BACKGARDEN PERMACULTURE

Here in the west there is increasing popularity for ecologically-friendly graveyards. At the South Downs Natural Burial Site these spaces provide an alternative for the conscious mourner over simply cremating the deceased or placing them in a conventional setting. In these graveyards certain ecological rules are applied. Firstly, there is a minimal or no use of stone; the dead are simply commemorated. Secondly, the burial takes place in correlation with the planting of a tree, effectively creating woodland at the same time. Thirdly, only native flora is introduced to the area in regulation of wildlife principles. Fourthly, no environmentally-damaging practice is introduced. The conscious relative is allowed to quietly ponder the death of an individual in as natural setting as is possible.

These cheaper, more affordable burials provide one with a focus to preserving a living memory, not in stone or writing, but with the appearance of a living tree. The decomposition of the body is assumed to provide the nutrient base for the growing plant and so the individual’s life is seen to be embodied in the plant.

Burial practice has differed widely across the nations and the centuries. In some milieus it was the lot of the deceased to purchase a piece of land, as it was for the Israelite. This indicated more than a simple interment. The buried deceased indicated land rights to the family and was a way of claiming hereditary ownership. The deaths and simple burials of ordinary people went on, albeit in cultures of war they were sometimes straddled with martyr-heroes. In the Jewish context and after the short-lived Maccabean triumph, death was seen, in a milieu of foreign intimidation and powers, as a question to God about salvation. (Davies, p121) But always, partly out of compassion, and partly because of the polluting effects of the deceased, burial was quick. There was also the sentiment that decay in the earth could be some form of painful experience to the corpse. (Ibid., p103) However, the role of the ‘ancestors’ was also reflected in gender relationships in a developing Jewish society. Women were considered indifferent in general. But as with many patriarchal cultures, burials signified an expression of heirs and fruitfulness, and therefore of ownership and proper relations. (Ibid., p99)

There was an inherent tension in Jewish thanatology because worshipping the dead conveyed idolatry, which was strictly forbidden. Thus the Fathers may have been presented in un-eschatological terms although later writings of the Mishnah wove meaning into them. But there was also a need to proclaim solidarity in the Jewish culture for the need to express identity and God’s chosenness whilst avoiding creating a cult. We may take a moral reference from this in ecological burials that provide the means to transcend the mores and norms of religious and political systems whilst providing an environmental response to cultural and ecological degradation. And in view of urban environments that concentrate resources in ever-smaller spaces, my solution to burial is to reclaim permission to bury one’s kin in the own back gardens. In the same way that a horse is buried annually underneath a prolific grapevine in Kew gardens, this ecologically benign method responds to two major cultural issues of our society. First, the lack of kinship in modern settings and second, its correlative fear of the acceptance of death in everyday societies. If culture is to move forward in this current climatic change, so long as good practice is utilised, one should be allowed to live amongst the ‘dead’, as you would do your own cat or dog. But lastly, freeing up graveyards for an equally benign solution, either for woodlands or as orchards.

Bibliography

Davies, J. Death, Burial and Rebirth in Religions of Antiquity (Routledge, London 1999)
South Downs natural burial site can be contacted via B & P Green Burials Ltd
South Downs Burial Site, The Sustainability Centre, Droxford Road, East Meon, Hampshire GU32 1HR
Or @ http://www.fareham.gov.uk/council/departments/leisure/parks/sdbs.asp

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