Mummification

1
Mummification

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

2
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.

3
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.

4
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)