which they cease to exist. Yet, and despite the absence of any proof of a kind of disembodied survival, there is a belief in afterlife in many cultures. Burial is often thought of as the gateway to an afterlife for the departed.
And, finally, most of the religions prescribe a proper way to live, a code of behaviour on how to spend our lives. Burial is the process among such codes stating how to get rid of a corpse.
Burial Methods
Burying corpses in soil is the most common method of disposal in many cultures, which is believed to have begun in the Paleolithic period some 200,000 years ago by homo sapiens, before they moved out of Africa. Consequently, burial sites are dicovered all over the world. The dead bodies of ancestors were deposited in temples, laid under mounds of earth or left behind in huge underground caverns. Presnt day custom among most of the cultures is to bury the dead with some marker or signage to show the place, although other methods like cremation are also followed. Contrary to popular belief, cremation is mandatory in Japan; while in India it is just a norm. It is also interesting that cremation is becoming more and more popular in places like the western world. The ritualistic aspect of burials are more pronounced in some places, while in the rest the practical matters receive more attention.
Natural burial
Keeping pace with the current ecological awareness, there is now a growing trend of natural burials or burials in an eco-cemetery. The idea took hold in the United Kingdom in the late 1990s, and then spread across the Atlantic to the United States. Protection and restoration of the natural environment are the basic reasons for
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