The Tribe That Smokes Their Corpses

The KuKu tribe from New Guinea have a really unbelievably ghoulish way to deal with death and loss. They smoke the corpses of their relatives and prop them up as if they never died.

There are 4 days of mourning, while relatives wail, throw themselves on the corpses, eat dirt, tear their hair, and beat their foreheads until they bleed. Once the fire is lit, the body dries out. Once it's nice and dehydrated, they put it on display in a memorial. 



To some, letting go of their loved ones is too tragic to contemplate, but no matter how much my son loves me, please do not dehydrate mama. I might end up something like this -