Editing Burial (section)

==Reasons for human burial==
{{See also|Health risks from dead bodies|Revenant}}

After death, a body will decay. Burial is not necessarily a [[public health]] requirement. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the [[World Health Organization]] advises that only corpses carrying an [[infectious disease]] strictly require burial.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://publications.paho.org/english/dead_bodies.pdf |title=04—ARTI—Morgan—307–312 |access-date=25 March 2011 |archive-date=9 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209172015/http://publications.paho.org/english/dead_bodies.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://publications.paho.org/english/editorial_dead_bodies.pdf|title=Epidemics Caused by Dead Bodies: A Disaster Myth That Does Not Want to Die|author=Claude de Ville de Goyte|year=2004|access-date=31 August 2005|archive-date=2 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302094245/http://publications.paho.org/english/editorial_dead_bodies.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Human burial practices are the manifestation of the human desire to demonstrate "respect for the dead". Cultures vary in their mode of respect.

Some reasons follow:
* Respect for the physical remains. If left lying on top of the ground, scavengers may eat the corpse, considered disrespectful to the deceased in many (but not all) cultures. In Tibet, [[sky burial]]s deliberately encourage scavenging of human remains in the interest of returning them to nature, just as within [[Zoroastrianism]], where burial and [[cremation]] were often seen as impure (as human remains are polluted, while the earth and fire are sacred).
* Burial can be seen as an attempt to bring [[closure (psychology)|closure]] to the deceased's family and friends. Psychologists in some Western Judeo-Christian quarters, as well as the US funeral industry, claim that by interring a body away from plain view the pain of losing a loved one can be lessened.
* Many cultures believe in an [[afterlife]]. Burial is sometimes believed to be a necessary step for an individual to reach the afterlife.
* Many [[religion]]s prescribe a particular way to live, which includes customs relating to disposal of the dead.
* A decomposing body releases unpleasant gases related to decomposition. As such, burial is seen as a means of preventing smells from expanding into open air.