Talk:Burial

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, now in the public domain.

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[edit] Six feet under

Can someone add something about the Western custom of burying corpses six feet deep? Does this signify anything and is it common in other cultures? thankx.

[edit] Further editing needed

Just finished adding a ton of new info to this page. Some things still needing work:

  • sectstubs on Burial of Animals.
  • I used way too many nested lists. Got rid of most of them... are the remaining ones still too clunky?
  • I'm sure I've missed some alternatives to burial. Can't think of any more offhand; I'm sure others can think of some. :-)

--Benc 04:31, Jul 23, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Urban legend? Scratch marks moved here from article

"Scratch marks have been found on the inside of coffins, attesting to the fact that unintentional live burials do occasionally occur in cases where the body has not been embalmed."

I seem to remember that these scratchmarks are an urban ledgend and are in fact proven to be caused by something else. While I don't doubt that unintentional alive burrial has happened I am not sure what to do about this, especially considering that I forgot where I read/heared about the scratchmarks being an urban ledgend. Anyone got a source for this? --Jpkoester1 June 29, 2005 01:33 (UTC)

[edit] The main image

I'm a little confused about the first image. Just think of it - a burial with fictional ceremony of a fictional character. I think this image should not greet the reader in an article on real world subject. But I should admit I have no replacement picture to offer.–Gnomz007(?) 08:23, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

"Walt Disney was cremated and the ashes buried in a secret location — Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery — one of many cemeteries that cater to the needs of famous dead people. " - LOL!!!!!! "Needs of famous dead people". ROFL!!

I'm somewhat suspicious that an employee of Forest Lawn wrote that section. There are a lot of people who think that their "catering to the needs of famous dead people" is really just trying to make a buck at the gift shop. --Charlene 04:55, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Burial in the Bahá'í Faith

With the help of Jeff3000 (thanks Jeff!) I made a draft on this subject:

Bahá'í burial law prescribes both the location of burial and burial practices and precludes cremation of the dead. It is forbidden to carry the body for more than one hour's journey from the place of death. Before interment the body should be wrapped in a shroud of silk or cotton, and a ring should be placed on its finger bearing the inscription "I came forth from God, and return unto Him, detached from all save Him, holding fast to His Name, the Merciful, the Compassionate". The coffin should be of crystal, stone or hard fine wood. Also, before interment, a specific Prayer for the Dead is ordained. The formal prayer and the ring are meant to be used for those who have reached fifeteen years of age.[1]

We are not sure where to put this in the Burial article, as there is only one sentence on Islam. We could break up this section, and put some parts in the "Where to bury" section, and some in "Prevention of decay". Wiki-uk 12:13, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

As there has been no reply until now, I have added the whole paragraph under 'Burial Practices'. Wiki-uk 12:18, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A whole wack of POV and fallacy

I've just reworked the "mass burial" section. I saw no reliable sources for the assertion that mass burial is an improper form of burial, disrespectful, or dehumanizing (to remains???). It was also inaccurate in that it implied that families could always get genetic testing for bodies now buried in mass graves and give their loved ones "proper" burials. Putting aside the idea that somehow a mass grave is "improper" (which appears to me to be biased - not all cultures are against mass burial), it also ignores the fact that DNA testing is not always successful (if remains are burned, for instance). It also ignores the fact that most mass burials are in countries where DNA testing is prohibitively expensive or simply not available. The section also didn't discuss the most common reasons for mass burial - natural disasters, epidemics, terrorism, and accidents - or mass burials in potter's fields.

One thing I did remove was the unsubstantiated assertion that those conducting genocide use mass burial as a way to dehumanize and objectify their victims. No matter how logical this opinion is, it's still an unattributed opinion. I'd also point out that murdering people is what really dehumanizes and objectifies them; you can't dehumanize remains anyway, and dead bodies are by definition objects. I just can't shake the suspicion that whoever edited this is an employee of the funeral home business who wants to make inexpensive burials seem "disrespectful", "demeaning", and "improper". --Charlene 03:31, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

I also ended up editing "anonymous graves". The idea that somehow marking a grave is more respectful than not marking it is unattributed opinion and (I suspect) somewhat biased towards Western, Judeo-Christian-Islamic practise and Anglo-American culture. It also sounded like a very long ad for the tombstone business. Were attribution given, the entire section would still have to be reworded to say something like, "Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical De Mortis, stated that anonymous burial was disrespectful to the deceased because....". (Of course I made that encyclical up.) Anonymous burial is not obviously disrespectful to anyone, so attribution is absolutely necessary. --Charlene 04:52, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 14th C. burial practices

I need to know how they buried people in the 14th century —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.113.31.209 (talk • contribs)

[edit] Exhume vs. disinter

As I understand the terms in English: a grave is exhumed; buried remains are disinterred. Correct? -- Thanks, Deborahjay (talk) 13:55, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed move.

Since this article is almost entirely about human burial, I propose to move it to Human burial and make "Burial" a disambig. bd2412 T 20:33, 18 January 2008 (UTC)