>>24024160Most people get cremated nowadays because funerals are incredibly expensive.
Traditionally a cremation, or pyre has been very common. Especially in hard times or high mortality pandemics. Before that you had the sky burials. Some cultures still practice it. Placing the body on a plinth or raised landmark of some sort and allowing scavengers, birds of prey etc to consume them. Now it would be seen as a sign of disrespect to the dead, but I think at the time it was seen more as a return to form. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust thing. Returning to the earth by nourishing it, it's almost like a final act of giving really.
I think that's the partial origin of the concept for heaven being above, and in the sky. Sky burials. Obviously carrion birds and scavengers fly. Perhaps some of the common concept of the afterlife being a place above us in the sky, where we go when we die, comes downstream from that. As if the birds are carrying your soul to the heavens as well. I could see that being an explanation that took root and formed into other beliefs, because it provides logical satisfaction on the very base level of interpretation
