Sep 13 2005
Rite of Burial
Aug. 29 issue, by Tad Friend
The article is about a new trend in California: green burial.
Instead of elaborate tomb stones, people are buried without being emblmed or metal coffins.
The idea is to return body to nature, to become fertilizer for trees, for example.
An even more scientific approach by Susanne Wiigh-Masak, a Swedish biologist, who proposed to freeze body in liquid nitrogen and then shatter them into powered compost.
A natural extension of using black Volvo SUV or Priuse, instead of the good ol Cadillac, as hearse.
Very detailed descriptions of the body decaying process.
History:
why ancient Egyptians extract brains and other internal organs before mummify bodies: they rot first and nastiest.
Embalming came into use during the Civil War. It forestalls putrefaction for about a week.
Peacock is a symbol of immortality.
Main attraction: James Tyler Cassity
Grew up in a born-again Baptists family in Missouri, has Chinese and Cherokee ancestors (”I am assuming they were both raped”)
When just 13, he realized recordings of dead people could be re-packaged and sold as part of the funeral service.
He came out a gay in college. His father said “I had looked at gayness as a choice, because that is what my religion said. It became obvious that is wasn’t a religious or moral issue.” and turned “spiritual” thereafter.
Cemetry expansion is controlled by zoning codes in CA (maybe elsewhere too).
Cremation rate: CA 51%, Nation: 30%, Marin county, CA 80%
Other characters: Ron Hast, Richard Jongordon (drive through cremation), Jessica Mitford (The American Way of Death), Campbell, Sehee