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Architecture of Afterlife: Future Cemetery in Metropolis
ARCHITECTURE OF AFTERLIFE: FUTURE CEMETERY IN METROPOLIS A DARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF ARCHITECTURE MAY 2017 BY SHIYU SONG DArch Committee: Joyce Noe, Chairperson William Chapman Brian Takahashi Key Words: Conventional Cemetery, Contemporary Cemetery, Future Cemetery, High-technology Innovation Architecture of Afterlife: Future Cemetery in Metropolis Shiyu Song April 2017 We certify that we have read this Doctorate Project and that, in our opinion, it is satisfactory in scope and quality in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Architecture in the School of Architecture, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Doctorate Project Committee ___________________________________ Joyce Noe ___________________________________ William Chapman ___________________________________ Brian Takahashi Acknowledgments I dedicate this thesis to everyone in my life. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my committee chair, Professor Joyce Noe, for her support, guidance and insight throughout this doctoral project. Many thanks to my wonderful committee members William Chapman and Brian Takahashi for their precious and valuable guidance and support. Salute to my dear professor Spencer Leineweber who inspires me in spirit and work ethic. Thanks to all the professors for your teaching and encouragement imparted on me throughout my years of study. After all these years of study, finally, I understand why we need to study and how important education is. Overall, this dissertation is an emotional research product. As an idealist, I choose this topic as a lesson for myself to understand life through death. The more I delve into the notion of death, the better I appreciate life itself, and knowing every individual human being is a bless; everyday is a present is my best learning outcome. -
Reclaiming Your Right to Rest in the Earth: Educating for and Creating a Green Jewish Cemetery
Reclaiming Your Right to Rest in the Earth: Educating for and Creating a Green Jewish Cemetery “…Until you return to the ground - For from it you were taken, For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” Bere’shit 3:19 Jews traditionally bury their dead. This method of disposing of a dead body is based on the text, Deuteronomy 34:6, in which God is said to bury Moses. (1) A Talmudic text, Sota 14a, makes it clear that we are to follow this example:”. as [God] buried the dead, so must you bury the dead.” (2) A second text cited to support burial as the proper means of disposing of a dead body is Deuteronomy 21:22-23, which states that even the body of a capital criminal, put to death on a stake, must be taken down and buried before nightfall in order not to cause “an affront to God” and not to “defile the land.”(3) Great leader or criminal, a Jew was to be buried after death. The stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs teach us that the dead were buried in caves. Abraham acquired “the cave in the field of Machpelah” specifically to serve as the burial place of Sarah.(4) Later texts teach us that this involved leaving a body to decompose in the cave and then collecting the bones together a year later. Sometimes the bones of all family members were mingled together in a pit, a true gathering of the deceased to the ancestors. This practice is known as ossilegium.(5) It is probably the case that there was an understanding that the decomposing of the body served as an atonement for an individual’s sins and left the soul ready to be with God.(6)That this normally happened in a year’s time coincides with the later practice of reciting kaddish for a year, cut short to eleven months out of concern that no parent should be publicly thought to need the full twelve months of time to atone for misdeeds By no means was the fleshy body to be preserved or protected from decomposition. -
1. Introduction
1. Introduction Life has many seasons. Nature functions according to these seasons. Seasons bring change, not only the change in the weather, but also physical change. The cycle of life is analogous to a tree: it grows and withers and the cycle of life repeats itself with death, never achieving finality. Death becomes an event in the cycle of life, contributing to it. The cycle of life refers to a developmental process, to generations that transcend the single lifetime of one individual (O’Rand & Krecker, 1990: 241). Bachelard (1994) explains life, with reference to human life, in the light of Minkowski’s “Vers une Cosmologie”, that the essence of life is not a “feeling of being, of existence,” but a feeling of participation, necessarily expressed in terms of time and secondarily expressed in terms of space. It can be understood that the cycle of life or the very sense of life is quite different from the temporality or participation of human life (McNeill, 2006: 2). The distinction between human life and the cycle of life is evident when exploring the physical world we live in. Our cities were established centuries ago and are still functioning. Since 2007 urban environments have provided sustenance to more than half the world population (Burdett & Judjic, 2007: 8). 1 Unfortunately, death and life do not receive the same level of acknowledgement in our urban environments. To protect ourselves, we have removed death from our everyday life by relegating it to mass horizontal cemeteries on the periphery of our manmade landscapes (Harries, 1998: 294). The hurt and suffering brought on by the loss of life has been shunned from our everyday life (Kubler- Ross, 1981: 11). -
ALTERNATIVE KEVURA METHODS Jeremy Kalmanofsky
Kalmanofsky, Spring 2017 Alternative Kevura Methods ALTERNATIVE KEVURA METHODS Jeremy Kalmanofsky This teshuvah was adopted by the CJLS on June 7, 2017, by a vote of 10 in favor, 7 opposed, and 3 abstaining. Members voting in favor: Rabbis Aaron Alexander, Pamela Barmash, Noah Bickart, Elliot Dorff, Joshua Heller, Jeremy Kalmanofsky, Amy Levin, Daniel Nevins, Micah Peltz, Avram Reisner and David Schuck. Members opposed: Rabbis Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Reuven Hammer, David Hoffman, Gail Labovitz, Jonathan Lubliner, and Paul Plotkin. Members abstaining: Rabbis Susan Grossman, Jan Kaufman, and Iscah Waldman, Question: Contemporary Jews sometimes seek alternative mortuary methods in order to be more ecologically sustainable and economical. Can Jews utilize alternative methods or is burial required? What does Halakhic tradition demand for how Jews treat dead bodies? Answer: The Torah’s very first chapters assert that human remains should decompose in the earth. Describing human mortality, God tells Adam [Genesis 3.19]: “You are dust and to dust you will return.” -Jewish treatment for human remains has always been in [לכתחילה] In this spirit, the optimal ground burial. The Torah legislates this norm at Deuteronomy 21:22-23:1 לֹא-תָלִין נִבְ לָתֹו עַל-הָעֵץ, כִ י-קָ בֹור תִ קְבְרֶ ּנּו בַּיֹום הַהּוא The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly provides guidance in matters of halkhhah for the Conservative movement. The individual rabbi, however, is the authority for the interpretation and application of all matters of halakhah. 1 This commandment comes in the context of the rules for executing criminals. It might seem off-putting to base the treatment of all bodies upon this unfortunate paradigm. -
Patterns in the Modification of Animal and Human Bones in Iron Age Wessex: Revisiting the Excarnation Debate
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Online Research @ Cardiff Chapter 8 Patterns in the modification of animal and human bones in Iron Age Wessex: revisiting the excarnation debate Richard Madgwick Abstract Social practices concerning the treatment of human and animal remains in the Iron Age have long been a focus of debate in archaeological literature. The absence of evidence of a formal burial rite and the regular retrieval of human remains from ‘special’ deposits or ABG’s has led to widespread discussion surrounding what majority rite was practised in Iron Age Wessex and excarnation has been a popular explanation. The deposition of unusual configurations of faunal remains, often associated with human remains may be suggestive of an interrelated pre-depositional and depositional practise between the different classes of remains. This paper explores how a holistic analysis of bone taphonomy can contribute to the understanding of social practises surrounding the pre-depositional treatment of humans and animals. In a case study of the sites of Winnall Down and Danebury, it was demonstrated that humans and animals were treated significantly differently. Human remains exhibited far less modification than faunal material, suggesting that excarnation was unlikely to have been the majority rite. However, results indicate that either exposure in a protective environment or exhumation was practised so that partial or total disarticulation could occur with little taphonomic modification. Taphonomic analysis of faunal material demonstrates that it is not only humans and animals that were treated differently, as dog and horse remains exhibit significantly different patterns of modification to other animals. -
Incarnation and Excarnation
When Healing Becomes Educating Selected Articles from the Journal of Anthroposophical Medicine (1986 -1998) Volume IV: Incarnation and Excarnation 1 2 When Healing Becomes Educating Selected Articles from the Journal of Anthroposophical Medicine (1986 -1998) VOLUME 4: INCARNATION AND EXCARNATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONWaldorf 3 Published by: The Research Institute for Waldorf Education PO Box 307, Wilton, NH 03086 When Healing Becomes Educating Volume 4: Incarnation and Excarnation ISBN # 978-1-936367-36-8 Editor: Douglas Gerwin Layout: Ann Erwin Articles originally published in the Journal for Anthroposophical Medicine c/o Anthroposophical Society in America 1923 Geddes Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48104 © 1986–1998 Reprinted with permission from the Physicians’ Association for Anthroposophic Medicine 4801 Yellowwood Avenue Baltimore, MD 21209 4 Table of Contents The General Human Condition and Human Individuality in Standing and Walking . 7 Klaus Hoeller Aspects of Morning and Evening Processes and Their Application in Pharmaceutics . 28 Arman Scheffer The Angels’ Morning and Evening Perceptions . 41 Wolf-Ulrich Kluenker The Sparkling Droplet .. 44 Walther Buehler Two “Problem Children” – Individual Destiny and Karma of the Age . 57 Gisbert Husemann The Excarnating Human Soul: How Can We Provide for the Last Phase of Life? . 63 Floris Reisma A Matter of Life and Death . 72 N.C. Lee “It Is Only the Whole Human Being Who Can Die…” . 76 Rudolf Steiner 5 6 The General Human Condition and Human Individuality Revealed in Standing and Walking* KLAUS HOELLER For creatures to move of their own accord it is necessary for the gravity streaming from the center of the earth and binding them to it to be overcome to a specific degree by the forces of levity . -
A National Background on Alkaline Hydrolysis and What Texas Should Know About Regulating Liquid
CHOOSING TO BE FLUSHED AWAY: A NATIONAL BACKGROUND ON ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS AND WHAT TEXAS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT REGULATING "LIQUID CREMATION" I. INTRODUCTION .................................. ...... 145 II. Six FEET UNDER OR UP IN FLAMES: BURIAL AND CREMATION IN WESTERN SOCIETY ............................... ..... 147 III. AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE: ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS ................................... ...... 150 IV. PIONEER STATES APPROVE OF ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS.................153 A. Minnesota ......................... ...... ....... 154 B. Florida ................................. ...... 1 56 C. Maine .............................................. 156 D. Oregon ............................................. 157 E. Kansas .................................. ..... 157 F. Maryland...................... ............... 157 G. Colorado ..................................... 158 V. NOT WITHOUT A FIGHT: OBJECTIONS TO ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS ............................................... 158 A. Ohio............................................. 158 B. New Hampshire........................... 159 VI. A WORK IN PROGRESS: STATES WITH PENDING LEGISLATION.......160 A. Washington. ............................... ..... 160 B. California ........................................... 161 VII. CORPSE DISPOSAL IN TEXAS ....................................162 A. CurrentLaws................................. 163 B. What Texas Should Know .................... ...... 166 C. ProposedChanges ............................... 168 VIII. CONCLUSION ........................ -
Types of Alternative Funeral Services
Ecological funeral An ecological funeral, also known as promession, is a method for allowing the body of the deceased to decompose in an environmentally-friendly way. It was invented and patented in 1999 by the Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak. The following three steps characterize the method: 1. Reducing the body of the deceased to a fine powder, thereby allowing later decomposition to be aerobic. This is achieved by submerging the body in liquid nitrogen, which makes the remains so brittle that it shatters as the result of a slight vibration. The remains are then dried, reducing them to around 30% of the original body weight. 2. Removal and recycling of metals. 3. Depositing the powder shallowly in a biodegradable casket. The first facility for ecological funerals, known as a promatorium, should be ready in 2007 in a pilot installation in Stockholm, Sweden. The volume of remains left by this procedure is about three times that left by a cremation, but the claimed advantages include the avoidance of the release of pollutants into the atmosphere, such as mercury vapour from dental fillings, and the rapid degradation of the remains after the procedure (6-12 months). The procedure was developed in response to new European Union pollution laws. Burial at Sea Burial at sea describes the procedure of disposing of human remains in the ocean. Two reasons for burial at sea are if the deceased died while at sea and it is impractical to return the remains to shore, or if the deceased died on land but a burial at sea is requested for private or cultural reasons. -
Future Cemetery Survey 2020 Summary
— DeathTech Research Team [Identifier-second line] The Future Cemetery Survey 2020 Executive Summary March 2020 DeathTech Research Team | The Future Cemetery Survey 2020 Page 1 of 12 Introduction This document summarises the results of the first annual survey for The Future Cemetery research project, conducted by the DeathTech Research Team at The University of Melbourne. It contains an explanation of the method, followed by a high-level overview that calls out some of the most notable findings from this first wave of research. The full detailed results of the survey are available in the separate spreadsheet file, entitled Future Cemetery Survey 2020 Results. The DeathTech Team The DeathTech Research Team is a multi-disciplinary group of scholars at the University of Melbourne who research and teach the sociology of technology, cultural and material anthropology, media and communications studies, and information and interactive systems design. Over the past decade, the team has worKed across a number of major projects funded by the Australian Research Council Grant Scheme that examine death and technology. The team’s first major project, ‘Digital Commemoration’ (DP140101871), explored how the internet is changing the ways we approach death and commemoration. The second major project, ‘Death and Disposal: Beyond Burial and Cremation’ (DP180103148), investigates innovative and scalable alternatives to body disposal, and elaborations on conventional burial and cremation. In 2019, the team commenced a third major project in partnership with the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (hereafter ‘GMCT’), entitled 'The Future Cemetery' (LP180100757), which will run over three years. The Future Cemetery The contemporary Western cemetery, dedicated to the dead and their memorials, has become more than a pervasive urban landmark. -
Family-Directed Post-Death Care and Funerals (Often Called ‘Home Funerals’)
DIY Funeral Care: Family-directed Post-death Care and Funerals (often called ‘home funerals’) Can you do your own post-death care and funeral arrangements? In the simplest words, ‘yes’. Before the 20th century, it was common for people or communities to take care of their own dead — both before and after the death. Most people died at home, supported by friends, faith communities, or the local midwife (who often attended both births and deaths). Sometimes doctors attended the death in the home — but primarily to witness it and offer support. Post-death care — washing and dressing the body — by the family members was considered a ‘last act of love and/or respect’. The community helped organize a time of ‘lying in honour’, final farewells, or wake, where friends would come to the home and offer their last blessings to the deceased and condolences to the family. A friend or family member usually made the coffin or shroud; others would dig the grave and then help fill it in after the coffin was lowered into it. The parish clergy — who mostly likely knew the deceased and their family well — would do the traditional funeral service; but if that wasn’t appropriate or available, the family would create the service themselves. Tradespeople would often make the coffin and the gravestone; but other than that, most of the death care and arrangements were done by the family/community. Even in cities, where there was likely to be a local undertaker who would dig the grave and transport the body to it, the post-death care still happened in the home. -
An Analysis of Virginia State Veterans Cemeteries
November 2019 Honoring Those Who Served: An Analysis of Virginia State Veterans Cemeteries Terance J. Rephann, Ph.D. 2 Honoring Those Who Served: An Analysis of Veteran Cemetery Services for Virginia’s Veterans November 2019 Copyright © 2019 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia P.O. Box 400206 Charlottesville, VA 22904 (434) 982-5522 • FAX: (434) 982-5524 • TDD: (434) 982-HEAR Website: www.coopercenter.org/ Richmond 11 South 12th Street, Suite 225 Richmond, VA 23219-4035 (804) 371-0202 • FAX: (804) 371-0234 • TDD: (804) 982-HEAR Southwest One College Avenue Wise, VA 24293 (276) 328-0133 • FAX: (276) 328-0233 • TDD (540) 328-0191 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................iv List of Figures ........................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................vii Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Section 1. Background ............................................................................................................................ -
Tax Incentives for Green Burial
21 NEV. L.J. 491 TAX INCENTIVES FOR GREEN BURIAL Victoria J. Haneman* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 491 I. END OF LIFE OPTIONS .......................................................................... 495 A. Modern Burial and Funeral Custom in the United States ........... 495 B. Traditional Cremation and Disposal of “Cremains” .................. 497 II. EMERGING OPTIONS ............................................................................ 503 III. THE POTENTIAL OF DISRUPTIVE CHANGE ........................................... 512 IV. TOWARDS SOLUTIONS ......................................................................... 519 A. Use of Tax Expenditures, Generally ............................................ 519 B. Tax Expenditures and the Environment ....................................... 522 C. The Green Burial Tax Credit ....................................................... 525 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 529 INTRODUCTION Every living being is doomed to decay and die and decay some more.1 Death is inevitable, and the disposal of our dead is a fundamental global activi- ty with the potential to have significant environmental impact. In the United States, the environmental toxicity of “traditional” modern burial is stark.2 A cosmeticized body is pumped with three gallons of embalming fluid (contain- * Frank J. Kellegher Professor of Trusts & Estates,