Dead Burying the dead is a very common tradition across almost all human cultures. The practice helps much of humanity cope with the loss of a friend, loved one, or just a comrade in the same army. It is one of the very few special things that humans do that almost any other living thing doesn’t. The process of funeral and grief is a product of our abstract thinking and is treated as such. The practice of funerary customs also fuels many cultures across the planet. Almost all religions, even if their differences cause unrest amongst each other, will usually interpret the concept of death in some different and unique way but also have universal traits. Handling death in this way is a very human thing.
These ideas of the afterlife can be similar sometimes but almost all of them prefer to bury the dead in some way. We like to think that we’ve been burying our dead since the beginning of time and by technicality, that could be correct because new evidence suggests that our ancestors began burying their dead before Homo Sapiens / Homo Sapiens Sapiens even evolved (Paige, Homonin Burial). This now puts our early ancestors in a new light, one that is less brutish and more like how modern humans view themselves. Here in the United States, we tend to either view death and dying in a hyper-cynical light or we like to completely avoid it to avoid the emotional toll that comes with losing a loved one. ”Americans tend to label such talk as “morbid” and try to stave it off—along with death itself—as long as they can.”(Hanning, Death and Dying 101). Many areas of the world tend to view death in a far more mystical light like the Nepalese and Buddhists as stated by Hanning.
The Nepalese view death as an art to be learned rather than to be feared. Compared to the rest of the world, we as americans are the unusual ones for fearing death and the cycle that involves it. Even our neighbors to the south have a completely different idea of how death works. Unlike some Americans who despise death, certain Catholics in Mexico view death as just the end of one stage in life. Dia De Los Muertos (Or Day of the Dead) is a holiday that is a hybrid culture of Spanish Catholicism and Aztec religions and as stated, symbolizes that death is only one stage of life. The Mexican Catholics that celebrate the holiday believe that an individual’s spirit is still a living component and their second life is fueled by their family and friends remembering them.
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The individuals only truly dies when they are completely forgotten, like a distant memory. People who celebrate the tradition leave food, gifts, carnations of spiritual value, and pictures on the headstones of those who have passed on. Some even construct altars to remember and celebrate those who have passed. The holiday has gotten more traction in the United States in recent times because of the mexican influence that makes up part of our country. Perhaps some people are sick of the America’s cynical lifestyle when acting towards the concept of death. Weather we like death and burials or not, it is an inevitable element of life runs deep in our history as a species and is something that should not be avoided the way it is. If burials are not handled properly or there are wrong conditions, it can lead to some controversy.
9/11 was one of the defining moments of a new century. Many of us already know the story of the incident (so that wont be touched on). After the collapse of the Twin Towers, people were buried among tons of rubble. This precarious excavation made it very difficult for people try finding the remains of those that died in the event. According to an article made by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh titled “The Disappeared”, when the rubble was cleaned, it was carted off to to a landfill in Staten Island. Not everyone was found during the excavation, and the a large portion of the people that were found were unidentified. Colwell covered some of the issues that were present during the 9/11 dilema. Any remains that were found were placed in a forensic office right next to the cemetery for bodies of those that were identified after being unearthed. Controversy brewed among victim’s families when suspected parts of cremated remains made their way to the landfills.
Many of them wanted to find even a piece of their family members to help them finally accept that their family members are indeed gone. The city learned of the controversy and boiled it down to a bureaucratic mess. The museum that was planned to be built in New York City found some of the charred remains and wanted to display them. People were paying to come to the museum so the families weren’t happy with seeing the profitization of their potential fallen ones. After massive backlash from the families, the museum and city gave those charred remains a dignified burial. Colwell seemed to cover the dilemma of how to respect those who died in 9/11 in a fairly neutral light.
Funerary customs are meant to push us forward as individuals , even if they make us sad or angry. Funerals can give us clarity on what happened and why the death of an individual is now apart of reality. Many of us have lost loved ones. Weather it was a goldfish that we flushed down a toilet or losing a lifelong friend, funerals and dignified burials help us accept what happened and let us move on. Burials, as stated by Madison Paige, could have also been a product of our evolution that we complexified to an extreme because of our abstract thinking. After all, a funeral that treats the deceased person even better than they were treated in life is a far better alternative to just never seeing a person’s loved one again at complete randomness after a certain day which will leave an individual emotionally hanging for a very long time. Clarity and acceptance are always key to move forward.
