Death is universal. Responses to death, however, vary widely across differnt cultures. Furthermore, when examining death rituals crossculturally it is easy to attribute the same symbolic significance to similar rituals. After looking at the rituals ,used in the context of the culture they were created in, the symbolic meaning can be quite different.
Today there is a debate amongst anthropologists in regards to interpreting bahvior crossculturally.
This approach supports the idea that when humans are removed from their cultural environment basic truths about all humans will be revealed. The implications of this arguement are that there are some kind of inherent human qualities and that across every culture these qualities remain constant. Furthermore these qualities are thought to be used the same way when creating and interpreting behavior. Many research studies have tried to examine these two opposing view points about crosscultural interpretations of behavior. The majority of the research that has been covered supports emphasizing the situational aspects of death rituals when interpreting these rituals crossculturally.