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Welcome
Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
Announcements
Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Green Burials: Thinking Outside the Box |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Saturday, 16 October 2004 |
Natural Burials Signal a Return to More Traditional Funeral Practices
By MARC LALLANILLA
Oct. 14, 2004 -- When Bonnie Ramey buried her husband two years ago, she knew she didn't want to have a typical funeral ceremony at a landscaped cemetery plot.
"The commercialization of funerals is getting out of control," she said. "They get you at your weakest point. In my opinion, they're just ripping off the dead."
Bonnie and her husband, Charles, both nature lovers, spent many hours hiking through the wooded Appalachian foothills surrounding their home in rural South Carolina.
So after Charles died, Bonnie's choice of burial spots was an easy one — down the road from her house is Memorial Ecosystems, one of the only places in the United States devoted to environmentally sensitive or "green" burials.
Simple Living, Simple Dying
The ideas behind green burials are simple. Bodies are not embalmed. Elaborate caskets made of metal or rare tropical hardwoods are replaced with fabric burial shrouds or simple, biodegradable coffins made of wood or cardboard. Concrete grave liners or vaults that prevent the ground above the coffin from settling are avoided.
Perhaps most significantly, in lieu of carefully manicured cemetery grounds, native plants and wildflowers are allowed to flourish, turning the burial ground into a nature preserve. "It preserves the land and the habitat for the animals," said Ramey. "Our habitat is going quickly, and if we don't preserve it, we won't have any."
Though there are over 200 green cemeteries in Great Britain, the movement is relatively unknown in the United States. South Carolina, Florida, California and Texas have the only four green cemeteries currently operating here. Several more green burial facilities are being planned throughout the country.
Everything Old Is New Again
"A green burial is not about extra work — it's about not doing extra work," said Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a group of grassroots organizations interested in alternatives to the choices offered by the funeral industry.
And for advocates of green burials, these aren't unique or unusual ceremonies. "What people need to remember is that this is not new," said Slocum. "This is a return to what we used to do before the commercial funeral industry came along."
Indeed, many religious traditions follow the basic tenets of green burials. Traditional Jewish burial rites, for example, view embalming as a desecration of the deceased. And only coffins made completely of wood are allowed — a metal coffin would be a disrespectful effort to artificially preserve the body.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Living/story?id=161675&page=1&HEALTHAd=true |
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