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Abstract: In the last one hundred years, Czech lands and Europe in general have witnessed a significant change in burial culture. In some countries, cremation has evolved into a dominant method of human burial, but Europe is highly differentiated in this respect despite its common Christian tradition. Does this change in burial culture reflect changes in religiosity? The largely secular Czechia ranks first in the practice of cremation not only in Europe but also worldwide. This paper discusses changes in burial methods in Europe, which are a reflection of socio-political processes that ultimately lead to more frequent cremation, and the role of cremation in religion is also discussed. One of the aims of the paper is to stimulate the geographer's/reader's interest in the subject of death and burial, which are issues that remain on the margins of world geography, and yet say so much about the cultural development of our society.
Keywords: cremation, burial culture, secularisation, socio-political development, necrogeography
Two key changes have occurred in the method of burial in Czechia as well as in Europe in general. The first change was a transition from incineration to burial in the ground (inhumation) in the Early Middle Ages, while the second change was a transition from burial in the ground to cremation, which is defined as incineration following the invention of the cremation furnace, in the 20th century. At first sight, both transitions may seem to be associated with a change in religion - the first transition with the advent of Christianity; the second with the secularisation of Czech society. Is religion really the cause of the change in burial culture? How can this hypothesis be tested? Newspaper headlines claim that Czechia is a "cremation superpower" and a "world champion" in cremation (Frióová 2007; NevyhoStënÿ 2012). Are these only the exaggerated slogans of journalists? To what extent is this statement based on facts? And to what extent is the popularity of cremation in Czechia a reflection of the continually decreasing percentage of persons who still espouse religious beliefs? In order to answer the above questions, I shall: (a) evaluate the historical circumstances behind the introduction of both changes in the burial method, (b) analyse the dependence of the current cremation rate in European countries using...