Pollution of death

As I have been doing research on medieval Japanese death rituals/ grave goods, I came across an interesting concept. Death as a pollutant factor. Not just the dead body, but death itself. It was seen as polluting the air around the dead body and was particularly damaging to close kin (Gerhart 2009). So much so was this pollution taken seriously that as other family and friends came to pay respect the body was placed within a coffin and that coffin was placed behind a screen. You did not look upon the dead as we commonly do in the West. There was no open casket, to do so was placing the living in harms way. The body was often transported at night, in secret and the coffin was surrounded on all sides by screens carried by attendants. Though I should point out at the point that is was the view and practice of the elite nobles, the commoners did not always have this luxury.

It makes me wonder how the commoners dealt with this pollution. Did they accept their lot and do the best they could, or did neighbors and friends band together to protect the family of the deceased?  Unfortunately there is not much out there about the common man's dealing with this matter, but it is an interesting thought.

A neat website a ran across talked about coins as both tainted and giving health and long life to the greaving community. Apparently at a funeral coins would scattered about and those assembled would gather them and taken the money with them as they left the ceremony. On the way home they bought food and drink to bring them good luck and health, but they had to spend it all or risk ill luck from the death pollution tainting the coins (Kim Unknown). I am not sure where exactly this information is pulled from but it does sound pretty interesting. 

So how do we view death? I think about when someone is ill, they 'battle' and fight against it. If they pass on they have 'lost' the battle. Death is personified in the west as a character that hunts you and seeks you out, the ultimate bad guy that no-one can ultimately escape. But there does not seem to be a pollutant factor of death in the west. Death pollution has definitely intrigued me, how about you?

References:

Kim, M Unkonwn, Vitality and Pollution: Scattering Coins in Japanese Mortuary Rituals, http://www.karinoyo.com/JAWS/JAWS_14.1330.A.pdf

Gerhart, K.M. 2009, The Material Culture of Death in Medieval Japan, University of Hawai’i press, Honolulu.