"This was just to keep the bodies from decomposing during extensive funerary ceremonies," he said.
They also discuss purification rites, funerary ceremonies, forms of hospitality, and daily oblations, and they even mention juridical matters.
For commemorative funerary ceremonies, enormous bark-cloth, painted with tattoo designs, were set up in front of the image platforms.
Religious life revolved largely around male initiation cults of various creative and peregrinatory heroes, fertility cults, and funerary ceremonies.
The skulls were then displayed on racks made of painted bark sheets or were mounted on puppets for use at initiations and funerary ceremonies.
The masks for funerary ceremonies were more naturalistic with somewhat elongated faces and slightly elongated earlobes, embellished with wigs and beards of human hair.
Such poles were planted in clusters as grave markers in elaborate funerary ceremonies, and boldly painted bark containers for offerings were placed on the poles.
Hence, the funerary ceremonies were invested with a sombre character that found visible expression in the use of black vestments and candles of unbleached wax and the solemn tolling of the church bell.
The funerary ceremonies were conducted according to the cultural traditions and attended by families, relatives, community members, and officials (IIEES 2013).
In Fatalak village near Rudbar, family members who were away from the village at the fatal time of the earthquake and the landslides performed funerary ceremonies in the absence of the bodies of their missing family members, at places that were thought to be the sites of their houses (Shahrivar and Nadim 2005).
