On Being Buried Alive

"There have been some documented cases of people being buried alive. So, my question is... they would be dead once all of the mortician practices are done, right?"

*laughter*

"I hope so!"

*laughter*

"Yah, that would be unfortunate."

This conversation was funny in class, but the subject scares the crap out of me. It makes me wonder why we joke about these things, or even make movies out of them.

Burn, Crush, Grind

Last week during my anthropology class, I had second thoughts on being cremated. We learned about funerary practices, and how much really goes into making the dead look decent while organisms are literally taking them apart. The choices in practices vary from short-term burial (after which the body might be donated to science), to eco-friendly composting. As I mentioned earlier, cremation was my main interest, until I learned the following:

Step 1: The Mortician places the body in a furnace that can get up to 1800 degrees Celsius, for 1-3 hours. This is basically to rid the body of its flesh.
Step 2: The dried bones are crushed by a type of compacting machine.
Step 3: Crushed remains go through a magnetized area that collects any metals that might have been inside the body.
Step 4: What's left is put in an industrial grinder.
Step 5: The "ashes" are collected and placed into whatever jar or container the deceased purchased.

Death isn't glamourous. I want a more personal send-off than a computerized process, so I have decided to be buried in a shroud. Seems strange, but much cooler.

On Race and Anthropology

In class, when asked what the definition of race is a student replied that race is unnecessary. For a long time I have been battling with myself, and others on what race is and if such a classification is necessary. Here are a couple of notes from class. Share and comment, but use your brain when doing so.

• Breeding isolation creates race based on geography, ethnicity, language group, nationality and religion. 
• Things that can dissolve race: migration, war, slavery, exploration, immigration.

It's a surreal thing to hold pieces that used to belong to someone. Already I have met a man who survived a shotgun shelling, only to die later of old age. Pellets peppered his right side and some are still in the bone.  What brought about the shelling? A small dispute over who was the owner of an 80's model Pontiac Firebird.