Editing Death (section)

=== Origins of death ===
{{Main|Origin of death}}

The [[origin of death]] is a theme or myth of how death came to be. It is present in nearly all cultures across the world, as death is a universal happening.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book |last=Green |first=James W. |title=Beyond the good death: the anthropology of modern dying |date=2008 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-0207-6 |location=Philadelphia |oclc=835765644}}</ref> This makes it an [[origin myth]], a myth that describes how a feature of the natural or social world appeared.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Sacred narrative, readings in the theory of myth |date=1984 |publisher=University of California Press |editor-first1=Alan |editor-last1=Dundes |isbn=0-520-05156-4 |location=Berkeley |oclc=9944508}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Myth and method |date=1996 |publisher=University Press of Virginia |editor-first1=Laurie L. |editor-last1=Patton |editor-first2=Wendy |editor-last2=Doniger |isbn=0-8139-1656-9 |location=Charlottesville |oclc=34516050}}</ref> There can be some similarities between myths and cultures. In [[Mythologies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas|North American mythology]], the theme of a man who wants to be immortal and a man who wants to die can be seen across many [[Indigenous peoples|Indigenous people]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boas |first=Franz |date=October 1917 |title=The Origin of Death |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=30 |issue=118 |pages=486–491 |doi=10.2307/534498 |jstor=534498 |jstor-access=free}}</ref> In Christianity, death is the result of the [[fall of man]] after eating the fruit from the [[tree of the knowledge of good and evil]].<ref name="auto"/> In [[Greek mythology]], the opening of [[Pandora's box]] releases death upon the world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lang |first=Andrew |title=Modern mythology |date=2007 |publisher=Echo Library |isbn=978-1-4068-1672-3 |location=Middlesex |oclc=269027849}}</ref>