delving into the depths of the imaginary of death, with its multiple hypostases and symbolic resonances, it is imperative to reflect on the ethical and
epistemological challenges that this boundless subject raises. Every society, regardless of era or cultural space, constructs a collective imaginary which, through a complex network of myths, rites and representations, attempts to offer a coherent response to existential challenges, among which the thanatic occupies a central place. This symbolic matrix, on the boundary between the individual and the collective, the real and the imaginary, shapes attitudes towards ephemerality and influences the relationship to the idea of end, mourning and memory. Drawing on the reflections of seminal works on death by thinkers such as Philippe Ariès, Georges Bataille, Edgar Morin, Emmanuel Levinas, Vladimir Jankélévitch and Michel Fromaget, as well as explorations by writers such as Emil Cioran, Ion Biberi
and Mircea Eliade, this study examines the question of finitude from a renewed perspective.