Desecration of graves

Desecration of graves involves intentional acts of vandalism, theft or destruction in places where humans are interred: this includes body snatching. It has long been considered taboo to desecrate or otherwise violate graves or grave markers of the deceased, and in modern times it has been prohibited by law. Desecrate: is defined as violating something that is sacred.[1]

History

Theft

A form of grave desecration involves Grave robbery. In Egypt many of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings were robbed and looted of valuables. Papyrus scrolls from 2000BC detail accounts of looting. The accounts also spell out the punishment that thieves received. The sentence varied from the removal of the thief's ears or nose. One punishment was execution.[2]

In China the 2nd Century Chinese text, Lüshi Chunqiu, advised mourners to plan simple burials to discourage looting.[3] Many Chinese were buried with valuables, including jade burial suits.[4] In modern China, grave robbing continues.[3]

Body Snatching

Grave robbers in The United Kingdom during the 1800s and 1900s were often referred to as Resurrectionists. These body snatchers were employed by researchers who needed human cadavers to dissect. People have long disagreed with the practice of body snatching, and many cemeteries installed gates and fences. Because of the taboo and theft of corpses the dissection of corpses was often carried out in secret.[5]

Vandalism

Graves have historically been the target for vandalism desecration. In the mid-1850s, the villagers of Silwan were paid £100 annually by the Jews in an effort to prevent the desecration of graves on the Mount of Olives.[6]

In modern times people continue desecrating grave sites.[7] Occasionally the vandalism-desecration is religiously motivated. Jewish cemeteries are occasionally targets for vandalism.[8]

Grave reuse

Grave reuse In the United Kingdom Parliament passed the Burial Act 1857. Concerns arose that due to rapidly expanding cities because of the Industrial revolution that burial graves were reused too quickly.[9] The offense of disturbing a burial included in the Burial Act 1857 was based on belief that a grave was to be undisturbed for eternity.[9][10] Section 25 of the Burial Act 1857 made it unlawful in England and Wales to disturb human burials without a license or on ground consecrated by the rites of the Church of England, without the permission of the church.[11]

Cemetery relocation

Cemeteries may also be moved so that the land can be reused for transportation structures.[12] In some countries it is forbidden to move a cemetery. Alberta, Canada, for instance, the Cemetery Act expressly forbids the relocation of cemeteries or the mass exhumation of marked graves for any reason whatsoever.[13]

Pissing on someone's grave

As a form of great disrespect to the dead, a person urinates on the decedent's grave[14]

Law

In many cases it is against the law to deface or desecrate grave sites or human remains. These include removing gravestones, leaving trash, disturbing, or tampering with a gravesite. People are also not allowed to open any repository of human remains or cover over or destroy. In many cases these are felonies.[15] For instance NY Penal Law § 145.23: Cemetery desecration involves attempts to: vandalize, spray paint, or steal from places that used for human interment.[16]

In United States law Dangerfield v. Williams, 26 App. D.C. 508 (D.C. Cir. 1906) as long as people recognize that an area which serves as a graveyard it remains a sacred place. Even if the4re were no new burials and the graves are neglected.[17]

See also

References
  1. "desecrate". Merriam Webster's. Merriam Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  2. Tutankhamun : Egypt’s Boy Pharaoh. Bruxelles, Belgique: 50 Minutes. 2015. ISBN 978-2808007382. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  3. Qin, Amy (July 15, 2017). "Tomb Robbing, Perilous but Alluring, Makes Comeback in China". New York Times.
  4. Paul van Els (2018). The Wenzi: Creativity and Intertextuality in Early Chinese Philosophy. Studies in the History of Chinese Texts. Brill. p. 12.
  5. "Body Snatchers". National Archives. The National Archives. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  6. Menashe Har-El (April 2004). Golden Jerusalem. Gefen Publishing House Ltd. p. 244. ISBN 978-965-229-254-4.
  7. Kepley-Steward, Kristy (4 March 2019). "Update: Graham County cemetery vandalism suspect arrested, charged". Associated Press. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  8. Reich, Aaron (13 July 2020). "Dozens of graves in Europe's oldest Jewish cemetery vandalized, desecrated". Jpost Inc. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  9. Edemariam, Aida (17 May 2011). "The nation's cemeteries are nearly full". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  10. Woodthorpe, Kate (2010). "Private Grief in Public Spaces. Interpreting Memorialisation in the Contemporary Cemetery". In Hockey, Jennifer Lorna; Komaromy, Carol; Woodthorpe, Kate (eds.). The matter of death : space, place and materiality. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 117–132. ISBN 9780230224162. OCLC 620092674.
  11. Fairbairn, C (2017). "Reuse of Graves. House of Commons Briefing Paper 04060" (PDF). House of Commons. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  12. "O'Hare Growth May Mean Moving a Cemetery". NPR, November 19, 2005. Accessed July 13, 2009.
  13. Cemetery Act of Alberta. Accessed July 13, 2009.
  14. Gantt, Darin (24 July 2014). "Modell family wants to press charges against grave urinator". Pro football Talk. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  15. "Chapter 92: Cemeteries". Code Library. American Legal Publishing. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  16. "New York Consolidated Laws, Penal Law - PEN § 145.23 Cemetery desecration in the first degree". Codes Find Law. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 7 December 2021.

Grave desecration at Kawaiahao cemetery

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