The cultural role of cemeteries is well defined, but the ecological importance of these sites is less recognized. As passively-used permanent greenspace, cemeteries have the potential to sustain biodiversity as surrounding land uses change. Informant interviews were conducted with professionals familiar with cemeteries and the funeral industry, and responses were compared within and between professions. Results of this study suggest that while cemeteries provide significant cultural and environmental benefits, their ecological potential is limited by factors including funding and legislation. In order to enhance the ecological value of cemetery sites, the incorporation of native trees and variable habitat within traditional cemetery designs should be considered to improve the quality of resources available to wildlife. Additionally,amendments should be made to the Provincial Policy Statement to include an independent land use designation for cemeteries and implement regional scale planning of these sites across Ontario.

The rural cemetery was a European creation first introduced in the nineteenth century. Relocated outside the commercial city sector the cemetery was promoted as a diversion to the confusion and complexity of urban life. Applying picturesque ideas to traditional burial grounds rural cemeteries became symbolic landscapes for the city and country. The aesthetic nature of its design became an inspiration and eventual model for North American cemeteries. As a cultural institution, the cemetery is constantly in flux. Centuries of interaction between society and the cemetery have resulted in substantial changes that have shaped the present landscape. Although traditionally in public-trust, cemeteries have become largely privatized, operated, managed and developed as businesses for-profit. The commercially-driven practices of these institutions have had significant impacts on the present cemetery landscape. Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a good example of a cemetery experiencing this extensive commercial restructuring. A review of pertinent literature outlined recent transformations within the cemetery landscape citing concerns over the emerging private-enterprise cemetery and its impacts on the burial landscape. My fieldwork examined site-transformations specific to Mount Pleasant through an in-depth analysis of the present cemetery landscape. Concepts of commercialization, commodification and heritage tourism framed my analysis of the architecture, landscaped environment and new developments in light of the rising ‘cemetery business’. My findings revealed that by expanding into a multi-purpose cemetery Mount Pleasant is learning to do business in the twenty-first century. Increasingly run as a private enterprise Mount Pleasant Cemetery remains a historical landmark in crisis, unsure how to remain competitive in the commercial industry of the present, while preserving the integrity and traditions of the past. / Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2007-12-04 14:36:36.972

No description available.

On October 7th, 2004, construction of the Saskatchewan Forest Centre Building in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan was temporarily halted due to the exposure of human remains from within the soil matrix. Subsequent archaeological investigation revealed the presence of numerous rectangular soil stains suggesting the presence of additional interments within the construction site. The remains of two individuals were recovered during this original construction exposure. The following spring, Western Heritage Services, Inc., in coordination with the Department of Archaeology, University of Saskatchewan, conducted an extensive excavation at the site which unearthed 19 individuals of different racial affiliation, sex, and age. Interment location and an extensive document and literature review suggest that this was the cemetery established by Rev. James Nisbet, founder of the Prince Albert mission. This mission would evolve into the City of Prince Albert. The historic significance and sensitive nature of the site required the involvement of several interest groups including the Heritage Resource Branch of the Department of Saskatchewan Culture, Youth and Recreation, the Prince Albert Historical Society, and above all, St. Pauls Presbyterian Church which was responsible for the reinterment of the Forest Centre individuals and was an indispensable source of information. Prior to reinterment, a fundamental osteological and paleopathological examination was conducted for each of the 21 individuals. Coordination and completion of cultural material analysis was performed by Amanda Boechler, an undergraduate archaeology student of the University of Saskatchewan and Mark MacKenzie of the Western Development Museum. Preliminary results may be found within the final site report issued by Western Heritage Services, Inc. dated November, 2005.

On October 7th, 2004, construction of the Saskatchewan Forest Centre Building in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan was temporarily halted due to the exposure of human remains from within the soil matrix. Subsequent archaeological investigation revealed the presence of numerous rectangular soil stains suggesting the presence of additional interments within the construction site. The remains of two individuals were recovered during this original construction exposure. The following spring, Western Heritage Services, Inc., in coordination with the Department of Archaeology, University of Saskatchewan, conducted an extensive excavation at the site which unearthed 19 individuals of different racial affiliation, sex, and age. Interment location and an extensive document and literature review suggest that this was the cemetery established by Rev. James Nisbet, founder of the Prince Albert mission. This mission would evolve into the City of Prince Albert. The historic significance and sensitive nature of the site required the involvement of several interest groups including the Heritage Resource Branch of the Department of Saskatchewan Culture, Youth and Recreation, the Prince Albert Historical Society, and above all, St. Pauls Presbyterian Church which was responsible for the reinterment of the Forest Centre individuals and was an indispensable source of information. Prior to reinterment, a fundamental osteological and paleopathological examination was conducted for each of the 21 individuals. Coordination and completion of cultural material analysis was performed by Amanda Boechler, an undergraduate archaeology student of the University of Saskatchewan and Mark MacKenzie of the Western Development Museum. Preliminary results may be found within the final site report issued by Western Heritage Services, Inc. dated November, 2005.

On October 7th, 2004, construction of the Saskatchewan Forest Centre Building in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan was temporarily halted due to the exposure of human remains from within the soil matrix. Subsequent archaeological investigation revealed the presence of numerous rectangular soil stains suggesting the presence of additional interments within the construction site. The remains of two individuals were recovered during this original construction exposure. The following spring, Western Heritage Services, Inc., in coordination with the Department of Archaeology, University of Saskatchewan, conducted an extensive excavation at the site which unearthed 19 individuals of different racial affiliation, sex, and age. Interment location and an extensive document and literature review suggest that this was the cemetery established by Rev. James Nisbet, founder of the Prince Albert mission. This mission would evolve into the City of Prince Albert. The historic significance and sensitive nature of the site required the involvement of several interest groups including the Heritage Resource Branch of the Department of Saskatchewan Culture, Youth and Recreation, the Prince Albert Historical Society, and above all, St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church which was responsible for the reinterment of the Forest Centre individuals and was an indispensable source of information. Prior to reinterment, a fundamental osteological and paleopathological examination was conducted for each of the 21 individuals. Coordination and completion of cultural material analysis was performed by Amanda Boechler, an undergraduate archaeology student of the University of Saskatchewan and Mark MacKenzie of the Western Development Museum. Preliminary results may be found within the final site report issued by Western Heritage Services, Inc. dated November, 2005.

This practicum, "Death Perception: Envisioning a cemetery landscape for the 21st century", is a proposal for an alternative cemetery landscape, responding to changes in Western culture. An investigation into the historical, sociological and psychological evolution of Western society’s culture of death followed. Discerned patterns and conclusions were supplemented by sociological research and select interviews with professionals, regarding 20th century Western customs for dying, death and bereavement. The conclusions stemming from this research were then assessed for their implications regarding the landscape, particularly that of the cemetery. Cultural theory was translated into a culturally responsive landscape through further research regarding landscape theories and precedents of therapeutic landscapes, where people connect with nature, themselves and humanity. This research has informed a landscape design for Winnipeg, Manitoba that anticipates and responds to the emerging needs of the dying, the bereaved and the funerary industry of contemporary society.

This practicum, "Death Perception: Envisioning a cemetery landscape for the 21st century", is a proposal for an alternative cemetery landscape, responding to changes in Western culture. An investigation into the historical, sociological and psychological evolution of Western society’s culture of death followed. Discerned patterns and conclusions were supplemented by sociological research and select interviews with professionals, regarding 20th century Western customs for dying, death and bereavement. The conclusions stemming from this research were then assessed for their implications regarding the landscape, particularly that of the cemetery. Cultural theory was translated into a culturally responsive landscape through further research regarding landscape theories and precedents of therapeutic landscapes, where people connect with nature, themselves and humanity. This research has informed a landscape design for Winnipeg, Manitoba that anticipates and responds to the emerging needs of the dying, the bereaved and the funerary industry of contemporary society.

Artificiality, as a manifestation of the pursuit of escape, saturates the city and landscapes of Johannesburg. It is the narrative from which the city spawned, constructs and relentlessly perpetuates itself. This first artificial landscape is the materialization of escape, the synthetic, nostalgic reproduction of the known. Brixton cemetery is nostalgic remnant existing in Johannesburg. Looming in a state suspended animation, it is an embodiment of the amnesic material and urban blight which pervades the city, created from desire to escape. The nostalgic artificiality inherent in this cemetery (produced by the desire to escape), in dire need of intervention, holds the material which unlocks the method for its reanimation. The project investigates how architecture, as a second artificial landscape, can occupy the amnesic gap inherent in the nostalgic remnant to reanimate the conditions present in the cemetery and the nostalgic forest. This is accomplished through an architectural insertion which appropriates the physical, nostalgic, metaphysical and mythological layers of escape embodied in the cemetery as the strategy for intervention. The project further investigates a new burial typology which functions by either the prevention or acceptance of the inevitable amnesic condition caused by memorialization. A Bioluminescent Conservatory is proposed to reanimate the forest through the artificiality of escape, while the addition of a columbarium serves to expand and reoccupy the cemetery. Conceptually, the projects investigates how the narrative of escape can further be absorbed into the architecture through the artificiality inherent in the cemetery’s material. The idea of negative as an artificial reproduction is adopted as a conceptual strategy for intervention and articulation of the architecture. The negative as conceptual framework is explored through the artistic work of Christian Boltanski who’s work painfully reveals the treachery of memory and memorialization, but also finally signifies the potentiality inherent in this amnesic inevitability to redeem, reoccupy and recreate from this gap. The cemetery and forest are reanimated by disconfiguring the mechanism of escape and the conditions which it instilled in the cemetery. / Mini Dissertation MArch (Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

Lately Athena has been spending all her spare time in her grave. Her parents—owners of a small-town cemetery in upstate New York—are proud of her devoutness, but her little sister, Laurel, can’t understand it. Laurel still has one more year before her grave-opening, before she’s expected to fulfill the Tenets of Grave Keeping by spending time in her grave as well, and she’s dreading it. Just as school begins, unexpected visitors derail the girls’ secluded lives, encroaching on the safe confines of home and forcing the sisters out into the town. Athena—a professional high school loner—grapples with a newfound enemy and, even more surprising, her first best friend. And home-schooled Laurel, shy to the point of paralysis, finds herself face-to-face with a runaway kid, hiding out in an abandoned grave.