Homelessness and Funeral Rights

Thinking about non-elites and mortuary pattern led me to consider how the unfortunate homeless are treated at death.  The information is a little scant, unless discussing US homeless veterans, but here in Canada we'll look at Ontario as an example... because that's what popped up first.

When a homeless person passes away, and there is no family to contact, it is the municipality's responsibility under the Anatomy Act to properly bury the deceased person.  The city coroner issues an "Order to Bury" and the city pays the bill for the bare minimum in services.  As well, there is cooperation with the free press, who have agreed to print a death notice for one day (cited).

Interestingly, although there seems to be a sense of humanity, there is very much a sense of legality.  According to an article by Cory Habermehl on the New Media Journalism website, "unclaimed bodies" receive a funerary service as well, in order to prevent future legal problems.

Apparently, "family or friends who show up after the burial has taken place can claim they were not given the proper chance to say goodbye, and a lawsuit could potentially be filed" writes Habermehl.

Why a family who has no connection to a particular family member, to the point where they were completely unaware of their death, would sue a funeral home for not giving that person a "proper burial" is sort of beyond me.  But, I guess that is because of my mainly secular upbringing.  Everyone in my family that had passed away during my lifetime has been cremated, and I have only been to one interment of ashes.  For me, it is not about all this ritual to make peace, but it is up to an individual to do so for themselves.

Burials.... at Disneyland?!

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Pet Cemetery at Haunted Mansion

Yes, it's true, sort of.  According to Disneyland expert and author Christopher Strodder, there are "six or seven graveyards at Disneyland that can be easily seen if you take the time to look around. Four at the Haunted Mansion, including a pet cemetery, and one in the Storybook Land canal boat ride during the ‘Alice ‘n Wonderland’ part. There’s also a graveyard on Tom Sawyer Island" he says.

Now, whether or not these graveyard contain any actual bodies is another story.  I guess it is up to an archaeologist to find out.


My wife really wants to take our daughters there, and now I have no excuse.  Now we can see princesses and dead bodies... Disneyland is so cool...

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Graveyard on Tom Sawyer's Island

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OK, so there are probably no actual bodies buried at Disneyland, except maybe a pet or two.  But it is kind of neat.  The tombs are inscribed with the names of people who were instrumental in some way in everything from the making of cartoon features and model making, to the actual designing of the parks themselves (Here's a list of 13 of them).

Sincerely, it is another way to personally memorialize someone.  Sure, in this case it also acts as a background for the happiest place on Earth, but as mentioned in some of my other posts, it is about the personal connection to loved ones, as opposed to the show.  These people would love knowing they will forever be remembered in this way, at this place.  And even though we can take shots at Disney for days on end, this is probably one of the most beautiful aspects of the entire media conglomerate, and we can't shoot them down for that... because they would just erect a snappy tombstone if we did.

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Status in the Graveyard

A few years ago, my wife and I took a mini-roadtrip through the interior of BC.  A friend of our was working at a mine by a town called Likely, and he suggested we go and check out a ghost town called Quesnel Forks.  The area was in the midst of a bit of a rebuilding... I suppose in order to entice tourists to travel way the hell out of their way, in the tradition of Barkerville.

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There was nothing there, except some run down houses and the old cemetery, perfect for archaeological poking around.  The cemetery, for me, was a real eye opener in that one always knows, or assumes, some kind of racist colonialism touched every part of Canada.  This town was no exception, as clearly evidenced in the graveyard.  Separate areas, with signage, for "whites","Chinese", and "Indians".  The status implied here was blatantly obvious...

More to come... It's Earth Hour

...ok, where was I.  The status implied was blatantly obvious: the "whites" area had a white picket fence, upkept white crosses (still to this day) and, spatially, was front in center;  off to one corner was the "Chinese" area, crosses were there, but not kept; in the opposite corner was the "Indian" area with no upkeep, graves were marked with wooden plaques on the ground, barely visible from where we stood.

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Seeing the actual physical separation, even in place where one could carefully assume each deceased was given a "proper Christian burial", was quite interesting.  Equally as interesting, is how we can look at this kind of spatial distribution to investigate something as important as colonialism.  This cemetery can certainly be used as a metaphor for racist attitudes not only during BC's gold rush, which is when the town was at its most vibrant, but also for attitudes across the country.  Unfortunately, I think it would be optimistic at best to think that these attitudes no longer exist.  As anthropologists and archaeologist begin to consider and acknowledge the world's colonial past, let us not forget that we, as academics, hover dangerously close to realms of (neo-)colonialism in our work.

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Ethnicity is still listed on the modern documents out for show.  Let's hope it's to keep the original  narrative intact.  First few lines are pretty telling.

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Interesting... the Chinese immigrants were able to maintain some of their tradition.  I wonder about the First Nations...

(Note: these are not my pictures.  Digital cameras were still REALLY expensive when I travelled here.  I don't really have time to try and dig up (HA!) my pics and scan them.  This person, who took almost 300 pictures, doesn't have a single one showing the "Indian" burial area.  Pity.)

China's Wet Mummy

Chinese Wet Mummy

This "Wet Mummy" from China was accidently unearthed during road building.  Mummification is not  a known method of internment in China, but here we have the perfect storm of incidentals leading to an almost perfectly preserved individual.  It's essentially quite simple: a standard Ming Dynasty burial; in a coffin, wrapped in usual funeral dress, with no special treatment in terms of preservation.

What we see here is a burial which got flooded, and as the water became stagnant, the bacteria which would normally break down the body are inhibited.  These factors have led to the accidental mummy.

Burial inclusions for the 1.5 meter tall women include a jade ring, silver hairpin, and fully clothed.  Archaeologists say that lack of identifying insignia means this woman was not royal, but inclusions suggest she was wealthy.

This is deemed news-worthy as scholars don't recognize the Chinese culture as producing mummies.  Therefore, here archaeologists have an opportunity to examine a mummification, and perhaps provide some insight into burial practices from the Ming Dynasty.