Cremating Corpses : Destroying, defying or Deifying Death?

Abstract

Cremation as a funeral practice is unique in the sense that throughfire as a medium the dead are actively incorporated into otherspheres and realms. The problem of decaying corpses has beensolved through history in one way or another, irrespective of culture.Although Christianity has seen cremation as destructive andnegative, obliterating death and destroying the corpse, consequentlyhindering resurrection, in other cultures and time periodsthe cremation fire has been a positive and transformative medium.It is through transformation that the deceased is revitalised andgains new life in another existence, and it may even enable divineexistences. Thus, with different comparative cremation practicesin the past and the present, this paper discusses concepts of death.