Disposal of the body

      There are many different kinds of ways to dispose of the dead that are practiced around the world. For this weeks post I will discuss some of the ways that are used in other cultures and are not as familiar to us as the most common western funerary practices.

     There is popularity amongst incorporating the dead’s ashes into everyday things. After cremations the ashes can then be put into a small vial and act as a pendant or the carbon can be taken from the ashes and is processed for many months to create a synthetic diamond that can be inlaid in any kind of jewelry. Some tribes in Papua New Guinea will take the ashes of the deceased and mix it into a soup, which they then eat, they believe Endocannibalism keeps the person alive and is a part of the grieving process. Other cultures of the world will eat the flesh of the dead because they believe it gives them supernatural powers. There are many written recordings of Viking funerals that have the deceased put on boats or ships with possible human and animal sacrifices and grave good and then is “set out to sea” while the vessel is set alight, this can be done on land or in the water as it drifts away.

     A common theme seems to be to get the dead higher up than the living. In the Philippines an individual picks their tree and when they are close to death the family moves close to the chosen tree and their body will then be entombed in that tree trunk. There used to be a practice among the Indigenous peoples of the USA who would tie their dead up in the tree to keep them away from animals after being placed in a coffin or blanket. Other cultures are able to get the dead even higher through hanging coffins and sky burials. Hanging coffins high up on cliff faces were practiced by a few groups in Asia; the main belief is that they were lowered by ropes from the top or raised up using a pulley system and the coffins were placed on stakes driven into the cliff wall and are still there today, the higher up the coffin the more honored they were. In Tibet they believe that vultures are a type of angel that can take the deceased’s soul into heaven where it is reincarnated. They do this by taking the body to the mountaintop and while preforming rituals and chants disarticulate the body and feed the flesh from the body to the vultures. Sending your body into space seems to becoming a desired burial type among space enthusiasts in North America, if you can afford it.

     One that I’ve gotten very up close and personal with is Plastination. People will donate their bodies after they die to science; water and fat are extracted from the body and replaced with silicone. This method is often used to help teach and study medicine, the body and how it works and fits together. There is an exhibit called “Body Worlds” and I went to see it when it came to Calgary. It was fascinating to be so up close and to see the body in different ways as many of the models focused on different aspects of the body and they would remove parts or open up parts so you could see things not normally seen. I’ll admit it was a little freaky, but it was also very engaging and I felt very privileged to have had that experience.

Source: http://thelistcafe.com/top-10-unusual-ways-to-dispose-of-the-dead