Editing Ghost (section)

==Typology==
[[File:NAMA Hermès & Myrrhinè.jpg|thumb|200px|Relief from a carved funerary ''[[lekythos]]'' at Athens showing [[Hermes]] as [[psychopomp]] conducting the soul of the deceased, ''Myrrhine'' into Hades (c. 430–420 BC)]]

===Anthropological context===
{{Further|Animism|Ancestor worship|Origin of religion|Anthropology of religion}}

A notion of the [[transcendence (religion)|transcendent]], [[supernatural]], or [[numinous]], usually involving entities like ghosts, [[demon]]s, or [[deity|deities]], is a [[cultural universal]].<ref>[[Donald Brown (anthropologist)|Donald Brown]] (1991) ''Human Universals''. Philadelphia, [[Temple University Press]] ([http://condor.depaul.edu/~mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm online summary] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120630210030/http://condor.depaul.edu/~mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm |date=2012-06-30 }}).</ref> In pre-literate [[folk religion]]s, these beliefs are often summarized under [[animism]] and [[ancestor worship]]. Some people believe the ghost or spirit never leaves Earth until there is no-one left to remember the one who died.<ref name="EncyOccult">Encyclopedia of Occultism and [[Parapsychology]] edited by [[J. Gordon Melton]], [[Gale Group]], {{ISBN|0-8103-5487-X}}</ref>

In many cultures, malignant, [[restless ghosts]] are distinguished from the more benign spirits involved in ancestor worship.<ref>Richard Cavendish (1994) ''The World of Ghosts and the Supernatural''. Waymark Publications, Basingstoke: 5</ref>

Ancestor worship typically involves rites intended to prevent [[revenant]]s, [[vengeful spirit]]s of the dead, imagined as starving and envious of the living. Strategies for preventing revenants may either include [[sacrifice]]; that is, giving the dead food and drink to pacify them, or magical banishment of the deceased to force them not to return. Ritual feeding of the dead is performed in traditions like the Chinese [[Ghost Festival]] or the Western [[All Souls' Day]]. Magical banishment of the dead is present in many of the world's [[burial custom]]s. The bodies found in many [[tumuli]] ([[kurgan]]) had been ritually bound before burial,<ref>e.g. in graves of the [[Irish Bronze Age]] [http://www.iol.ie/~sec/sites.htm IOL.ie] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225000100/http://www.iol.ie/~sec/sites.htm |date=2008-12-25 }}</ref> and the custom of binding the dead persists, for example, in rural [[Anatolia]].<ref>"In the immediate aftermath of a death, the deceased is removed from the bed he died in and placed on the prepared floor, called a 'comfort bed.' His jaw is bound up and his feet tied together (usually at the big toes)." [https://web.archive.org/web/20110611033740/http://www.kultur.gov.tr/EN/belge/2-16147/eski2yeni.html Kultur.gov.tr] (archive version)</ref>

Nineteenth-century anthropologist [[James Frazer]] stated in his classic work ''[[The Golden Bough]]'' that [[souls]] were seen as the creature within that animated the body.<ref name="GoldenBough">"If a man lives and moves, it can only be because he has a little man or animal inside, who moves him. The animal inside the animal, the man inside the man, is the soul. And as the activity of an animal or man is explained by the presence of the soul, so the repose of sleep or death is explained by its absence; sleep or trance being the temporary, death being the permanent absence of the soul... " [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/bough11.txt The Golden Bough] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041105053418/http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/bough11.txt |date=2004-11-05 }}, [[Project Gutenberg]]. Retrieved January 16, 2007.</ref>

===Ghosts and the afterlife===
{{Further|Soul|Psyche (psychology)|Underworld|Hungry ghost|Psychopomp}}
{{Further|Ghost Festival|All Souls' Day|Day of the Dead|Ghost Dance}}
Although the human soul was sometimes symbolically or literally depicted in ancient cultures as a bird or other animal, it appears to have been widely held that the soul was an exact reproduction of the body in every feature, even down to clothing the person wore. This is depicted in artwork from various ancient cultures, including such works as the Egyptian ''[[Book of the Dead]]'', which shows deceased people in the afterlife appearing much as they did before death, including the style of dress.

===Fear of ghosts===
{{main article|Fear of ghosts}}
[[File:Suushi Yurei.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Yūrei]] (Japanese ghost) from the [[Hyakkai Zukan]], {{Circa|1737}}]]
While deceased ancestors are [[cultural universal|universally]] regarded as venerable, and often believed to have a continued presence in some form of [[afterlife]], the spirit of a deceased person that persists in the material world (a ghost) is regarded as an unnatural or undesirable state of affairs and the idea of ghosts or [[revenant]]s is associated with a reaction of fear. This is universally the case in pre-modern folk cultures, but fear of ghosts also remains an integral aspect of the modern [[ghost story]], [[Gothic horror]], and other [[horror fiction]] dealing with the supernatural.

===Common attributes===
Another widespread belief concerning ghosts is that they are composed of a misty, airy, or subtle material. [[Anthropology|Anthropologists]] link this idea to early beliefs that ghosts were the person within the person (the person's spirit), most noticeable in ancient cultures as a person's breath, which upon exhaling in colder climates appears visibly as a white mist.<ref name="EncyOccult"/> This belief may have also fostered the metaphorical meaning of "breath" in certain languages, such as the [[Latin]] ''spiritus'' and the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''[[pneuma]]'', which by [[analogy]] became extended to mean the soul. In the [[Bible]], [[God]] is depicted as synthesising [[Adam (Bible)|Adam]], as a living soul, from the dust of the Earth and the breath of God.

In many traditional accounts, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance ([[vengeful ghost]]s), or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The appearance of a ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death. Seeing one's own ghostly double or "[[Doppelgänger|fetch]]" is a related omen of death.<ref>Hole, pp. 13–27</ref> The impetus of haunting is commonly considered an unnatural death.{{Sfn|Lagerwey|2004|pp=182–183}}

[[File:Union Graveyard III.jpg|thumb|Union Cemetery in [[Easton, Connecticut]], is home to the legend of the White Lady.]]
[[White Lady (ghost)|White ladies]] were reported to appear in many rural areas, and supposed to have died tragically or suffered trauma in life. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common to many of them is the theme of losing a child or husband and a sense of purity, as opposed to the [[Lady in Red (ghost)|Lady in Red]] ghost that is mostly attributed to a jilted lover or prostitute. The White Lady ghost is often associated with an individual family line or regarded as a harbinger of death similar to a [[banshee]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Fantastically wrong wailing banshee|url=https://www.wired.com/2014/06/fantastically-wrong-wailing-banshee/&hl=en-ZA|magazine=Wired}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Ireland's Most Famous Ghost-The White Lady|url=https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/irelands-most-famous-ghost-white-lady-kinsale-charlesfort&grqid=qj_KTwYc&s=1&hl=en-ZA|website=Irish Central}}{{Dead link|date=May 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>{{context inline|date=July 2019}}

Legends of ghost ships have existed since the 18th century; most notable of these is the ''[[Flying Dutchman]]''. This theme has been used in literature in ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]'' by [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]].

Ghosts are often depicted as being covered in a shroud and/or dragging chains.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Shure|first=Natalie|date=2015-10-31|title=Who Invented The 'Bedsheet Ghost'?|language=en|work=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/31/who-invented-the-bedsheet-ghost|access-date=2020-08-13|archive-date=2023-10-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024084904/https://www.thedailybeast.com/who-invented-the-bedsheet-ghost|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Locale===
{{See also|Haunted house}}
A place where ghosts are reported is described as [[list of reportedly haunted locations|haunted]], and often seen as being inhabited by [[soul (spirit)|spirits]] of deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property. Supernatural activity inside homes is said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events in the building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide—sometimes in the recent or ancient past. However, not all hauntings are at a place of a violent death, or even on violent grounds. Many cultures and religions believe the essence of a being, such as the "[[soul (spirit)|soul]]", continues to exist. Some religious views argue that the "spirits" of those who have died have not "passed over" and are trapped inside the property where their memories and energy are strong.