The Life of Death Symbols

     Human culture includes the use of symbolism, and how people represent these symbols. Many cultures share similar traditons even though, but perhaps with some diffusion, these cultures have never met. An example would be in Brazil they have a specialized festival called "Carnivale" and in the U.S state of New Orleans they celebrate Mardi Gras, both at the same time, essentially unrelated, but carrying the same purpose. The history of these celebrations can be traced, but what do we do about symbolism that reference a question that cannot be traced, such as why did Neandertal bury their dead? How did these proposed traditions in death come to life? I speculate that most uses of symbolism come from something real and are made to be unreal over time. When examining physical evidence, one might overlook the obvious in exchange of something spectacular conjured from the mind of a cultural theorist as to why a society might complete a certain act, such as burying their dead with flowers, like the Neandertal of Shanidar Cave in Iraq. I am not making a point that these Neandertal were not capable of imagining something out of this world, but I am concerned with the true nature of how Neandertal, and modern human alike, came to be using symbols in death, if that is in fact what has been done.
     Neandertal and humans have both been shown to have buried their dead using Red Ochre, a more clear sign of symbolism by both groups, but ochre is shown to have deodorizing effects. It is easy to imagine the practicality of deodorizing a corpse in a time when perhaps more predators were in the region and it is also easy to imagine how perhaps the scent of a flower might lead a hominid being to believe that it may contain the ability to prevent scents from spreading, like those of a corpse. These items may not produce "real" results but they bore from real ideas, with an actual thought process behind them. The cultural symbols that were seen may have been bi-product of real event history and ideas involving a higher level of intellect. Our human habits and traditions in death today, might have also been the bi-product of similar ideas that have lasted generations and could have preceeded religous practice, that is practicality preceeded symbolism not the other way around.