Cemetery moral debate

I'm going to use this week's blog prompt, and change it slightly to a topic that had interested me in terms of moral and ethical use of the dead's information, names and family heritage. Cemetery's have always been a place in which ethical morals or issues have been difficult to avoid. The use of cemetery data has always been questionable for me in terms of how we the living may use the data of the dead. I'm not sure if I had passed, if I would still want information about my life, religion or history to be used in areas such as data bases or research. It is difficult, if not impossible to say whether the information we have been using in my own archaeology course has been using deceased individual's information who have much the same view about my own privacy after death. I think the main question is, 'how can the give consent'? Well, they can't which is something I've been thinking about all week...

Grave goods and burials..

To start, I love the idea of choosing what types of grave goods would be buried with you when you die. For me, burial isn't and never has been my first choice of after-death processing, so it is something a bit more thought provoking than I had originally thought!

I think if my only option was a burial, I would have include with me not material things such as jewellery or gifts, but rather photos and memories of the life I had lived. I'm not a very materialistic person, so for me to include those with me would contradict much of what I believe in today. Photos and memories would probably include my childhood journals and photos of those I love and who love me. The outlook of having friends, family and loved ones highest in priority over material things is a mantra I 'take to the grave', and would literally take with my into my grave (ha ha pun).

If another person were to pick my grave goods, I'd like to think that throughout my life I emphasized clearly what is important to me, and they could pick such items or things accordingly. I have a feeling that most people would put in lots of flowers, plants and possibly homemade crafts or jewellery.

Burial is something I'd never put much thought into. To me, I don't like the idea of staying stagnant in the ground and having a specific spot where people go to remember or talk to you. The idea of cremation seems like such a more positive and freeing way to leave your body behind. Having ashes thrown into the wind is such a more pleasant visualization than having a cement tombstone. I think that if people would want to remember me, it would be at their spot of choosing with the comfort of the wind and knowing that my ashes were thrown into the wind similar to the one they that was passing by them. This leads to people's personal concept of healing and mourning. Having lost a few people close to me, I feel that I heal much more effectively knowing that my loved ones bodies are free, compared to having been buried to take the elements. This is just my opinion of course and is by no means either right or wrong.

Cheers!

A little more about me...

Hi friends!
So here's a little about me...

I started out my university adventure in 2009 with little to no idea of what I was doing, supposed to study, or what my future plans were after graduation. I originally had declared my major in sociology only to find that focus wasn't what I was truly passionate about. I am now a cultural anthropology major, with sociology minor. Being in my fourth year, I have now found what I am passionate about doing, which is helping people learn, develop and grow into the best people they can be (cheesy, yes I know, but it's true!). This may sound somewhat contrasting to what many anthropological fields- including archaeology- teach and develop, because it is! After some personal encounters and a little bit more life experience, I am going into the field of mental health and addictions counselling. I realize that if I'd found what I love to do back in 2009, I might have taken a social work degree, however, I have learned incredible amounts about society, past, present and future which I think is invaluable knowledge to bring with me into my career goals. Social interactions fascinate and intrigue me in how they shape the individual and the world in which we live. As much as my future plans sound somewhat contrary to learning about the dead, I love archaeology and everything to do with it and am so glad my degree has led me down this path and into courses like this that help broaden my understanding of how people once lived and what they believed in.

So! After graduation I plan to travel as much as I can, starting with my family heritage in Norway and Sweden and seeing where I end up! After that, I'm taking a 1 year course called an IMHA (Interprofessional Mental Health and Addictions) post-degree diploma.

Specifically, the part that I am most interested in the course is the material on how different cultural beliefs shape and mould how the dead are buried or cremated. Why is it that some cultures believe that burying the dead is the only means acceptable for disposal and others think of it as a great outrage to place loved ones in the ground? Also, I'd like to learn more about how people perceived the soul/body connection to an afterlife and how this interplays with the type of burial that is performed.

Cheers! (too bad this class wasn't in the evening or else I'd convince some of you to come talk with me about culture, death and afterlife over a beer at Felicita's)

Stephanie