Burials - Alternatives To Burial

Alternatives To Burial

In most cases these alternatives still intend to maintain respect for the dead, but some intend to prolong the display of the remains.

• Burial at sea is the practice of depositing the body in an ocean or other large body of water instead of soil. It may be disposed in a coffin, or without one. Because of the particular logistics of scattering ashes at sea, there are commercial services that do so for a fee.
• Funerary cannibalism is the practice of eating the remains. This may be for many reasons: for example to partake of their strength, to spiritually "close the circle" by reabsorbing their life into the family or clan, to annihilate an enemy, or due to pathological mental conditions. The Yanomami have the habit of cremating the remains and then eating the ashes with banana paste.
• Cremation is the incineration of the remains. This practice is common amongst Hindus and is becoming increasingly common in other cultures as well. If a family member wishes, the ashes can now be turned into a gem, similar to creating synthetic diamonds.
• Cryonics there is debate if cryonics is a medical treatment or a method of internment. See also information theoretical death; clinical death.
• Ecological funeral is a method of increasing the rate of decomposition in order to help fertilize the soil.
• Excarnation is the practice of removing the flesh from the corpse without interment. The Zoroastrians have traditionally left their dead on Towers of Silence, where the flesh of the corpses is left to be devoured by vultures and other carrion-eating birds. Alternatively, it can also mean butchering the corpse by hand to remove the flesh (sometimes referred to by the neologism "defleshing").
• Gibbeting was the ancient practice of publicly displaying remains of criminals.
• Hanging coffins are coffins which have been placed on cliffs. They can be found in various locations, including China and the Philippines.
• The Use of an Ossuary for human skeletal remains among second temple Jews & early Christians.
• Resomation involves disposal through an accelerated process of alkaline hydrolysis.
• Sky burial involves placing the body on a mountaintop.