Good Example Of Death And Taxes Essay

The systems of justice in the ancient times considerably differ from the current systems of justice. With the advent of fairness and equal justice and treatment among every citizen in the society, irrespective of their status, has led to the giving of justice equally to all. Hammurabi’s code of laws tells us a lot about the life in the ancient Babylon and how justice was served. The famous inscription of them all is the ‘eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth’ that loosely translates to the law of retaliation. That means if a person offends another he is also punished to a comparable degree depending on one’s social status. Hammurabi’s code that consists of 282 laws and punishments to be given to different wrongs depending on the social status of an individual were meant to bring out the rule of law in the land (Hooker 1996). Slaves and free men were given different forms of punishment. The codes are pretty much similar in most part to the current systems of justice because it covered many aspects ranging from contracts to business transactions, family relationships and inheritance and also the conduct of public officials and judges.
Every culture or religion perceives death from a different viewpoint. All cultures around the world possess different beliefs and views about death. Some religious beliefs state that when a person dies, the spirit in them leaves the physical body and goes to heaven. In this regard, they perform strict rituals to permit the spirit leave the person and go to heaven or reincarnation. Whereas some cultures mourn the dead, others celebrate the passing on of their kin claiming that they are going to a better place than earth. In ancient Egypt, people believed in the afterlife whereby they carried out elaborate death rituals in order to ensure the survival of the dead’s soul after they died. They mummified the kings or the Pharaohs who they perceived as divine after abolishing the worship of other gods in favor of Aten, which lead to monotheism (Montserrat 2003). They gave out sacrifices and offerings to the gods in order to ensure the preservation of the spirit and bodies of the deceased. The director of the movie ‘Hasta Los Huesos’ also implies that there is an existence of an afterlife as he depicts in his movie. He claims that the dead reaches a place where the memories of his wife and family are disarticulated with abundant tequila. He also brings forth the notion of the afterlife that the ancient Egyptian believed existed hence the preservation of the dead. In our culture, we don’t have many rituals because we are Christians, and we pray for the dead and bury them as the bible states.
In every religion and culture, death is viewed differently. Many religions around the world carry out burial rituals for the dead for various reasons. In Hindu, there are many customs that surround death right from when a person is about to die and after the death of that person. Hindus believe that life and death are part of the conception of reincarnation. When a Hindu is about to die, a priest is called upon as well as the family so that they can gather and spend the last moments with that person. At this time water from the Ganges River should be poured into the mouth of that person and in case if he dies before this ritual it should be performed shortly after he dies. After the death of a Hindu, the family closes the mouth and eyes of the deceased, and unnecessary touching of the dead person’s body is highly discouraged as the body is viewed as impure (Thakrar 2008). The funeral takes place the soonest time possible and the family of the deceased take part in preparing the body. The elaborate rituals should be observed with a lot of care and attention. The Hindu cremates the dead and, therefore, it should be displayed before this action. After cremation, they observe a period of mourning and then the ashes of the dead are scattered in the Ganges River.

Work cited

King, L. W. Mesopotamia: The Code of Hammurabi. Washington: Washington State University Press, 2006. Print.
Montserrat, Dominic. Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Thakrar, Diviash. Caring for Hindu Patients. London: Radcliffe Publishing, 2008. Print.