Body Disposal Methods

So, as I started getting ideas for this week's blog, the first thing that I typed into google was "disposal methods for dead bodies".. I quickly added "in different cultures" as the sinking sensation set in that the internet is watching me, and would inevitably assume that I am trying to 'dispose of a dead body' in the most effective way possible. Yeesh...

I just read through the post of another 'blogger's blog. Who knew so many people wrote blogs for fun?.. This blog basically covered the question I was proposing to answer. Based on Erin's suggestion I am looking at cross cultural body disposal methods. Before I get to that, I suppose it doesn't hurt to mention that for years I have always thought about the predicament of what to do with the cumbersome thing that is my body once I've kicked the bucket. As mentioned at length in my post last week, traditionally, if I were to follow Jewish tradition I would be buried in a Jewish cemetery, in a box, in the ground. Which is all good and well, although, my real predicament is that I have a huge problem with cemeteries. Oddly, I LOVE cemeteries. I enjoy the history and the beauty and the morbidity of a concentrated site of decayed and decaying bodies underfoot. What could be better? In all seriousness though, I really do love cemeteries, but, the problem lies in that I DO NOT want to be buried in one. I think they are a horrible use of space and I don't agree with the process and necessary social status that seem to go along with them. I can appreciate the irony of stating that on a blog for an archaeology of death class, I really can. I am fascinated by cemeteries, and the historic significance and processes yet I'm troubled by the practices that take place before a person is dropped in the ground and left there, to hopefully sit still for a while. My problem is more so with the price that we (North Americans(?)) put on funerary processes these days. It is SO expensive to get rid of your dead these days. Thousands of dollars are spent on the plot, and the suit, and the chemicals used to 'pickle' a body for an open casket, and the headstone, the funeral service.. and on and on. It just seems like a formidable process for a dead person. Don't get me wrong, I respect the dead, and the loss that people are faced with, but burying a person should not come with such costs. It seems unfair that most of society wouldn't be able to give an equal burial to their loved ones because of the burdensome fees that go along with them. Cremation, although a cheaper alternative, can still cost on average (according the the posted blog) $5000 in the United states, compared to $8500 for a regular cemetery burial. By God!

Ironically, I've been pretty set on the idea of a fisherman's burial (I hear the logistics of this are not in my favour nowadays), although I am TERRIFIED of the ocean, and as you know, I love cemeteries, but don't want to be buried in one. So strange. I am definitely open to suggestions for other burial ideas!

Some of my favourites, luckily also found on that blog include the Viking burial, as well as being eaten by wild animals (I for sure would be open to that). I also thing the ideas of "plastination", where they remove your bodily fluids and replace them with plastic, to be intriguing-- although not for my own body. I feel like I would come out more scary than sincere. My feelings are similar for taxidermy, the idea seems nonsensical and goofy to me, but I think it should be an option. We so readily stuff all of the other animals in our kingdom, may as well follow suite.
I am a huge fan as well of sky burials practised in some N.A. indigenous groups, as well as in parts of Asia, to name a few.
The idea of cannibalism, both endo- and exo- strike me as particularly clever as well, if I could handle being eaten by vultures or wild pigs, I'm sure I'd feel alright with humans doing the same.. as long as I was not killed for the express purpose of someones eating pleasure.
I love the option that Erin linked in her blog prompt found here. Decomposing mushrooms seems like a stellar idea, and cleansing as well! Although it seems a little more complicated that I anticipated. I am all for natural decomposition (as she is trying to provide). Birds, bugs, fungi, carnivores.. hopefully by the time I die I can donate my good organs and be disposed of in as ecologically friendly way possible.. I suppose while abiding federal restrictions.. 
Here's to hoping!!!

Photo of one of the last stages of a Tibetan sky burial. This is super cool. If you have the stomach to see a bunch of graphic photos, here is a pretty cool site here. It is also the link for this picture. 

Jewish Funerals

Alright, well I was just reading up on endocannibalism, in the spirit of our upcoming group assignments when I figured I'd take a look at a few blogs to get my writing juices going. The first one I came across, Peter Raskovsky's blog, sent me in an entire different direction than I intended to go in this week. But, there is always time for endocannibalism to follow, yes?

So, Peter's blog post described his experience at a Jewish Funeral, his impressions and his feelings after attending his wife's relatives traditional service, of course in much more detail and passion than I am relaying here. His heartfelt entry got me thinking..

I'm Jewish. I've been to a lot of funerals in my day (shocking as I am only a youngin', but I suppose everyone dies at one point or another, and there are so many Bubbies and Zaydes in Calgary. Gevalt..) What his post made me realize as he made several comments between the similarities and differences between other funerals he had been to with these new (for him) Jewish customs, I stopped and realized how us Jews do do things quite differently, although I never really give that much thought..

I think in this post I'm going to lay out the basics of Jewish funerary customs. As with everything else in Jewish traditions, someones death is never an isolated event. For the week following a persons death, there is a constant array of traditions and reminders and services and processes that have to be followed according to Jewish customs and traditions. (I consulted the Jewish Federation of  North America to make sure I wasn't too rusty on my traditions!

Leading up to the burial:
Bodies are supposed to be buried hastily, as soon as possible within the first seven days, although burials are not to be done on Shabbat (Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown) or on Jewish holidays. Funerals are never open casket and cremations are not acceptable in Jewish traditions. It's also not kosher to be buried in a Jewish cemetery with tattoos. Of course, the Holocaust resurfaced huge taboos about both cremation and tattoos. --Although restrictions aren't so staunch anymore as there are more reform and secular congregations. Traditionally, the deceased is dressed in simple a white garb to negate the idea of "status". Between the time when a person dies and the time the person is buried, Jewish law dictates that they should not be left unattended. A person "shemira" (the guardian), either a family member, friend or community member is to be present to guard the dead and honour them until after they are left in their final resting place.

At the actual funeral it is customary for mourners to fill in the graves themselves. Starting with the family members throwing handfuls of dirt into the grave, followed by the other mourners and eventually the grave is filled in with shovels by the mourners. The Kaddish (the Jewish prayer for the dead) is the most sombre Jewish prayer. This is recited and the service concludes.

Of course, as us Jews are wont to do, all of our gatherings; happy or sad, involves food.. and lots of it. For seven nights people "sit Shiva", the traditional mourning period; usually at the bereaved family's home. In lieu of flowers, people bring food, which is both served to those who have come to pay their respects, as well as food cooked for the family members.After the seven days of mourning are over, family members may choose to visit synagogue say the Kaddish once or twice a day for up to a year when the full symbolic mourning period ends.

Around the 6 month mark, the head stone or marker is put on the grave with an 'unvailing' service at the cemetery. Once this is done, pebbles are generally place on/ left on the grave in order to pay respect to that person. Generally, a rock is added every time you visit the grave. (When I have time, I like to walk around cemeteries and look at names and dates. I like to leave stones on the old graves when it seems that no one has visited them in a while!)

I guess I never really realized until thinking about it how many rules and traditions there are in the Jewish funerary processes. Keep in mind, what I described only scratches the surface of the process that is gone through for the deceased. It's a rather complicated process for a dead person, if you ask me.. but, who am I to poo-poo tradition?!

Speaking of traditions, here is the Victoria Jewish Cemetery circa 1900, just so so pretty there!

(Fun fact, the Victoria Jewish Cemetery is the oldest cemetery still in use today in Western Canada!)

If anyone has other funerary traditions from their communities that they would like to share with me, please do! 

Well, I'm slightly confused about this http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.ca/2010/11/sacred-stones-and-madagascar.html blog and response, but I will give a  go at a response of my own.
In his blog post, Brian John critiques the analogy and thoughts of a Malagasy Anthropologist Ramilisonina. Now, again, correct me if I'm wrong, but the issue brought up by Brian John is the analogy created by Ramilisonina between prehistoric stone and wood formations found in Southern England (Bluestonehenge, and Woodhenge) and rock monuments created for the deceased in Madagascar. I believe that John has an issue with the assumptions and the forced parallels that he feels Ramilisonina has made. In my opinion, I would have to err on the side of caution, and agree that it is far fetched to make analogies as Ramilisonina has done. However, it is only an analogy, and he is not stating that there is deep-rooted relationship between the ritualistic practices of the two areas. He has not suggested that the two areas must have come in contact at some point, with one taking a practice from one or the others. The "Father of Anthropology"Claude Levi Strauss looked at the cross-cultural similarities that show up throughout various cultures, who realistically had never come into contact either physically or through diffusion. In archaeology people are forced sometimes to make suggestions and inferences in order to make logical conclusions which can be backed by scientific evidence. The problem, as we all should know is that a lot of archaeology can only be inferred upon to a certain extent due to the lack of historical information on those people. Sometimes all we can do is pull ideas from other peoples habits and cultures in order to try and make sense of things we may not necessarily understand. In the case of Stonehenge, we don't know for sure why such elaborate structures were made, it could basically be for any of an infinite amount of reasons, although some may be more logical than others-- but again, we can't assume that they are 100% correct.
I think it is illogical to create an analogy between the two sites being dealt with here, but again, I can understand why it has been done. Archaeology thrives of theories that need to either be disproved or proved, which means that until something is definitively proved, it may be easy to find 'evidence' to back a theory. I recognize that this is a little bit of a tangent in a different direction from the original analogy question being asked here, but I figured it may be fun to play devils advocate for a moment as everyone seemed to have picked the same side on these blogs. I think it's logical that since Ramilisonina and MPP have been working in these two areas which have a similar undertone to them, it could eventually lead to them having an opinion that there are certain similarities across these cultures.
One more thing, something that really got to me in the interview was the definitive language used; for example: Stonehenge "was a sacred place where people came to make contact with the creator gods and the spirits of their ancestors." As far as I've heard, that hasn't been concluded. It states that that is 'in his opinion' but still, something that people should be cautious and conscious of.    
Right, okay, this ended up making less sense than I wanted to. Apologies, apologies.    

Hello! My name is Jenny and I am in my third year. I am an Anthropology major and a history minor. I am interested in this course because I am fascinated by the idea of wars and conflict and death from both an anthropological and historical point of view. I was never the kid that read Harry Potter, but rather, was submerged in autobiographies of the the Holocaust and other wartime stories from Vietnam, etc. The affects, both during and after wars and natural disasters, on people have always peaked my interest as well. For my history minor, I have focused on war history, which of course encompasses the tragedy of bi-standard casualties and front line casualties -- thus are the realities of war. I am also strangely overly fascinated with cemeteries, and have spent more time than I would like to admit wandering around in them looking at headstones and reading peoples inscriptions.
As of now I have no clue what post-undergrad life looks like for me, but I imagine it will involve grad school, as both fields I've chosen to study seem to require grad school these days in order to pursue them. I spent the year after high school travelling, and of course, now can't get enough of it and take off whenever I have a chance --hopefully I can get in some more time before I commit to another degree.
What I would like to get out of this course is a more widespread and complex understanding of different death/burial/memorial and remembrance practices preformed around the world and over the course of history.