1. Humans and some other animals like elephants and chimpanzees engage in rituals after death, such as vigils, carrying of bodies, and placing items with the deceased. 2. The earliest evidence of human burial dates back 50,000 years to Neanderthals, though the origins of burial rituals are unknown. Most human cultures engage in burial or cremation and ceremonies to memorialize the deceased. 3. Contemporary American burials typically involve expensive caskets and embalming, though "green burials" and cremation are growing in popularity due to concerns about the environmental impact and high costs of traditional burials.

1. Death & Dying
LECTURE NOTES
Week Two

2. CONFRONTING DEATH
When it comes to

3. BURIAL
One of the most obvious ways we do this is

4. Burial
• The ritual act of placing a dead body in the
ground.
• This helps to mark the transition between life
and death.
• It gives the community an opportunity to
mourn this person’s loss, together.

5. PROBABLY NOT
Are humans the only animals that ritualize the death of loved ones?

6. Elephants
Are known to have vigils over their
dead.
They may gather around them
(mourning, perhaps?)
At times, they may place sticks or soil
over the body.
People are curious, of course, about
what this means to the elephants. We
can only really surmise.
But they do seem to be aware of one
another’s mortality.

7. Chimpanzees
May not bury their dead as we do…
But mothers have been known to
continue carrying their babies around,
after death.
Some will do this for days, until it is
very clear that the baby is no longer
alive (their skin begins to decay).
Does this serve as a kind of mourning
ritual for the mothers?

8. HOW DID BURIAL START?
When it comes to human life…

9. Neanderthals
No one really knows how burial began.
But in the early 20th century, researchers
discovered a 50,000 year old
Neanderthal skeleton that had
obviously been intentionally buried.
So it would seem that our closest
relatives were already burying their dead
in a ritualistic manner.
This was probably practical: they didn’t
want scavengers getting at the body.
But did it also have an emotional
function? At this point, we can only
wonder.

10. Neanderthal Burial
… researchers think it may have looked something like this, just after death.
Some of the Neanderthal graves even have fossilized flowers in them!

11. A PLETHORA OF DEATH RITUALS
When it comes to human beings, we’ve developed…

12. The Death Rites
Every human culture tends to display the
following responses to the death of a
community member:
1. Some sort of ceremony for the dead.
2. A place to bury the dead.
3. Something to memorialize where they body is,
or how the person died.

13. FOR THE AFTERLIFE
Humans often preserve the body

14. Mummification
The Ancient Egyptians invented
embalming: the process of treating the
body with chemicals, to slow down its
decomposition.
The body was preserved so that it could
continue to host the soul, in the
afterlife.
Wealthy people were buried with food,
with domestic pets… even with slaves.
It was thought that these would aid
them, and accompany them, in the
afterlife.

15. Catacombs
From the 3rd to the 6th century, early
Christians (as well as Jews and non-
Christians) buried their dead under the
streets of Rome.
Only the wealthy could afford to be
buried in above ground tombs.
It would have been a long trip, to the
outskirts of the city, to bury the dead
there.
Christians covered the walls with images
from the gospel narratives: this is where
we find some of the earliest Christian
art.

16. TO BURN IT
Although, sometimes, they decide

17. Cremation
The Ancient Greeks had a number of
different burial practices.
One of them was cremation.
Here you can see ancient cremated
remains, along with a small votive that
likely contained some sort of offering,
for the gods.
Perhaps this offering was something the
deceased was meant to take into the
underworld?

18. The Viking Funeral
The image of ship on fire is the iconic
scene of a Viking funeral.
It’s likely that this has been turned into
a bit of a myth.
Certainly, some Vikings were sent off to
the next world in this way. But the
Vikings had other rituals, too.
Most likely this pyre was for chieftains,
or leaders, whose lives had revolved
around the sea, in some way.

19. Sati
An ancient Hindu practice that became
controversial during the 19th century.
A widow essentially commits suicide,
upon the death of her husband—
typically on his funeral pyre.
Historians believe this ritual may have
started around 400 CE.
But the Hindu culture is not the only
one where widows commit suicide.
In a patriarchal society, the death of a
husband would often leave women
destitute.
It was outlawed by the British Raj in
1829.

20. OPEN AIR
Other times, they leave the body for the

21. Hanging Coffins
In mountainous regions in China,
Indonesia, and the Philippines, people
hang coffins on the side of cliffs.
There’s often very little soil, in these
rocky regions, to bury bodies
underground.
This keeps scavengers from accessing
the bodies.
Some of these coffins have survived for
centuries, hanging off the sides of
mountains.

22. Sky Burial
Tibetan Buddhists teach that, after
death, the soul has passed out of the
body and it becomes an empty vessel.
One “burial” tradition has been to leave
the dead body out on an open cliff, to
let the vultures consume it.

23. CONTEMPORARY U.S.?
What kind of burial has become commonplace in the

24. Burial, American Style
Over the past century or two, it’s
become commonplace to bury loved
ones in the nicest coffin that money can
buy.
One can, of course, buy a very simple
pine coffin.
But many Americans spend thousands
of dollars on coffins that send their
loved ones out in style.
You can even buy coffins that are made
of copper, or titanium.

25. Embalming
American undertakers use a host of
chemicals to prevent the body from
decaying.
They use restorative make-up, to make
the person look as they did when alive.
Bodies are often made visible for a
viewing.

26. AMERICAN BURIAL PRACTICES
But many people are starting to raise critical questions about

27. The Cost Issue
In 1963, journalist Jessica Mitford wrote
an expose of the American funeral
industry.
She raised questions about why we were
encouraged to spend so much money
(often, to go broke!) on making the
dead comfortable.
She accused the funeral industry of
taking advantage of grieving consumers.
She believed that people weren’t
encouraged to be educated about what
burial options are. Instead, we make
panicked decisions at the last minute.

28. The DIY Funeral
Today, a growing number of Americans
are trying to break with the funeral
industry by staging DIY home funerals.
Some people will be buried on their
own home property.
Others will be cremated after these
home burials.

29. The Eco-Critique
Many others are concerned about the
chemicals used in embalming: they’re
dangerous for the living to consume.
And we’ve only been using them, here in
the U.S., to preserve the dead since the
modern process of embalming was
invented during the Civil War (to transport
the bodies of soldiers home).
It’s not legally required, in American
burials, unless you’re going to transport a
body that’s been dead more than a day or
so across state lines.
Is it bad for the living?
And what about all of those metals, and
plastics, buried under the ground. Could
they be leaking into the ground water?

30. The Green Burial
With these environmental concerns in
mind, many Americans are attempting
to go “back to nature” with so-called
“green” burials.
They’re looking for caskets, or
coverings, that are made of simple
organic materials.
The idea is that the body should
decompose after death, rather than be
preserved in perpetuity.

31. Is Cremation the Answer?
Other Americans think that cremation
is the answer to the environmental
problem.
Here you see a “pod” where your loved
ones cremains can be buried, and a tree
planted on top of it. You can become a
tree, in essence.
Cremation is quickly becoming the
norm, in the U.S.. In a couple of years,
there are estimates that more than 50%
of dying Americans will be cremated.
But there are environmental concerns
with cremation, too: the process releases
toxic chemicals. And the mercury, from
fillings in our teeth, shouldn’t be
burned!

32. ETHICAL QUESTION
And there’s always the

33. Is the Body a Temple?
What’s the origin of these ethical
objections to cremation?
They’re actually not unrelated to
tattoos!
Historically, Judaism and Christianity
have held that the body—as part of
creation—is a gift from God.
In the last days, when the body is
resurrected, the hope has been that the
body will be in perfect condition.
The risk, with things like tattoos and
cremation is that they will violate the
integrity of the body.

34. Body vs. Soul
The fact is, however, that more and
more Americans believe that the soul
departs from the body after death.
Americans seem to be less and less
concerned about the fate of their body
after death.
Even the Catholic Church now finds
cremation acceptable.
In states like Washington & Oregon, as
many as 70% of dying people choose to
be cremated. In North Dakota the
number is around 36%!
It’s fast becoming the norm.

35. Shop Around!
But, ultimately, the choice is ours.
Your generation of Americans will have
an unprecedented number of options
available, when it comes to burial.
It might be a good idea to do more
research, to think about what sort of
burial would represent the values you
had when you were alive.
It’s often reassuring for loved ones to
know that they’re burying family &
friends in the way this person would
have wanted.
Part of confronting mortality is thinking
about how we want our bodies
themselves to make the transition from
life, to death.