Over 100 billion people have died on this planet and been laid to rest through countless burial traditions and customs, and while a majority of these passings simply re-entered natural ecological cycles, many popular burial traditions of today require exorbitant additions of resources that cause dramatic natural disturbances guaranteed to have a lasting environmental impact. But beyond this, it appears that the way we live in society carries over to the ways we die. The same alienation, segregation, and disconnection from our land and ourselves that we experience in life can all be found in our cultural habits surrounding death. Can we imagine a better way? Or will this grave situation only deepen?
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Chapters
- 03:49 Post-Life Carbon Footprint
- 17:50 Embalming History
- 28:42 Land and Space Challenges
- 48:10 Segregation in Life and Death
- 1:00:01 Body Brokers: Bodies and Profit
Additional Information
- In the U.S. market for human bodies, almost anyone can dissect and sell the dead
- How the body of an Arizona great-grandmother ended up as part of a U.S. Army blast test
- Order of the Good Death
- Radical Death Studies
Sources
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