Burial Practices And Funerals

Scope Note

Attitude toward the corpse; mortuary toilet (e.g., dressing and decorating the body); laying out in state; preservative techniques (e.g., embalming, desiccation, mummification); determination of time, place, and mode of burial; interval between death and burial (e.g., duration, measures to prevent further deaths, manifestations of grief); vigils and wakes; place of disposal of corpse (e.g., cemetery, ossuary); receptacles (e.g., coffin, canoe, urn, tomb); method of disposal (e.g., abandonment, inhumation, cremation, sea burial, cave burial, tree or scaffold burial); preparation of grave, pyre, or scaffold; transport of corpse to place of disposal; procession to grave; disposition of corpse (e.g., posture, orientation); funerary mounds, monuments, and memorials; burial rites; mortuary sacrifices; disposition of grave goods; roles of relatives at funerals; economic obligations of participants (e.g., fees, contributions); precautions against return of the soul (e.g., silence, disguise, doors of the dead); return from the funeral; purification of participants; etc.