Mass Burials in a Time of Crisis

Mass Burials in Japan

(Image: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gLhfIg_6MLeaZQ1YPDnmipJVlF6g?docId=CNG.fde490a180a3b034200615bee30b2f70.451)


Ever since we read the article entitled, "Mortuary Practices in Bam after the Earthquake: An Enthnoarchaeological Study" by Garazhian and Yazdi, I have been thinking about how natural disasters affect people's funerary practices. I never gave any thought to the fact that natural disasters might alter a community's funerary practices but it makes perfect sense.  People must adapt to the situation of an unusually high death toll and act accordingly.  I like the idea that Garazhian and Yazdi presented in the article about studying changes in funerary practices to discover mass disasters that have occurred in the past.  I decided to look into what is happening in Japan since the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit earlier this month. 

I stumbled across an article written by John Saeki entitled, "Japan Buries Tsunami Victims in Mass Grave."  The article describes how the large death toll has forced people of Japan to change their traditoinal practices and rituals of death to deal with the results of the disaster. The article describes how dozens of bodies have been placed in simple wooden coffins and then buried in mass graves.  A mass grave in Higashimatsushima is comprised of 50 meter-long trenches dug at the site of a former recycling center outside of town.  Apparently, the mass graves are a temporary solution to the problem of overflowing morgues and long waits for cremation.  According to the article, Japanese funerals usually involve a combination of religion and tradition, which involves lying the body out with the head facing north for a wake followed by a ceremony where incense is burned and a monk chants Buddhist sutras. The Japanese usually cremate the bodies afterwards and after the cremation, the family uses chopsticks to pick bone fragments from the ash and place them in an urn.  After a few weeks of the urn sitting on an altar at home, it will be out in a grave. However, given the high death toll that has reached almost 10,000 people, this funerary practice is not possible right now.  There are too many bodies for the crematorium in Higashimatsushima to handle because it can only cremate six bodies per day. 

As a solution, regions in Japan have created these mass burials in the hopes that the bodies can be exhumed at a later time and then the families can perform the proper funerary rituals.  The problem is this might not be possible for months, or even years.  There are several bodies that have not been identified yet.  The officials are waiting to bury these bodies in the hope that they will be identified before they are buried.  However, eventually the unknown bodies will have to be buried too so DNA samples  and records have been kept so they mgiht be able to be identified in the future.

I think this disaster will be visible in the archaeological record in the future because the Japanese have had to drastically alter their funerary practices.  In the future, archaeologists might notice a sudden increase in the number of burials in Japan, especially considering a lot of these bodies will probably not be identified or cremated at a later date so they will probably remain buried in the mass graves. I can't imagine how upseting it is for a family to lose their loved ones in such a tragic accident and then, to make it worse, they cannot perform the proper funerary rituals.  Very sad.


News story: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gLhfIg_6MLeaZQ1YPDnmipJVlF6g?docId=CNG.fde490a180a3b034200615bee30b2f70.451  

Museums

Inca sacrificial victim called Llullaillaco Mummy on display in Salta, Argentina

Image: http://www.science20.com/news_account/mummy_studies_show_inca_fattened_up_kids_before_human_sacrifice

I didn't realize all the controversy and conflict surrounding museums and artifacts until recently.  When I used to go to the museum I would "oooh" and "awwww" at all the artifacts and try to imagine their history: who used them; what they used them for, and how old they were.  However, I think next time I go to the museum I will view these items differently. Now I am going to wonder how the community who used these artifacts feels about them being on display and how the items found their way into the museum.

As for the display of human remains, this is a very controversial issue. I know a lot of people who wouldn't mind having their remains on display, especially for educational purposes.  But I imagine no consent was recevied from most of the people who are on display or housed in a museum today so we don't know if they mind or not.  For example, who asked the 15-year-old Inca sacrificial victim, Llullaillaco Maiden, if her mummified body could be put on display in a museum in Salta, Argentina?  Considering she died around 500 years ago, I'm guessing nobody asked her permission.  This is the issue: we don't know how these people feel about their remains being put on display.  Some of them might be happy to be making a contribution to science and education but other people might not like the idea of public display, especially if it goes against their cultural beliefs regarding how a deceased individual should be treated and what happens to the person after death.  For example, I know if I believed I could only move on to an afterlife if I was buried in a grave with specific grave goods, I wouldn't be happy (to say the least) if my body and grave goods were exhumed and then put on display.

Personally, after I die, I want to donate my body to science so I can continue to have an impact on people's lives.  I wouldn't mind my bones or individual body parts being on display I suppose. However, I would never want to be on display in a museum or similar institution in any form that resembled me in life, such as the Bog Bodies or well-preserved Inca mummies.  I want people to remember me as full of life and, well, alive! I wouldn't want people staring at my lifeless mummified body. I think that would be creepy.

Considering we can't ask deceased individuals for their permission to put their bodies and artifacts on display, I think the next best thing is to ask their relatives.  Even though people in the same culture, and even the same family, can have very different beliefs regardings rituals, death, and religion, I think ancestors are the closest we can come to understanding deceased individuals' wishes.  For this reason, I believe it is important to consult with ancestors whenever possible when dealing with issues of display in museums.

In the News...

Image: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110301-himalayas-caves-defleshed-skeletons-science-nepal-mustang/

So I was searching online to find an interesting news article related to death or funerary practices and lo and behold, I found a great National Geographic article! The article is entitled, "New Death Ritual Found in Himalaya- 27 De-fleshed Humans." Obviously the title of this article caught my eye right away so I decided to read on.

In 2010, the remains of 27 individuals - men, women, and children - were found in cliffside caves in Nepal with some of the remains dating to 1,500 years ago! Apparently these caves are man-made and sit 4,200 meters above sea level.  If that wasn't interesting enough, the researchers found cut marks on several of the bones, suggesting that they had been de-fleshed (most likely with a metal knife). The researchers think this could be part of an unknown Himalayan death ritual! The researchers also found the remains of goats, cows, and horses, which might have been sacrifical offerings. So how did these bodies end up in "cliffside caves" anyhow? Researchers believe people used to access the caves using rocky outcrops and ladders but the caves are eroding so they are harder to accesss now.  In the photo above, you can see that the cliffside caves and the human remains that they contain are only accessible by expert rock climbers.   

The researchers do not think the bodies were de-fleshed as a result of cannabilism because this usually entails smashing the base of the skull to get the brain out and breaking other bones to get the marrow; however, the bones discovered in the cliffs do not show these signs. Furthermore, some DNA tests have been performed and they suggest that the deceased individuals are related. This has lead the researchers to hypothesize that these mortuary caves are traditional burial places for extended families!
The team of researchers think this ritual is connected to two other death rituals: Tibetan sky burials and a funerary rite from the Zoroastrian religion. Tibetan sky burials involve dismembering bodies and exposing them to the elements. Similary, Zoroastrians de-fleshed bodies and then fed the flesh to animals. The researchers think the people who created the cliffside burials in Nepal adopted the rituals of Zoroastrians who were were travelling through the territory. Then, this cave ritual in Nepal might have turned into, or inspired, the sky burials of Tibet. In this way, the cliffside cave burials might have acted as a "previously unknown bridge" between the Zoroastrian ritual and the later Tibetan sky burials.

Why a cave on a cliff?
The researchers believe that these isolated cliffs were chosen as burial spots because of local religious beliefs. For example, Buddhism was practiced in the region and this religion puts high value on the idea of religious retreat. Also, the people who practed this funerary ritual might have felt a connection to the landscape and viewed these caves as sacred.

This was my summary of the researchers discoveries and interpretations. For more info on this story go to this link:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110301-himalayas-caves-defleshed-skeletons-science-nepal-mustang/

I think this find is very exciting since it can shed some light on the funerary rituals that were being practiced by this Himalayan group during this time period. I especially like the researchers' interpretation that this funerary practice might represent a "bridge" between older rituals and newer rituals. I think people in our culture are intrigued by stories like this one becase they present practices that are unheard of in our culture so people are fascinated by them. The funerary practice that is descrbied in this article shows two practices that are unique to our culture: burial in a cliffside cave and de-fleshing of the dead. For this reason, people think this story is "newsworthy."  I know it certainly caught my eye!

A Blog Post about Blogs: My Thoughts

When I heard we had to create and maintain a blog for this class, I was worried.  My biggest concern was I didn't really know what a blog was. Well, I had a general idea of what a blog was but I had never read one before and I definitely had never made my own!  However, I soon realized that creating my own blog was not as scary as it seemed.  It was in fact, very easy.  I might even go as far as to say it was fun.  I liked designing my own page and choosing the format. After I had set it up, I was so proud of myself that I emailed my family the link to my blog so they could follow me and read about all the exciting things I have to say (Hi mom and dad! Are you reading this?!) I have enjoyed my blogging experience as I like having the ability to discuss topics that I find particularly interesting.  I also like reading other people's blogs to see what they find interesting.

I never thought I would have a blog, especially one that focused on death and funerary practices!  Discussing death all the time hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be though.  One reason for this is because I tend to distance myself from the deceased individuals that we study.  It makes it easier if I do not think of them as once living, breathing people like myself.  But once in awhile I remember the fact that these are people who had a family, friends and a life history. And this should not be ignored.  This thought always brings me back to reality and reminds me the importance of showing the people that I study respect.

This thought has been on my mind lately as I do research for my case study, which is about Inca child sacrifice.  Looking at images of well-preserved sacrificed children gives me an eerie feeling because the thought of deceased children and the practice of sacrifice both seem 'unnatural' to me. In my culture, a child's death is always an upsetting and shocking event so the thought of purposely killing children does not fit with my worldview at all.  That is why I find studying this topic so interesting because I want to understand the motivations behind it.

Overall, I have enjoyed my blogging experience. I might even start another blog after this class is finished.  It probably won't focus as much on death and funerary practices though but we shall see what comes to mind.  I mean, who doesn't want to read about how to make diamond jewelry out of cremated ashes?! That is good stuff.