Alternative Disposition Terminology

Internment or Inhumation

A method of final disposition whereby the dead human Internment or Inhumation body is placed into the grown, sometimes with objects, and sometimes in a casket and/or vault based upon cemetery requirements

Full Body Burial

Entombment/Mausoleum  Green/Natural  Home  Sea

Entombment

A method of final disposition that disposes of the body above ground, usually in a crypt or mausoleum.

Green or Natural Burial

A method of final disposition of ground burial in which the body generally isn’t cremated or embalmed. Biodegradable caskets or shrouds (or urns*) are used, but a vault is not used. It may support land conservation and sustainable practices. It may occur in a green cemetery or green section of a regular cemetery.

Burial at sea

Burial at sea is a method of final disposition in which [full body] human remains are placed in the ocean or another waterway. This can be done by ship, boat, or aircraft.

Open air cremation/funeral pyre

A structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon or under the pyre, which is then set on fire

Sky burial

A Tibetan funeral practice in which a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop to decompose while exposed to the elements or to be eaten by scavenging animals, especially carrion birds like vultures and corvids. It is a specific type of the general practice of excarnation. Bones are collected and processed for return to families. Traditionally the ashes are made into a bread or mixed with tsampa, a “meal” (barley flour, tea or yak milk, or milk) and then fed to the crows and hawks that waited patiently for the vultures to depart

Home Burial

The ability to establish a family cemetery on private property will vary state to state. Contact your local funeral and/or cemetery board for accurate information

Promession

Remains are frozen with liquid nitrogen, which
makes the body brittle. Vibration causes the brittle remains to
disintegrate