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Article: Cemeteries, War
- Article from:
- Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Cemeteries, War
The question of what do with soliders killed in war has been a problem throughout recorded history, addressed in different ways by different cultures. An extreme solution was eating the killed individual, an act often connected with the idea that the power of the victim would be added to that of the eaters. Or the deceased might be left on the ground until the corpse was decayed or devoured by animals, which would be considered a disgrace, especially to the losers of a fight or battle. More often than not, killed individuals would be buried.
Throughout history the dead, mainly the losers, were often deprived of their belongings. This was seen as part of the spoils of ...