Why do people bury the dead and when/where did that begin?

Question

Is there somthing more to burying the dead 6 feet under that most people dont know about?

Answer 1

The first ceremonial burials were discovered around 60,000 years ago in Europe. Most anthropoligists believe this also coincided with the first concept of an afterlife among homo sapiens. Prior to that date, our primitive ancestors were nomadic hunters and were left where they fell when they died.

Answer 2

Way back when, people buried the dead to prevent the spread of sickness and diseases, and to keep wild animals from getting at the body. Six feet under was considered to be where a wild animal wouldn't start digging for the body.

Embalming wasn't invented until the American Civil War in the 1800's. I'm sure you can find more history if you search around the web.

Know why people send flowers to the funerals? Back in the old days, dead people were laid out in their homes, and flowers made the event more tolerable to the visitor's noses.

Today, a HUGE amount of money is spent on flower arrangements that just get tossed on the grave a couple of days later. Seems like a waste to me, so I always send a potted plant that maybe someone will want to take home afterwards. Or I'll make a donation of what it would have cost me in flowers to a charity in the deceased's name.

This link might help you get started: http://www.wyfda.org/basics_2.html

Answer 3

Burial of the dead is a very old practise - even Neanderthals did it. It was common to put people in the fetal position on their sides, facing a certain direction (such as west or north). The tomb is a womb, is the way this thinking goes. In addition the deceased was buried with his/her favorite tools, weapons, bowls of food, necklaces, etc. Much later when kings were buried they were often buried with their wives and servants, who were strangled to go along with them - sometimes even horses and dogs.
But burial was not universal. Some cultures feared that a buried body would trap the person's spirit, prohibiting that person from walking in the sky (in other words, going to heaven). Hindus for example will go to great lengths to cremate their loved ones. A variation of this existed among the Parsis and Native Americans, who put the body on a platform to be devoured by ravens and vultures. Later the bones (skull especially) might be retrieved and put in a sacred shrine (the Celts had a fetish about skulls).

Answer 4

sanitation is the primary reason. however, burial is also a time honored gesture of love and respect for those who have died. interference with the remains of the dead is even an actionable tort in most civilized societies.

Answer 5

Sanitiation's probably a good enough reason