Editing Funeral (section)

==Overview==
[[File:Peasant Funeral.jpg|thumb|''Peasant funeral in the [[Maumturks|Mam Turk mountains]] of [[Connemara]], [[Ireland]]'', 1870]]

Funeral rites pre-date modern ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' and dated to at least 300,000 years ago.<ref name=British>{{cite journal |url=http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba66/feat1.shtml |title=When Burial Begins |journal=British Archaeology |date=August 2002 |author=Paul Pettitt |access-date=28 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160615142318/http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba66/feat1.shtml |archive-date=15 June 2016 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> For example, in the [[Shanidar Cave]] in Iraq, in [[Bontnewydd Palaeolithic site|Pontnewydd Cave]] in Wales and at other sites across Europe and the [[Near East]],<ref name=British /> Archaeologists have discovered [[Neanderthal]] skeletons with a characteristic layer of [[flower]] [[pollen]]. This deliberate burial and reverence given to the dead has been interpreted as suggesting that [[Neanderthal|Neanderthals]] had religious beliefs,<ref name=British /> although the evidence is not unequivocal – while the dead were apparently buried deliberately, burrowing rodents could have introduced the flowers.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=J. D. |last=Sommer |year=1999 |title=The Shanidar&nbsp;IV 'Flower Burial': a Re-evaluation of Neanderthal Burial Ritual |journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=127–129 |issn=0959-7743 |doi=10.1017/S0959774300015249 |s2cid=162496872 }}</ref>

Substantial cross-cultural and historical research document funeral customs as a highly predictable, stable force in communities.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Funeral Customs the World Over|last = Habenstein|first = Robert|publisher = Bulfin|year = 1963|location = Milwaukee, WI}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Death and Bereavement Across Cultures, 2nd ed.|last = Parkes|first = Colin M.|publisher = Routledge|year = 2015|isbn = 978-0415522366|location = New York}}</ref> Funeral customs tend to be characterized by five "anchors": significant symbols, gathered community, ritual action, cultural heritage, and transition of the dead body (corpse).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = Do Funerals Matter? Purposes and Practices of Death Rituals in Global Perspective|last = Hoy|first = William G.|publisher = Routledge|year = 2013|isbn = 978-0415662055}}</ref>