Burial

Burial, also called interment and (when applied to human burial) inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. Usually, this is accomplished by digging a pit or trench, placing the person or object in it, and refilling it with the soil that was dug out of it.

Alternatives to burial

Not all cultures bury their dead, and many of those that do bury their dead do not do so in all cases. Alternatives include:

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• Burial at sea is the practice of depositing the body in an ocean or other large body of water instead of soil. It may be disposed in a coffin, or without one.
• Cannibalism is the practice of eating the remains. This may be for many reasons: for example to partake of their strength, to spiritually "close the circle" by reabsorbing their life into the family or clan, to annihilate an enemy, or due to pathological mental conditions.
• Cremation is the incineration of the remains.
• Cryopreservation is the cold storage of the remains.
• Ecological funeral is a proposed method of increasing the rate of decomposition in order to help fertilize the soil.
• Excarnation is the practice of removing the flesh from the corpse without interment.
• Butchering the corpse by hand to remove the flesh.
• Sky burial involves placing the body on a mountaintop.
• Gibbeting is the practice of publicly displaying remains of criminals to demonstrate the will of the governing body that executed the individual to provide public order.
• Space burial is the practice of firing the coffin into space. The coffin may be placed into orbit, sent off into interstellar space, or incinerated in the sun. Space burial is still largely in the realm of science fiction as the cost of getting a body up into space is currently prohibitively large, although several prominent figures have had their ashes launched into space after cremation.
• Hanging coffins are coffins which have been placed on cliffs. They can be found in various locations, including China and the Philippines.

In most cases, these alternatives still maintain respect for the dead. In fact, some of the more elaborate alternatives are employed by some cultures to show increased respect for the deceased. Gibbeting is a notable exception, either showing complete lack of respect or disregarding respect for the foreseen positive effects on public order generated by the display.

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