ABSTRACT
An individual's attitude to death—and this may apply also to the general attitude to death of a whole socio-cultural group—may depend on a position on a 'wholeness-separateness axis'. Like the origin of death myths in other parts of the world, some of the African myths express themes with which we in the West are also relatively familiar. The African stories use only a limited number of objects as symbols of immortality. There is one instance in which grass is used as such a symbol, but more widespread are the myths that use the moon or the snake; their characteristics seem to appeal to men as a suitable representation of eternal life. Death is thought of as having been imposed on man— usually by God, but occasionally by an angry or offended animal—as a punishment for disobedience, or a misdemeanour; or else it has been introduced as a way of checking man's attempt to rival God.
