I was having a debate with a friend about the cultural practice of marking graves. He seemed to be of the opinion that this practice only became widespread with the introduction of organized religion and that it was something of a way for the church to claim ownership over the dead as well as the living (his words). Marking graves seems to be a common, but not completely universal practice. But is it known how ubiquitous this practice is throughout history and across cultures? Also, does anyone know the oldest known grave marking practice?
Thanks for any help that you can provide.
The origins of marking graves would be a topic for /r/askanthropology, because to my knowledge marking burial sites is one of the most ancient cultural practices of man; if your friend is talking about organized religion in the modern popular sense (like 'the church'), that would definitely wrong. Marking graves is very common throughout history indeed. What changes are trends, for example, if people put inscriptions on there, how elaborate they get, decorations and styles change, and so on, like most cultural things subject to fashion. Otherwise, this question really is too broad to answer from a historic point of view, I'd really suggest asking our anthropologist colleagues, or narrowing it down a bit :)