Cremation Or Burial

Category: File - :Ubud Cremation 4.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Hindu public ceremonial cremation in Bali

Category: File - :Cremation2.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The body burns in the cremator.

Cremation is the process of reducing human remains to basic chemical compounds in the form of gases and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high temperatures and vaporization.

Contrary to popular belief, the cremated remains are not ashes in the usual sense, but rather dried bone fragments that have been pulverized in a device called an electric cremated remains processor. This leaves the bone in a fine sand like texture and colour, able to be scattered without any foreign matter.

Cremation may serve as a funeral or postfuneral rite that is an alternative to the interment of an intact body in a casket. Cremated remains, which are not a health risk, may be buried or immured in memorial sites or cemeteries, or they may be legally retained by relatives or dispersed in a variety of ways and locations.

In many countries cremation is usually done in a crematory but others may prefer different methods. An example is the common practice of open-air cremation in India.

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term cemetery (from Greek ???????????: sleeping place) implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are the place where the final ceremonies of death are observed. These ceremonies or rites differ according to cultural practice and religious belief.

Category: File - :Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 3444-7 Begrafenis bij plantageslaven2.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Funeral ceremony among slaves at a mid-nineteenth century plantation in Suriname. Attendees wear white as two men carry a wooden coffin. A small boy is blindfolded, which was a common practice during this time and place although the reason is unknown. Colored lithograph published 1840-1840, digitally restored.

A funeral is a ceremony marking a person's death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from the funeral itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honour. These customs vary widely between cultures, and between religious affiliations within cultures. In some cultures the dead are venerated; this is commonly called ancestor worship. The word funeral comes from the Latin funus, which had a variety of meanings, including the corpse and the funerary rites themselves.

Funeral rites are as old as the human culture itself, predating modern homo sapiens, to at least 300,000 years ago.[http://www.wyfda.org/basics_2.html History Of Funeral Customs from the Wyoming Funeral Director's official website]. Accessed September 4, 2008."When Burial Begins", British Archaeology, issue 66, August 2002, found at British Archaeology website. Accessed September 4, 2008. For example, in the Shanidar cave in Iraq, in Pontnewydd Cave in Wales and other sites across Europe and the Near East, Neanderthal skeletons have been discovered with a characteristic layer of pollen, which suggests that Neanderthals buried the dead with gifts of flowers. This has been interpreted as suggesting that Neanderthals believed in an afterlife.