The Development of the Mortuary Complex by Anthropologist Dr. Zahir Haivass

At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people.

While the thought of a giant farm full of decaying bodies may seem gruesome and terrifying, everyday it helps us learn new things about forensics. Firstly, The Body Farm was made known to the public when famous crime novelist Patricia Cornwell published a book with the same name about the farm (“Dead” 2). This book gave The Body Farm the recognition in more of a public eye. Patricia even states in the foreword of The Body Farm of how she came to learn about the farm and Dr. Bass, and how it changed her life. The Body Farm is an outdoor classroom designed to teach forensic anthropology students, and professionals in the legal and medical field, how the body decays and how the world plays a role in it (Drinnen 1). This farm not only benefits one type of science, but many all combined together, which is what forensics is made of. Police also use this to test and find how a body died in order to solve a case. The background behind the Body Farm is vast and important to our knowledge of the human body, whether we realize it or

The temples, pyramids, tombs, and religious artifacts left behind all tell us that the Ancient Egyptians believed in the resurrection of the dead. Their belief in immortality was the fundamental driving force behind their religion. “The formulae which were declared to have been recited during the performance of ceremonies were written down and copied for scores of generations, and every pious, well-to-do Egyptian made arrangements that what had been done and said on behalf of Osiris should be done and said for him outside and inside his tomb after his death.” (Liturgy of Funeral Offerings, pg.2) This illustrates just how important the ceremony and the process was to the Egyptians. Their belief in the afterlife and the importance of the ceremonial steps taken to get them there caused them great concern with their own funerals. Today, everyone has an idea of what they would like to do for their own funeral as well. We may follow in the same patterns as our family heritage has done for generations with either a traditional funeral or cremation, or we may have a newer alternative in mind for our self. Even though we may not be preparing for an afterlife, we still have an

Every individual experiences the act of death, and most persons experience the death of someone they know of. Whether family, kin, or someone infamous, the living deal with the process of dying. Anthropology seeks to understand the universal process of death ritual and how different cultures deal with death differently. An anthropologist can extract social values of a given culture, past or present, from how death ceremony is practiced. Such values could be regarding political hierarchy or an individual’s status in a society, and about a culture’s spiritual or religious faith. By exploring death ceremony in ancient Egypt, contemporary Hindu death practice in India, and current North American funerary rites, it can be illustrated that

This knowledge of death is common among many, including both Jewish and Modern Americans. However, even though this idea of inevitable death is noted in both Jewish texts and the Bible, the burial practices are not so similar. Early Jew and Modern American customs differ in terms of preparation of the body, funeral services and burial. Showing respect for the deceased is common among both cultures, however the way respect is shown is key to understanding their customs.

Third, a body may be placed in a deliberately excavated feature without the inclusion of grave goods. Fourth, a body may be placed in an excavated feature with the addition of grave goods or the marking of mortuary space. Fifth, re-excavation and removal of a buried body would indicate deliberate burial. Lastly, a body may be deliberately placed in an excavated feature with more formalized inclusion and placement of grave goods.”

“Cave burial was one of the most common ways to put a body to rest. Placement of the bodies were in lava tubes, rock shelters, or hitches that contained several bodies inside. Burying the deceased in sand dunes or in earth was another common but preferred method. Majority of the sand dunes in Hawaii have some kind of history with burial” (Kirch 240). Apart from buried in the earth, surface burials they had also conducted included cremation, which was performed by burning the corpse over a fire until the bones had charred into ash. “When referring to sea burials, bodies of fishermen would be wrapped in red cloth, then put in the ocean to be eaten by sharks. It was believed that the essence of the fisherman would inhabit the shark’s body” (Redmond 4).

In this paper, we will discuss the different death rituals performed in different cultures. We view death rituals from Native Americans, Africans, those of the Chinese decent, and endocannibalism from the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea. Death is universal to all people in every culture. Responses to how one deals with death and dying differ greatly. Death rituals are usually based on beliefs. This can come from religion, history, language, and art.

Dead?" AlterNet. In this article, Frankie Colmane looks into how dead bodies are treated in the United State even after Mitford's expose of the funeral industry was published. The article takes both a philosophical and scientific issue with the procedure of embalming sighting proven negative effects to human beings and the environment. Colmane shows that even though people are aware of the malfeasance and misappropriations of the funeral industry following pieces like Mitford's, very little has changed. Therefore problems that have been discussed in earlier works should not be forgotten. Rather they should be continually brought up until the issue is solved. During the 1800s, embalming became common practice because the dead family member would lie in state within the home for a period of days or weeks until it would be buried (Colmane 2010). The article shows the duplicity such as when "funeral directors were arguing forcefully against charges that their mediation between the living and the dead translated into social obstruction that barred the stricken from facing death with maturity, realism, and honest" (page 2). This article will be used to illustrate that things have not changed with funereal practices despite the publication of Mitford's essay.

Burial rituals are discussed in this page of notes. There is a blanket wrapped around the body and a “nice silk handkerchief” placed on the face, blankets are then put all around the body to make sure it stays warm. They did not use a coffin but dis put boards around the body in similar fashion, however, they did not use nails. It also appears that there was interest by one of Harrington’s informants to see a white funeral/burial because she “wanted to see how whites fired corpse.” This tells of their burial practices and that they have an interest in how other people are burring their dead.

Forensic anthropologist knowledge of the human body, helps aid in the outcome of a death investigation. (Stanojevich) To help solve criminal trials, the systematic recovery and collection of physical evidence in the field, the scientific analysis in the laboratory and the protection of integrity of evidence, is crucial. Usually, response teams from either federal, state, or local authorities will gather and examine the physical evidence of a crime scene, but there are often times, when a forensic anthropologist is called in. Forensic anthropologist are major players, because they are trained in anthropology, archaeology, human osteology, forensic taphonomy, and chain-of-evidence procedures. Their study of human remains, aids in the case by working to assess the age, sex, stature, ancestry and unique features of a skeleton. Forensic anthropologist have been used to investigate victims of homicide, accidental deaths, natural deaths, and mass fatalities. The cases a forensic anthropologist works on usually involve victims that are decomposed, skeletonized, or have body parts that are missing. Often times, the forensic anthropologist, is the last chance for identification and justice for the victims. (Walsh-Haney)

Human death has once held more mystery than facts. In pursuit of prolonging life countless knowledgeable individuals attempted to define patterns of work of our body as well as find cure to common illnesses and injuries. Thus in certain way or form, any civilized society would amass experience that translated into early medicine. Simultaneously, the same society would establish rules and regulations that helped govern population. Combination of these two fields led to development of forensics.

But how do you tell what the bodies are getting to? I’ll tell you! There are forensic scientists that study bodies and then try to figure out how, when, where, and why whoever had this body, died! And how do these scientists do it, you ask? I don’t know! But what I do know, is that the scientists look at the height and weight of the skeletons, and then determine what age they were, so that they can then identify who the person was, and what they looked like. By doing this these special scientists

Mankind’s history of burial practices and funeral customs are as old as civilization itself. There is no specific way to planning a funeral. Every civilization and culture has provided for their dead in different ways. Religion and personal beliefs play an important role in the burial practices and funeral customs of a given culture or civilization. Furthermore, each civilization and cultured ever studied have three things in common: some type of funeral rites, rituals, and ceremonies; A sacred place for the dead; and memorialization of the dead. As far back as the time of Christ, burials have been noted to take place. In time burial and funeral customs have become very distinct, interesting and

Today the society is looking for ways to ease life and to find solutions for problems which oppress our lives and make it hard to live through. Because of many reasons, the traditional burials in this century are becoming a problem. (Prothero,2001). The fact that they cover a lot of land to build cemeteries and other things that are attached to these traditional burials is enough for us to search for a practical solution. About a century ago the term "cremation" was unknown to many people. It is believed that it began to be practiced during the early Stone Age and still exists today. Since that time cremations have been made all