Introduction
- This project will utilize a comparative approach, considering how different deathways reflect varied relations with and conceptions of Nature.
- Three approaches to deathways in the United States
- Concepts/Literature Review (most concepts will be addressed in specific sections)
- Deathways as naturework
- Deathways defined: culturally contingent ways of developing knowledge about and navigating the physical realities of death (no source, my definition)
- How do different death and burial practices perform naturework, separating the living and dead from, or connecting them to the “natural” world?
- Are corpses placed in “natural” or curated resting places?
- Do burial/corpse processing practices encourage or discourage the normal decomposition process?
- What symbolism is embedded in rituals associated with corpses?
- Human-Nature Dichotomy
- Corpses as a challenge to the human-nature dichotomy (putrefaction!)
- Deathways as naturework
