Man is one of the few animals to pay special attention to his dead.
Funeral rites differ much from place to place, and form a special
subject of anthropological study. Tumuli, pyramids, standing-stones, and
other forms of funeral monument have each their history and
implications. Especially does man almost everywhere believe in some sort
of survival of the individual after death, and in the existence within
himself of a soul or spirit which outlives its fleshly habitation. The
origin of religion is largely connected with these ideas of a future
life and a future world. Herbert Spencer traces it directly to the
theory of hosts and ancestor-worship; Dr. Tylor, to what he calls
animism, or the belief in souls universally pervading all natural
objects.
Man alone also wilfully indulges in intoxicating, stupefying, or
exciting substances, such as alcohol, tobacco, bhang, opium, hashish,
etc.