Green Burial Traditions

“What’s the closest thing I can get to a Sky Burial in the U.S.?” one Reddit user asked. “I don't want to be entombed in any fashion. Not embalmed and buried in a 'traditional' way. Nor cremated, frozen, resomated (dissolved), or shot into space. A crypt might be ok, but I can't afford it.”

Sky burials, as u/coltpython referenced, are common practice among people of Zoroastrian faith, who believe burying bodies pollutes the earth. Instead, when someone dies, their body is mounted onto a dakhma, a “tower of silence,” where vultures feed on the body.

Sky burials are generally illegal in the United States, however. Texas’ Funeral Service Commission, for example, mandates that human remains can be “buried, entombed, or cremated.” When animals scavenge human remains, they sometimes carry parts of the body away, which could contaminate groundwater and other resources. 

Suggestions poured into u/coltpyton’s post. “Viking funeral,” one user recommended, referencing their own desire to be buried at sea. “This would be upsetting for the people in your life,” another advised. The most upvoted answer? A body farm. 

“Not only will my body decay/be eaten naturally, I'm guaranteed visitors,” u/coltpython wrote back.

At a body farm, forensic anthropologists and other scientists observe decomposing cadavers in a number of different conditions, sometimes enclosed in cages to prevent coyotes, vultures and other predators from taking a bite. There’s one close to Austin at Texas State University, about a 45-minute drive away, and it’s been aiding in forensic anthropology research since 2008. 

Though trendy, the idea of natural postmortem processes isn’t exactly new. While Zoroastrians commonly prefer sky burials, “green burials,” in which the deceased choose to be laid to rest in a simple wooden coffin or even just a cotton shroud, are common among Orthodox Jews and Bahá'ís. More people are secularly pursuing these burial rites, historically rooted in faith.

Funerals and death customs are what some anthropologists call a “cultural universal,” or a concept that permeates through every observed human culture despite separation by thousands of miles and thousands of years. 

“We all face similar challenges of growing up, finding mates, raising children, making a living, living in a human body and dying,” Dr. Samuel Wilson, a University of Texas anthropology professor, said. “And even so, there is quite a bit of variation in how people think about (growing up, raising children and dying).”

Anthropologists debate whether these rituals are hard-wired into us or stem from common experiences, Wilson said. While every culture has wildly different customs for their dead, they all assign at least some significance to a person’s death. After all, birth and death are truly the only universal human experiences.

“Different cultures have a lot of different ways to deal with death, imagine afterlives and commemorate death,“ Wilson said. “The only universal part is that all cultures have thought about death because we can all see it coming for us — eventually.”

Photos by Jax Knox