Comment on If a tunnel boring machine were installed facing downward in a cemetery, you wouldn't need to expand the cemetery

finley@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• notabot@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s a safe and reliable way to dispose of a corpse that might be diseased, will smell bad as it decomposes, and would certainly attract scavengers if left lying around. The same goes for cremation, it really just depends on local custom.

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  • finley@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    i feel it necessary to remind you that it’s 2024, and you’re using a computer to communicate on a global telecommunications network which runs on electricity and digital information.

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    • notabot@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      What?!?? I just tap my finger on the glowy thinking rock and demons/faye/angels take my messages to other people’s thinking rocks and bring me their responses. I don’t believe in all that ‘electricity’ witchcraft!

      Seriously, yes burial uses a fair bit of space, which is part of the reason cremation is increasing in popularity in many places. Even with burials though, many graveyards reuse plots after some number of years, once the previous body has decomposed to save space. For those wanting a more ecologically friendly method than cremation, there’s the option of resomation too.

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• volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  If you think about it it is not strange at all, it is maybe one of the very early things that differentiated us from animals. We have a concept of death and time, future and loss. We mourn our dead. And I strongly believe that all the rituals that we have established are not meant for the dead but in fact serve the living. It is a way to cope with the loss of a person. And with the ever same ways - casket, flowers, music, burying - we give the mourning something to do and get distracted so that they don’t lose themselves in the sadness. It feels “right” because it feels familiar, everyone does it this way. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time someone dies. How to cope, and how to get rid of the body? Well, there is a societal playbook for that.

  There was a dude here on lemmy who actually specialized in American death rites. I think he stopped using lemmy though because of too much negativity, I think people commenting how stupid it is that we don’t just trash our dead on a post was his tipping point. Which is a freaking shame because it sounds like he knew some really fascinating things.

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  • finley@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    lots of animals mourn their dead, even ritualistically. humans aren’t special in that way. not to mention that, even among humans, burying the dead is not the only practice. many cultures practice marine burials (dumping the corpse in a body of water), or, more popularly, cremation. many carry out these manners of disposal with no ritual at all.

    Grief and mourning don’t necessitate a burial. other manners of corpse disposal can allow those who remain to process grief, and some can even provide a location for family and friends to visit in memorium.

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    • volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Ah, I see, your main issue is specifically with the burying? I assumed you had a problem with any kind of disposal that is not literally using the body for fuel/resources or just trashing it.

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      • finley@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        yeah, i understand why humans used to do it long ago. but, nowadays, it’s just a huge waste of valuable space which could be put to far better use. used to live near a gigantic cemetery, and whenever i passed it, all i could think of is what a lovely park it would make, or some affordable housing, perhaps.

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• LiterallyLMAO@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Why let all that meat go to waste?

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  • finley@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    i was thinking, “fuel,” but whatever

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    • LiterallyLMAO@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Well damn, now I want to start the world’s first corpse-fired power plant

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• PineRune@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Leaving a carcass in the wild would attract scavengers and spread disease, which is prevented by inhumation. Cremation is also an option but requires a large amount of fuel. In early and prehistoric cultures, inhumation was the easy option.

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