Re: [asa] burial customs

As to being eaten, it would have to be forbidden to the Hebrews and their
descendants unless they killed the person in a way to drain the blood.
Dave (ASA)

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:52:56 -0500 mrb22667@kansas.net writes:
>
> This is a spin-off from all the 'morals' posts. But can anyone give
> a history
> of how burial customs for humans came to be? I don't remember any
> Biblical
> passages that endorse any specific practices other than the plenty
> of passages
> that recognize the "cursed" state of one whose body is left for wild
> animals or
> birds. Presumably this is more a reflection on the fact that they
> have no
> family or loved ones left (or who care about them enough) to bury
> them. But in
> this the Bible may simply be picking up on surrounding cultural
> values that were
> already in place, and in fact never really endorses them --i.e.
> "Thou shalt
> bury thy dead." I guess it could be implied in some of the purity
> instructions,
> given that dead bodies are "unclean".
>
> But given all this, what is it today (other than highly $$ motivated
> funeral
> industry) that morally motivates us to seal our fresh corpses into
> concrete
> vaults where they can now spend decades as rotting mush instead of
> the mere
> years necessary if we'd just let nature have at it? How are some of
> the
> aboriginals so wrong having a party to eat their dead after they
> die? As far as
> I can tell, cannibalism is also a cultural, not a biblical taboo, as
> long as
> there is no murder involved. Of course, the local health
> department will
> probably have a thing or two to say if a family wants to make a
> buffet out of
> their late uncle Johnny. But practical concerns aside, what are
> some of the
> sources of these "morals", if that is even the right category for
> them.
>
> --Merv
>
> personally, I think being eaten has a lot more appeal than being
> sealed in a
> small water-tight box. --the ultimate in economical cremation: let
> nature
> scatter you abroad. could be disconcerting to surviving family to
> see parts
> laying around, though... I do understand that.
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Oct 27 23:04:21 2009