I can think of only two reasons for it. To make a statement of the destructiveness of war (various war memorial cemetaries), and to give archaologists and anthropologists something to dig up 100 to 1000 years later to see how we lived.
Other than that, why bother. The notion of your physical body needing to be preserved has long past.
It takes up useful space. Its very expensive. Your organic remains, which can be placed back into the cycle of life gets locked up in a coffin. After a few years your relatives will also die and you will be forgotten.
There are better things to do with a dead corpse than bury it. Donate it to science or burn it into ash, I say.
Why do graduates wear mortarboards at commencement? Tradition is tradition. It tends to have some basis in the past, but now it’s just the way things run. This particular tradition was probably rooted in the long-held belief that you needed your physical semblence in order for your spiritual to exist. That’s just my guess any way. But over the years it just became the norm. Obviously there are many exceptions, the norse burning their bodies in great pyres, the atronomers being hurled into the face of the moon, etc… Traditions don’t have to make sense do they?
The only thing a nonconformist hates more than a conformist is another nonconformist who does not conform to the prevailing standards of nonconformity.
Is the question “Why was it done historically” or “Why bother doing it now”?
It seems to me that your question is the latter.
For several reasons:
a) Some people still believe (for religious reasons) that the body should not be cremated.
b) In some places, the amount of space taken up (and the price of a burial plot) is not very high.
c) A tomb is the traditional place to go pay your respect to your departed loved ones.
You say “burn it into ash”, but wouldn’t that contradict your previous statement “organic remains, that can be placed back into the cycle of life?” Being “placed back into the cycle of life” would be better served by burying the corpse in a wooden coffin in the ground.
I personally think that the best solution would be to donate the body to science, but if everyone did that, there probably would be a surplus of cadavers in research centers.
Jacques Kilchoer
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.