Embalming

Embalming, in most modern cultures, is the art and science used to temporarily preserve human remains to forestall decomposition and make it suitable for display at a funeral. It has a long history, and other cultures had embalming processes that had much greater religious meaning.

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Embalming has been in many cultures. In classical antiquity, perhaps the Old World culture that had developed embalming to the greatest extent was that of ancient Egypt, who developed the process of mummification. They believed that preservation of the mummy empowered the soul after death, which would return to the preserved corpse.

Decomposition: Decomposition is the reduction of bodies and other formerly living organisms into simpler forms of matter and, most particularly, to the fate of the human body after death. The science which studies decomposition generally is called taphonomy....

Funeral: A funeral is a ceremony marking a person's death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from the funeral itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor. These customs vary widely between cultures, and bet...

Religious: REDIRECT Religion...