Explain to me the importance of corpses.

[Broomstick]

@Grestarian

Not eating dead community members probably developed as people figured out that whatever killed grampa also killed cousin Mrrgk after Mrrgk had grampa for dinner last night. A superstitious proscription against cannibalism would arise…

There actually have been cultures that ritually ate their dead. The most well known in recent times are the Fore of New Guinea. Admittedly, they have ceased the practice since they figured out that disease kuru that was killing people in their tribe was passed on by eating human brains.

The Aztecs seem to have also had ritual cannibalism - I guess one upon a time after a long day of digging beating hearts of the chests of men someone looked around and said “Gosh, darn, it would be a shame to waste all this meat…”

In both cases, though, they did other stuff with the bits they didn’t eat.

[gallows_fodder]

@Simplicio

This is a somewhat recent development. Most Christians formally believe in a “bodily resurrection”, and as such, put a lot of stress on the condition of the corpse during the funeral. Until a generation or so ago, for example, the Catholic Church restricted the use of cremation.

Yep, and in Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, a character who’s had his leg amputated goes to great lengths to retrieve his missing limb from an “articulator of bones” (taxidermist) who has it. Commentary says this is due to the contemporary belief that you wouldn’t be resurrected after the Second Coming unless you were buried with all of your body parts present and accounted for.

Hence the family of “You robbed my grave and made soup out of my toe bone and now I want it baaaaaackkk” ghost stories.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

I think it’s the Southern Baptists who believe that, not only do you have to have the whole corpse for Resurrection, but you have to be buried with your feet pointing to the East so you can “rise” to meet the Sun (or Son) on Judgment Day.

[Doctor_Jackson]

@burpo_the_wonder_mutt

I think it’s the Southern Baptists who believe that, not only do you have to have the whole corpse for Resurrection, but you have to be buried with your feet pointing to the East so you can “rise” to meet the Sun (or Son) on Judgment Day.

Nope. I won’t argue that SB’s believe some odd things, but that ain’t among them.

[buddha_david]

Corpses are my way of telling door-to-door salesman that they should probably skip my house and go bother my neighbors instead.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

Seeing the corpse of a loved one is very important in that it helps the person better accept the death and be less likely to entertain wild fantasies that somehow, their loved one survived and lives on somewhere.

Having delivered a few stillborn infants in my time, I learned how important it was for mom to see and even hold her baby for a brief moment or two, to come to firmer grips with the loss.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

@Doctor_Jackson

Nope. I won’t argue that SB’s believe some odd things, but that ain’t among them.

I should have known better; I was going to include a line about possibly naming the wrong religion, but changed my mind at the last minute. Would anyone know which religion does believe this? I do have personal experience with this, as my grandmother, and apparently several thousand other people in the cemetery, was interred this way.

[Urbanredneck]

I dont think anything of them. I dont want to be preserved or anything. I just want to be buried in a simple wooden coffin. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust as they say.

[VinylTurnip]

A corpse is a source of sore remorse, that no one can mock or deplore (of course).

That is, of course, unless the forces of shame have kissed their head.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

^ Damn, that’s good! I have a dirty Mr. Ed version I might share someday.