Burial Practices

Humans have been burying their dead for more than 100,000 years. Burial of some sort is found in nearly every culture on earth. It is said by some scientists to be the earliest evidence of human religion. It is so widespread, in fact, that I wonder if a large part of it isn't simply instinctual. Burial is a practical solution to a dead body as well as one that makes sense emotionally. The customs surrounding the burial, on the other hand, are certainly learned.

Probably the most famous example of unique burial customs is ancient Egypt, where important people's bodies were preserved in a process called mummification, then placed in large and elaborate tombs that were meant to be useful in the afterlife. But Egypt wasn't the only culture to have elaborate customs, nor the only culture to mummify remains.

The Chinchoro tribe of South America started mummifying remains about 2000 years earlier than the Egyptians did. Unlike the Egyptians, the Chinchoro didn't just mummify the remains of the rich and powerful. They mummified everyone, even miscarried fetuses. The methods of mummification were also quite different from the Egyptian method. In the earliest method, the Chinchoro would completely take apart the body, removing the internal organs, skin, and flesh. Then they would reinforce the body with sticks and plants and put soil and leaves in the body cavities to fill the volume. The facial features were reconstructed with clay, and the whole thing was painted black.

It is impossible to tell just quite how this knowledge was passed from generation to generation, but it certainly was. The practice continued for thousands of years. I imagine it was probably passed on like most things. As children grew up, they would witness the mummification of their elders as the elders died, and they would come to assume that the same thing would be done with their own bodies at their own death. Some children would be trained to carry out the mummification themselves as they got older, probably from watching and assisting an older, more experienced person.

We in LDS culture have our own unique customs surrounding death, which I have learned both from experiencing them and hearing of others' experiences. When someone in our culture dies, they are embalmed by running preservation fluids through their veins, arranging their facial features to look lifelike, and dressing them, before placing in a coffin. Friends and family members are invited to first a viewing of the body, then a funeral service. The funeral service consists of musical numbers (which likely have been hastily thrown together by the more musically inclined of the person's grandchildren), and short, often emotional, and usually hopeful talks about the person's life. Then the grave-site is dedicated, and the casket is buried and covered with a commercially prepared headstone. While there are always people crying at such events, the mood depends a lot on how old or ready to die the person was. My great aunt, for example, died about a month ago at ripe old age of 90. Although we loved her and were sad she left us, the funeral was so cheerful that the talks about her made us laugh so hard we nearly fell out of our seats.

Sources: http://artslivres.com/ShowArticle.php?Id=211, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/chinchorro/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinchorro_mummies.