Watery Grave, Murky Law
Leor Halevi, New York Times (May 08, 2011)
Osama bin Laden’s burial at sea and the history of Shariah.

Bin Laden Exits the Scene
On the Media, WNYC and National Public Radio (May 06, 2011)

It has been one week since President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden was dead. I happened to be in New York City when the announcement was made so I immediately began taking stock of the entire situation. Within the annals of infamous dead bodies (Eva Peron, Hitler, Che Guevara, Mao, Lenin, etc.) Bin Laden’s corpse is an important specter for twenty-first century human history. I began collecting news articles on what exactly happened to Bin Laden’s dead body since I knew that controversy was sure to follow.

My first inkling that something was askew came on Monday morning when National Public Radio reported that Bin Laden received a sea burial with full Muslim funeral rites. I’m not a Muslim burial rites specialist but at no time have I ever read about a Muslim burial at sea. The Death Reference Desk has certainly covered contemporary (mostly American) Muslim burial practices and you can read that information here. But even the most contemporary, American Muslim traditions still hew to much older Islamic funeral traditions.

Over the course of last week much back and forth ensued over what exactly happened to Bin Laden’s dead body and how, if at all, it conformed to Islamic funeral practices. Slate.com’s Explainer column posted one of the first good pieces on the entire concept: Bin Laden Sleeps With the Fishes. Central to what occurred was a choice by US Government Officials (I can only assume that this starts with President Obama) that burying Bin Laden anywhere would be problematic. This is a point that many people discussed so I won’t belabor it.

There is one place, however, that I imagine could be used for a “proper” burial and that is Guantanamo Bay. But even mentioning that scenario would create global havoc. That said, I bet money that Gitmo got mentioned by someone and then quickly passed over.

As a result, Osama Bin Laden’s dead body got put in the ocean because the United States wanted to get rid of it. I don’t think that the narrative is much more complicated than that. The use of Muslim funeral rites are nice but what happened to Bin Laden’s body was not a particularly Muslim burial.

Here’s the rub: that might not be a problem. In Sunday’s New York Times, Vanderbilt University history professor Leor Halevi wrote an a particularly good op/ed piece on this very topic. The link is at the top of the page. Halevi’s article is the best that I have come across to date.

Since not everyone can use the Times anymore, here is the most interesting section:

….Bin Laden’s religious status is a matter of contention among Muslims. On one end of the spectrum are Muslims who consider him an outsider to Islam: if not quite an apostate, a terrorist whose right to an official Muslim prayer is debatable at best. (In 2005 the Islamic Commission of Spain essentially excommunicated Bin Laden, arguing that he should not be treated as a Muslim.) They must find it as perplexing as I do that the United States government granted the man it identified not as a Muslim, but as a “mass murderer of Muslims,” the dubious honor of a quasi-Islamic funeral.

On the other end are Muslims who believe that Bin Laden is now enjoying the blessings of martyrdom. From a theological perspective, it matters little to them how Americans on the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson disposed of the corpse.

Which is all to say that Bin Laden’s burial was doctrinally irrelevant to some Muslims, and confusing to others. Most of the rest feel uneasy. Perhaps the United States could not have avoided that. But a deeper understanding of the history of Islam’s sacred law could have prevented us from seeming so at sea.

Here is what I know for sure: by the middle of this coming week everyone in America will be talking about something else and that over time conversations will come and go, mostly amongst academics, on whether or not Osama Bin Laden got a proper funeral.

The more immediate political question focuses on whether or not the photo(s) of Bin Laden’s dead body should be released. This question, too, will go away by the middle of the week. The photos were not released now but they will surface in the future. How soon is an open question but we will eventually see the images.

The On The Media program at the top has several good radio segments on Bin Laden, his dead body, and the future of his memory.

I have a hunch that Meg, Kim, and I will be discussing Osama Bin Laden’s dead body again in the near future since America has a long history of dealing with the infamous dead and in ways that keep those infamous dead bodies very much alive.

Reviving a Ritual of Tending to the Dead
Paul Vitello, The New York Times (December 13, 2010)
A new generation of Jewish volunteers is learning how to prepare a body for burial using techniques that attend to “the feelings of the dead.”

It has been a good year for people who want to re-discover the roots of Jewish funereal practices. Last March I posted a story about a documentary film which documented a group of Jewish women preparing a dead body.

What is really interesting to me is how Jewish (and Muslim) customs are being studied by non-Jews and non-Muslims for their own dead. Indeed, a good number of Natural Burial and Home Funeral proponents borrow ideas from both Islam and Judaism.

Credit: The New York Times

This New York Times is a variation on that theme, where non-Orthodox Jews living in Brooklyn want to learn what is done when a person dies. I also find this situation more and more, where a certain religious group suddenly realizes that most of its members do not know what to do when a member of the faith dies. I’ve spoken with funeral directors who have been asked point blank what a certain religious faith requires– from members of that faith.

Everything eventually gets sorted out but it still makes for awkward conversations.

I wouldn’t mind knowing, either, what these funeral practices look like in 1000 years.

That to me is the most important point to contemplate: what stays and what goes.

What does it all morph into since dead bodies will most certainly still be around.

Crime Scene Insects
BBC World Service (June 11, 2010)

This episode of BBC Documentaries explores forensic entomology: “the investigation of insects recovered from crime scenes and corpses.” Guests include Amoret Whitaker of the Natural History Museum in London, who studies the flies and maggots that congregate on corpses to find clues about the time and nature of death. She also analyzes the decomposition of pigs, a “good model for humans.”

They also speak with Bill Bass, anthropologist at the Body Farm, a facility at the University of Tennessee for researching the decomposition of bodies. According to Professor Bass, “I went to the Dean in November of ’71 and I said, ‘Dean, I need some land to put dead bodies on.’ ” And land he did receive. (John posted last fall about the Body Farm needing to refuse unclaimed bodies because of the growing surplus resulting from the poor economy… yikes!)

Have a listen — 22.5 minutes of homicide-solving maggots is bound to brighten any day.

A bull sarcophagus in which a member of the Ubud royal family was cremated burns during the funeral ceremony Tuesday July 15, 2008 in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)

What does a cremation sound like? Most of us in the Western world would be hard-pressed to answer that question. Cremation is something that takes place out of sight, and for most, out of mind. The fiery furnaces are lit, the body is rolled in and a few hours later, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. It is sterile, it is discreet and it is solitary.

But if you could hear it, what would it sound like? If you could see it, what would it look like? And, indeed, what would it smell like? Seattle visual and sound artist Jesse Paul Miller and his wife Linda Peschong, a photographer, visited southeast Asia in the early part of 2008. Planning to stay only until June, they were able to extend their stay in Bali an extra month. July in Bali is cremation season. And to their delight, the largest of such public ceremonies involving cremation of royal family members was about to begin.

What follows is the narrative of Jesse’s experiences while in Bali, retold here in his own voice. Through field recordings, you can experience the aural intensity of the cremation ceremony itself. The rich, sonic landscape features crowd noises, gamelans, drums and chanting as the procession takes place. Specific tracks of interest are noted at the end of the narrative.

Jesse Paul Miller:

July in Bali is cremation season. This is the month when it’s flooded by tourists, there to see cremation rituals. Cremation processions take place during other times of the year and one will undoubtedly see a procession any time they are visiting.

In all of the banjar (meeting places) around Ubud, people were creating spirit guide animals for others who were to be sent away in a mass cremation of 54 people on July 19. There was a 100-meter tower being constructed in the middle of the town for the big ceremony on July 15. During the first couple of weeks in July we watched as the creation of these guides and the tower grew. Every day, large groups of people worked on building them by carving and cutting paper and other materials into beautiful patterns. Alongside this they were creating many kinds of smaller offerings. The Balinese are incredible artists and craftspeople.

When a person dies in Bali, they are sent away according to the rules of the Balinese Hindu Trimurti. Many things in Bali are done with specific reasons in mind and in threes. Black, white, and red represent Brahma (the deep base of all knowing energy of the universe god), Wisnu (the god of life and existence), and Siwa (the god of death and rebirth). Accordingly, after a person passes away, they are buried for five years in the earth so that this part of their body and spirit may go back to the earth. Then, their bodies are exhumed, and carried in the aforementioned processions with their guardian animal (bull, dragon, fish, tiger), and burned, so that this part of their spirit goes to the skies or heaven. After the body is burned, the bones are gathered, made into a mini version of the deceased and ceremonially wrapped and brought to the sea for that part of the spirit to join the ocean. If royalty, they even do a fourth part where some part of the body is brought to the top of the mountain, the holiest place.

The cremation of royal family members Tjokorda Gde Agung Suyasa, Tjokorda Gede Raka, and ashes of Desak Raka became international news due to the importance of this ceremony. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has a terrific archive here.

The day of the procession, the small town of Ubud became inundated with thousands of people and press from all around the world. We arrived on the street four hours earlier, stood and waited while it became more and more packed with people, until we were sandwiched up on a little ledge against a wall, while more filled in.

They had cut power lines so the tower could move down the street. Alongside this, people were completely packed in, 1 street wide, 2km long, 30 thousand people. It was dense indeed! The procession happened very quickly, and with an overwhelming human energy that I can’t really describe, but which must be felt. Gamelan baleganjur, or marching gamelan troupes preceded. These were first designed for battle but now used for cremations to frighten bad spirits.

Neighboring village groups, wearing matching polo shirts emblazoned with village-specific logos walked the giant bull, dragon, and finally the massive tower with a priest in a trance at the top and the body by us and down the 2 km road to the cremation site. The various groups passed along these big objects. It is said that it’s impossible to carry the tower, due to the weight, but that the spirits of the dead help the living carry it. The manifestation of energy was truly powerful. As they approached, there were ecstatic shouts from everyone and the charging gamelans ahead of them. It all went by very fast.

That evening, we watched the Burning of the Bull. Mobbed with international photographers and press, Balinese royalty, foreigners and citizens, this area was packed. Before the burning, a man said on the speaker system “Be very careful! It can get crazy!” When they burned the bull, big pieces of molten fabric drifted down, sending people scattering. At the end, we watched men blast the bodies with flame torches to clean the bones.

Four days later, we experienced a less hyped and more traditional cremation ceremony, in the graveyard within the sacred monkey forest in Ubud. Every 5 years, groups of people are cremated. In this case, there were 54 people in their attendant animal (the ones we had witnessed people creating all month), all lined up in a relatively small area.

If a family is too poor to have a member cremated, the community has a pool of money to help so that everyone gets sent to the gods in equal manner. To one side of this long and narrow plot was a fenced off area with an open building, segmented, with each body in one. There was a priest incanting over a loudspeaker; the crowds of people who came to witness and the families were wearing ceremonial sarongs. At one end of the fenced-off area perhaps 3 or 4 gamelans were arrayed. On these, children were allowed to play whatever they wanted. The sounds created were an abstract and confusing mash of all kinds of bell sounds. I think of it as ‘free gamelan’ (as in ‘free jazz’). I wondered if this was done for a spiritual manner, but people there said it was just so the children could have fun. It added a beautiful and surreal audio background to everything. Over this a man would call out the family name in the speaker system.

Then, the family would escort the body, beautifully wrapped to the animal. Next, with the aid of a priest they would give small offerings to the deceased–little bits of food and other sundries to bring along for their use in the afterlife. When this was done, they were all burned at once. Groups of people sang traditional songs around small offerings, and a cloud of nasty black smoke wafted over everyone. Afterwards, the fire truck arrived with a hose, watering down the remains. Finally, they placed small white bamboo frame fabric boxes and placed them over the remains.

This day, as all days in Bali, was chosen according to the Balinese calendar. This day was Kajeng Kliwon, the day of every month when there’s a full moon. This day to the Balinese is the day the bridge is narrowest between life and death, making it easiest for the spirit to pass to the next world. That night, all of the dogs howled and barked like mad into the night, more than any other night we spent in our two months in Bali.

I found the cremation rituals in Bali (as well as all of their culture) to be incredibly refreshing. They’re a living demonstration of living life without fear of death. Balinese don’t worry; they’re Hindu-Buddhist and will be re-born again! They have developed their passing rituals into something flowing, beautiful, disciplined, and celebratory.

People carry the black bull sarcophagus and a tower prior to the Balinese royals cremation ceremony in Ubud, Bali ilsand on July 15, 2008. (BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)

Audio tracks of interest (Limited edition CDs are available for purchase):

The big cremation procession (track 13)
Children playing the gamelan at the mass cremation (track 12)
The hosing down of burnt sarcophagi with fire truck hose after burning at the mass cremation (track 2)

To properly describe every aspect of my experience, I’d need to write a book. If you’re interested in finding more about Balinese death rituals and all other aspects of the world of the Balinese, I highly recommend the excellent and thorough Bali: Sekala & Niskala, by Fred B. Eiseman, Jr., vols. 1 & 2

A beautiful book of photos, Vanishing Presence, by Linda Peschong documents our travels to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, and Japan.

Jewish Burial Practices
Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, PBS (February 6th, 2004)

Last week on the Death Reference Desk I wrote about American Muslims washing the dead body before a funeral. A friend from graduate school, Jakki, saw the post and sent me a fantastic PBS segment on the Jewish tradition of washing the dead. Jakki summed up postmortem body washing for both Islam and Judaism this way: “Jews do the same (another example of our common heritage).” And she is absolutely correct. Indeed, of the three Abrahamic religions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) it is the Christian Church which has moved the furthest away from washing the dead body. There are many, many historical reasons for the move away from body washing and I have a hunch that the practice might return.

Until that time, however, the contemporary practice of corpse washing falls mostly to Muslims and Jews.

Here is the lead for the video segment and interview on the PBS website. I’m putting it here for two reasons: 1.) some necessary vocabulary words are explained for all the goyim (like me) not familiar with the tahara AND 2.) because it explains that a mannequin and not a real corpse was used for the demo.

As with last week’s Muslim body washing post, note the combination of both traditional prayer and public health required protective gear.

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: We have a moving “Belief and Practice” segment this week on the Jewish tradition of tahara, the washing and purifying of a dead body, which is considered one of the greatest of all good deeds — mitzvot. Those who perform taharas are volunteer members of the burial society, chevra kadisha. Women attend to deceased women, men to men.

In Jewish practice, if possible, a body is buried within 24 hours. There is no embalming. Our producer Susan Goldstein found three women in Westchester County, New York — Rochel Berman, Nancy Klein, and Mina Crasson — who have been doing taharas for more than 20 years. They agreed to describe their work and demonstrate it on a mannequin, in keeping with the tradition of respecting the dead.

Happy Passover to one and all.

The Washing: In the Muslim Custom of Bathing the Dead, She Found a Deep Sense of Reward — and Shaved off 40 Sins
Reshma Memon Yaqub, The Washington Post (March 21, 2010)

Modern human migration has created a real dilemma for the first, second, and third generations of immigrant children. When a relative dies, many of these young people will be called upon to handle the funeral ceremonies for the deceased. Yet, the individuals involved (most of whom will be adults by that time) don’t have a good idea about what they are supposed to do. What is the current funeral ritual? I have encountered this situation in both America and the United Kingdom. Indeed, funeral directors in both countries explain that children of immigrants often ask the funeral directors (who are thoroughly local) what to do at the funeral. As always, a good funeral director will know the answer.

Over the weekend, The Washington Post ran a first person essay by a Muslim-American woman who was called upon to wash the body of her deceased relative. The article really quite moving and grabs your attention from the start:

I hadn’t planned to wash the corpse.

But sometimes you just get caught up in the moment.

Through a series of slight miscalculations, I am the first of the deceased woman’s relatives to arrive at the March Funeral Home in west Baltimore on this Monday morning. The body of the woman whom everyone in the family refers to simply as Dadee, which means “grandmother” in Urdu, is scheduled to arrive at 10 a.m., after being released from Howard County General Hospital in Columbia. I get to the funeral home at 10 a.m. and make somber chitchat with the five women from the local mosque who have volunteered to help with funeral preparations, which includes washing the deceased’s body.

According to Islamic practices, family members of the same gender as the deceased are expected to bathe and shroud the body for burial. But because it’s such a detailed ritual and because so many second-generation American Muslim families have yet to bury a loved one here, mosques have volunteers to assist grieving families. These women have come from the Islamic Society of Baltimore, where Dadee’s funeral prayer service will be held this afternoon.

The author, Reshma Memon Yaqub, goes on from there and I have to say that this particular essay is one of the most interesting pieces on modern American funerals that I have read in a long time. I was particularly struck by how the author captured the mixing of traditional Muslim postmortem preparations with public health requirements, i.e., the wearing of latex gloves and face shields while washing the deceased.

I was also impressed by Reshma Memon Yaqub’s full on admission that she wasn’t entirely sure what to do but knew that she was supposed to do it.

While I was working on this post, I came across a May 2009 article from The Oregonian, entitled Islam’s ritual of washing the body bestows respect on the dead, and it lists a lot of useful information which anyone interested in global funeral rituals will enjoy reading.

More than anything, these articles point to the following truism: human migration brings cultural changes for both life and death. This is a good thing.

The world would be a much sadder place if all the funerals were the same.

Devotion to Saint Death
William Booth, The Washington Post (December 6, 2009)

I don’t really know a lot about Santa Muerte or Saint Death. After I read this article, I remembered seeing the various Santa Muerte statues in Mexican stores but never really thought twice about it.

This Washington Post piece brings a whole new angle to worshiping (some use the word “cult”) Saint Death. The article also includes an amazing photo montage of the monthly Saint Death festivities in Mexico City. You can see it here.

I found this section to be the most interesting bit:

But the worship is more a reflection of contemporary Mexico, says the anthropologist J. Katia Perdigón Castañeda, the author of “La Santa Muerte: Protector of Mankind.” The cult is an urban pop amalgam, New Age meets heavy metal meets Virgin of Guadalupe. It is no accident that it is also cross-cultural — that the centers of worship are the poor, proud heart of Mexico City and the violent frontier lands of Laredo, Juarez and Tijuana. The cult borrows equally from Hollywood and the Aztec underworld. Altars, necklaces and tattoos honoring Santa Muerte also make appearances in Mexican American neighborhoods from Los Angeles to Boston.

“The believers may be drug dealers, doctors, carpenters, housewives. The cult accepts all. No matter the social status or age or sexual preference. Even transsexuals. Even criminals. That’s very important, that the cult of Santa Muerte accepts everyone,” Perdigón told me, “because death takes one and all.”

Where mainstream Mexican Catholicism promises a better life in the hereafter, “central to the devotion of Santa Muerte is the fact that the believers want a miracle, a favor, in the present, in this life, not when they are dead,” Perdigón said. “They want help now.”

And, as always, YouTube has something to contribute…

Should Roadside Memorials Be Banned?
New York Times (July 12, 2009)

As part of their “Room for Debate” series, the New York Times provides five varying perspectives (along with well over a hundred reader comments so far) on the issue of roadside and neighborhood memorials. These shrines of grief—including crosses, photos, flowers, stuffed animals and other mementos—spring up seemingly spontaneously at the sites of accidental death and murder.

With most of them displayed on public property along highways and city sidewalks, however, opinions vary on their appropriateness and legality. Are such memorials safety hazards for decelerating, distracted motorists and, for the ones including religious symbols, violations of church and state? Or are they “outlaw” expressions of the people that will not and cannot (and perhaps should not) be suppressed?

One contributor is Melissa Villanueva, director and producer of Resting Places, a documentary about roadside memorials that explores the controversy in depth. The film is presently seeking distribution—here’s a trailer.

Buried Face Down: Prone Burials
Current Archaeology, v.20(231), June 2009
Via National Geographic News

Face-down burial has long been regarded with a knee-jerk, not-right, benefiting-the-doubt reaction. Across cultures and through time, experts and laity alike have assumed prone burials to be accidents or the result of post-interment disturbances.

Following an extensive survey of documented prone burials around the world, however, anthropologist Caroline Arcini of Sweden’s National Heritage Board has concluded that face-down burial was done intentionally to shame the dead: prisoners of war, criminals and those of lower social status, accused as witches or harboring the wrong religion in the wrong place and time.