Death rites and rituals are hardly ever static. Change is the constant in both life in death. And so it is that change is here for the funeral business in the United States. We sit in liminality. The “traditional funeral” (aka embalming and burial [as defined by the FTC]) in the US is becoming […]
One. No such thing as DIY. In many counties in the US, it’s difficult to get a permit to burn leaves, yet alone a human body. There are DIY funerals and green burials (which have a large degree of family and friend involvement), but when it comes to cremation you’ll need to use a cremation […]
By Traci Rylands Today’s guest post is a little graphic in describing how cremation works. I recently wrote about the history of cremation in America and how it’s becoming more popular every year. However, an alternative form of cremation is gaining attention that’s truly different. Resomation, bio-cremation and flameless cremation are a few of the buzzwords used, […]
Today’s guest post is written by Ed Munger: ***** It’s always a fitting time to consider what kind of environmental destruction I’ll leave in my wake once I depart. Others, I’m afraid to say, are more concerned with their environmental footprint – or body print – than I am. For them, there’s a veritable cornucopia of options […]
One. It’s weird. Yes, we lay a nekked person on a table and take out their blood, replacing said blood with embalming fluid. Weird? Yes. But so is cremation, sky burial, endocannibalism, famadihana and mummification. Two. It does not preserve the body indefinitely. You can’t dig up an embalmed body from 1920 and expect it […]