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CrowdScience

Why Do We Bury Our Dead?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science

4.81K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The ritual of burying the dead stretches back to the obscure beginnings of human history - and perhaps beyond, with archaeologists uncovering evidence of burials that pre-date our own species. But why do we bury our dead? How important is it, and how did the practice evolve? CrowdScience listener Moses from Uganda began pondering these questions after attending a close relative’s funeral.

We search for clues in some of the earliest known burial sites, compare other methods for dealing with human remains, and explore how the funeral practices around the world today compare to those of our ancestors. Did these rituals originally develop for reasons of simple hygiene, or are religious and symbolic aspects the real key to understanding them?

Presented by Anand Jagatia Produced by Cathy Edwards for the BBC World Service

(Photo: A bereaved young woman in black, taking flowers to a grave. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and maybe it's when I had a hand in.

0:04.0

I'm Tammy Walker and I produce podcasts for the BBC.

0:08.0

My role is to give new and diverse creators a voice with the opportunity to build a career.

0:12.0

That's the thing I love about podcasts.

0:14.4

You start with just a good idea, but then you have the space to see where it goes.

0:18.4

And doing that at the BBC means we can really run with the best stories

0:21.9

while developing the most unique audio talent.

0:24.3

So if you like what you hear, why not check out the huge range of podcast we've got on BBC

0:29.1

Sounds.

0:29.6

When he died he was taken the hospital and then they did them post-mortem and then they brought him back to the village.

0:37.0

They washed their body, then dressed up, and then they put him in a coffin.

0:45.0

Everyone who knows the deceased comes.

0:48.0

Our own family, the total is about 500 people and everyone is always welcome you know paying their last

0:53.9

respects. You're listening to crowd science from the BBC World Service. I'm

1:00.5

Anan Jagatia and this is one of our listeners Moses Marungi remembering his grandfather's burial.

1:07.0

The third day is the day of the burial. There is a prayer.

1:11.0

Then we lay them in a grave.

1:16.0

Everyone who comes to bury has to pick some soil

1:19.8

and then throw it in the grave

1:21.6

before everything is sealed. You light a fire in the middle of the compound,

1:26.8

so the fire stays burning for the whole week to say goodbye to his soul.

1:32.4

Moses travelled for eight hours to attend his grandfather's burial

...

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