Since the start of humankind, there have been fundamental systems in place surrounding death and the handling of those that have passed. These systems have mainly been based on cultural/religious beliefs and the honoring of the dead. However, the ever-changing and evolving nature of humans has resulted in customs not set in stone, such as the practice of cremation.
Cremation performed on open fires was introduced to the Western world by the Greeks as early as 1000 BCE. They seem to have adopted cremation from some northern people as an imperative of war, to ensure soldiers slain in alien territory a homeland funeral attended by family and fellow citizens.
By about 100 CE, however, cremations in the Roman Empire were stopped, perhaps because of the spread of Christianity. Although cremation was not explicitly taboo among Christians, it was not encouraged by them because of pagan associations and because of the concern that it might interfere with the promised resurrection of the body and its reunion with the soul.
Fast forward to 1874 and the revival of interest in cremation in Europe and the United States began, when Queen Victoria’s surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson, published his influential book Cremation: The Treatment of the Body After Death.
Despite cremation’s deep precedents in history, Christian leadership in Europe and the United States had long discouraged it, promoting a belief that an intact body was important to a physical resurrection. But recurrent disease epidemics led to overburdened funerary systems, raising the specter of mass graves. This proved pivotal in the reintroduction of cremation.
Obviously, with the advances of modern technology, cremation today is very different. Open fires are not used; instead, the body is placed in a chamber where intense heat transforms it in an hour or two to a few pounds of white, powdery ash that is disposed of in accordance with law and sentiment. Remains are scattered in a garden or some other preferred spot, placed in an urn and kept at home, or taken to a cemetery for burial in a small plot or placement in a columbarium.
Health and safety guidelines are established by either state or country, but the traditions surrounding funeral services are as individualistic as the person that has died. In addition, the lowered costs and simplicity of cremation led to its rise in popularity through the twentieth century, supported in large part by its cultural acceptability.
Now, as epidemics and pandemics such as COVID-19 continue to challenge our funerary systems, the history of cremation and its relationship to our understanding of disease show how every health crisis has required a rethinking of our infrastructures for death.
Source URL: https://daily.jstor.org/how-cremation-lost-its-stigma/