User:CassieSmith5/Excarnation

Lead
In archaeology and anthropology, the term excarnation (also known as defleshing) refers to the practice of removing the flesh and organs of the dead before burial. Excarnation may be achieved through natural means, such as leaving a dead body exposed for animals to scavenge, or by butchering the corpse by hand. Following the excarnation process, some societies retrieved the bones for burial. Excarnation has been practiced throughout the world for hundreds of thousands of years. The earliest archaeological evidence of excarnation is from the Awash River Valley in Ethiopia, 160,000 years ago. Excarnation is practiced for a variety of spiritual and practical reasons, including the Tibetian spiritual belief that excarnation is the most generous form of burial and the Commanche practical concern that in the winter the ground is too hard for an underground burial. Excarnation sites are identifiable in the archaeological record by a concentration of smaller bones (like fingers or toes), which would be the bones that would be the easiest to fall off the body, and that would not be noticed by practitioners of excarnation.

Great Plains
Air burials (also known as tree burials) are a form of secondary burial, where a body is placed above ground either in a tree or on scaffolding. After an extended period of time (months to years) the remains are excarnated and buried underground. Air burials were practiced throughout the Great Plains by many different societies, including the Commanche, the Blackfeet, the Sioux, the Dakota, the Cheyenne, the Mandans, and the Crow. Air burials were practiced for both spiritual and practical reasons. Some tribes, like the Sioux and the Lakota, believed that elevating remains would better facilitate a spirit’s journey outside of their body. Additionally, elevating remains protected the bodies from being eaten by wolves and allowed a way to manage disease when burial was not possible, like in the winter when the ground was too hard. Lastly, some nomadic groups had specific burial grounds that they only visited once a year. These groups used air burial to care for the dead while waiting to return to their burial grounds.

Due to the temporary nature of air burials and because scaffoldings were made out of perishable materials, like wood, air burials leave behind little archaeological evidence. Thus much of the evidence of air burials come from ethnographic sources. However, some archaeological sites have been discovered where archaeologists believe excarnation occurred as remains were transfer from the primary air burial to their final resting place or to a secondary air burials site. These sites are identifiable by a concentration of smaller bones (like fingers or toes), which would be the bones that would be the easiest to fall off the body, and that would not be noticed by practitioners of excarnation.

After colonization, the U.S. government made air burial illegal, as it conflicted with our nation’s Christian ideals. However, in recent years, air burial has been allowed on reservation, leading to a small number of people returning to the practice of air burial.

Pacific Northwest
Canoe burials were a primary form of burial among the Chinookan-speaking tribes of the Columbia River. Bodies would be wrapped in blankets and placed inside a canoe with personal items. Wealthier families would sometimes top the burial canoe with a second, larger canoe to keep out the rain. The canoe(s) would then be placed in a tree.

In 1830, Chinook chief Comcomly died and was buried via canoe burial at a family burial ground.

Notes from Blog Post 4
Air burial (also known as sky burial or tree burial) is a burial practice that was used throughout the Great Plains [cite], and in parts of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska [Daily Kos 2020]. Air burial is a form of secondary burial, where a body is placed above ground for an extended amount of time either on scaffolding, in a tree [Van Huygen 2014], or, in the Pacific Northwest, an elevated canoe [Daily Kos 2020]. After months to years, the remains are excarnated and reburied underground [Van Huygen 2014]. Due to the temporary nature of air burials and because the scaffolds were made from perishable materials, like wood, they leave behind little archaeological evidence [Kennedy 2022]. This creates a preservation bias against air burials in comparison to other burial practices. Interestingly, there is a similar sort of a bias towards nomadic American tribes, the most documented groups who practice air burials. Nomadic people leave little archaeological evidence of their time spent at specific locations as they do not build permanent structures and they do not accumulate enough debris to make trash pits that will preserve middens [Kennedy 2022]. Thus, most archaeological knowledge about air burials, and to a lesser extent nomadic Indigenous tribes from the Great Plains, come from ethnographic data and oral traditions.

Air burials were practiced for both spiritual and practical reasons. Some tribes, like the Sioux and the Lakota, believed that elevating remains would better facilitate a spirit’s journey outside of their body [Daily Kos 2020]. Additionally, elevating remains protected the bodies from being eaten by wolves and allowed a way to manage disease when burial was not possible, like in the winter when the ground was too hard. Lastly, some nomadic groups had specific burial grounds that they only visited once a year. These groups used air burial to care for the dead while waiting to return to the burial grounds. Bodies were usually dressed in the deceased best clothing and then wrapped in a hide. Foods and personal items, like weapons, were usually left with the bodies to help the spirit on its journey. In some societies, the horse of the deceased was killed nearby or tied to the scaffolding to accompany the spirit in death [Van Huygen 2014].

After colonization, the U.S. government made air burial illegal, as it conflicted with our nation’s Christian ideals [Daily Kos 2020]. However, in recent years, air burial has been allowed on reservation, leading to a small number of people returning to the practice of air burial [Dake 2019].

Original North American Section
Some Native American groups in the southeastern portion of North America practiced excarnation in  protohistoric times.

practice citation.