Pity the Poor Paleontologist and Anxious Archeologist in 3000 A.D. (A Sequel)

By Jerry J. Brown

Eleven years ago when America's cremation rate hovered at 23.1%, I wrote an article that posed the question: "If people continue to choose cremation in lieu of interment (earth burial), what could ultimately happen to the future of academic and scientific processes involving the tracing, tracking and extrapolations of the origin, evolution and metamorphosing of humankind, vis-à-vis bone/skeletal existence i.e. retort pulverization?"

I must admit that my original article was written mostly in a satirical or tongue-in-cheek vein but with the near certainty that despite my attempt at a tad of humor and a little bit of levity, there would be a fire storm of dissent and antipathy from certain members of CANA, the Memorial Societies and Richter-Scale readings from the owners and operators of crematories galore. Fear of fall-out and prop-wash notwithstanding, I wrote the piece and here we go again.

2nd Verse same song.

The rise of America¹s cremation factor during the past four and a half decades has been mercurial i.e. 3.5 % in 1960 to 23.1% in the 2000's. The reasons, motivations and value judgments vis-à-vis disposition of deceased persons still remain somewhat unclear & theoretical e.g. economic, societal, logistics, environmental, academic, intellectual, religious, cultural, ad infinitum.

So, statistics, theories, figures, facts and intellectual judgments concerning cremation vs. burial notwithstanding, what might happen to the sciences of archeology, anthropology and paleontology if and when there are no bones left to study?!?

The world's museums have relied on bones for eons to trace the evolution of man, mammal, fish and fowl. Carbon, DNA, fossils and dental records aside, we will always need "BONES" to differentiate between Dr. Leaky's 1.2 million year old Hominid, Homo Erectus and the Australopithecus Afarensic of 3 million years ago.

Heaven forbid when the time-worn axioms of "make no bones about it" or, "I've got a bone to pick with you" are no more. Further, consider the World's closets without "at least, a skeleton or two?"