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What they did with their dead ​….

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moss M
moss Jun 13, 2016 14:31:43
Replying to Markoid

Markoid wrote:
tiompan wrote:
Yes ,the more sanitised stuff is relatively recent and it's imagined that the beliefs and rituals are pretty similar even across Europe , when that is not the case .
Secondary burial is still carried out in southern and eastern Europe with attendant rituals that seem strange to us north westerners .
Rituals respect the dead and the living. I think that's where the word came from. A relegious term. Almost like a trance - like prayer.
Less sanitised, and please don't read the link if you are squeamish, is the Tibetan 'sky burials' and probably nearer in principle to the excarnation of the prehistoric period.

http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~pamlogan/skybury.htm

T tiompan
tiompan Jun 13, 2016 14:53:17
Replying to moss

moss wrote:
Markoid wrote:
tiompan wrote:
Yes ,the more sanitised stuff is relatively recent and it's imagined that the beliefs and rituals are pretty similar even across Europe , when that is not the case .
Secondary burial is still carried out in southern and eastern Europe with attendant rituals that seem strange to us north westerners .
Rituals respect the dead and the living. I think that's where the word came from. A relegious term. Almost like a trance - like prayer.
Less sanitised, and please don't read the link if you are squeamish, is the Tibetan 'sky burials' and probably nearer in principle to the excarnation of the prehistoric period.

http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~pamlogan/skybury.htm

It's likely that there was more to the rituals than just excarnation ,if contemporary practices from differing cultures are anything to go by .
Smearing yourself in the more liquid remains of the ancestors , takes a bit of beating .

L Locodogz
Locodogz Jun 15, 2016 13:52:51
Replying to moss

Many moons ago I found myself in Tana Taraja (in Sulawesi). In addition to the cliff burial tradition I was shown a number of sacred trees. These were reserved for interring infants (deemed to be more innocent, it was explained to me) - a hollow would be carved out of the trunk and the body placed behind a temporary cover and, as the tree grew, the opening would eventually close. Looking up at the tallest of these trees you could clearly make out 20+ of these closed up 'burials'.

I remember finding this quite striking and something of a calming 'return to nature'?