Mummification• The technique of preserving a dead body involving drying and preservatives. • Story time…

Exposure

• Getting rid of the body by leaving it to nature– Inuit: Exposure done out of necessity, ground too

hard for burial– North American societies: Tree/high platform for

elements.– American Southwest: Body left in cave, becomes a

natural mummy– Tibet: Sky burials where body is left to be eaten by

birds.

U.S.A. 19th Century Death Rituals vs. Today

• 19th Century Death Rituals– Person usually dies at home surrounded by friends and family. Female family members prepare the body for the

funeral, create a burial shroud. Body stays in the parlor for about 3 days and is then transported the funeral home. Body would stop at church for service by a special horse-drawn horse and then interred either on family land or a local cemetery

– The African Burial Ground• Over 400 skeletons uncovered (~50% children) in Lower Manhattan, New York, perhaps as many as 10,000 people interred total. • Forensic Anthropologists :A specialist in the analysis of the human skeleton in a legal context.

– Children of slaves not provided accurate food or shelter (disease and malnutrition evident in bones).– Muscle strains, tears, fractures evident on bones from carrying heavy loads.

– Civil War changed everything• Massive, national cemeteries (Arlington National Cemetery). Over 600,000 died.• Embalming, used previously only on medical cadavers, was practiced on a large scale to keep servicemen intact when shipped home

to family.

• U.S. Funeral Rituals Today– Death is announced through network of friends and family– A mortician will prepare the body and the body is almost always embalmed.– Terminology has also changed: funeral director for undertaker, casket for coffin. Why is this? Why might we not be

as comfortable with death as other cultures? What is our overall attitude towards death?– Roadside Memorials

• Should they be allowed? Block traffic?

• Sacred Remains– Even if body is damaged upon death, may have elaborate and expensive methods of reconstruction for funeral

services.– Servicemen who have died overseas. The funeral is not complete without the body.

Days of Death

• Halloween/Eve of All Saints/All Saints Day/Samhain– Halloween– Eve of All Saints (Even of All Hallows)– All Saints Day– Samhain

• Dia de los Muertos• Beautiful Feast of the Valley (Heb Nefer En

Inet)