There are many ways that human bodies have been disposed of, in ways that range from reverent to expedient. Practices relating to the disposal of corpses vary widely depending on religion,and jurisdiction. Because death is a universal experience, almost every culture has some ritual associated with death, such as a funeral. Although the disposal of the corpse may be separate from the ritual declaring the death of the person, in many ways the disposal itself is an element of the ritual, and may be the subject of a gathering.
Less common methods include:
Different religions and cultures have various funeral rites that accompany the disposal of the body. Some require that all parts of the body are buried together. In the case of an autopsy, removed parts of the body are sewn back into the body so that they may be buried with the rest of the corpse. In the Western World embalming of the body is a standard part of preparation.
Somebody who is or feels guilty of another person's death (manslaughter, accident), or is afraid of being accused of a crime in relation with the death may try to dispose of the body in such a way that finding it is more difficult or impossible, to delay people finding out about the death, to conceal the identity of the deceased, and to avoid autopsy. Even without guilt of death it may be kept secret, e.g. to collect the pension of the victim, or (at least in some fiction) children may not want the death to be found out, because they want to avoid getting a new legal guardian.
The victim falls in the category missing persons as long as a body is not found, unless death is so likely that the person is declared "legally dead".
The most common is burying the body in a shallow grave. Other methods are leaving the body in a deserted place or a private place, such as one's freezer, dumping it in a body of water, dissolving it with corrosive chemicals, hiding it in cement or concrete, and burning it. Sometimes the body is cut into pieces (e.g. dismemberment) to facilitate disposal; it also enables disposal of each piece separately.
The mafia have been known to have the bodies chopped up (i.e. dismembered) then put in the trunk of the person's car. The car is then taken to a mafia-affiliated junkyard and the body crushed, leaving no trace and the car is gone so a murder investigation is never even started.
In many coastal areas it is common for persons who were murdered to be disposed of by mean of a crab pot. A murderer may simply hack up the dead, remove the teeth and finger nails, and crush the skull. Then the deceased is put into a crab pot, put to sea.
When parts of the body die, such as limbs or internal organs, without the individual dying, as in the case of necrosis, they usually are not given a funeral. In most cases, surgical removal of dead tissue is necessary to prevent gangrenous infection. Surgically removed body parts are typically disposed of as medical waste, unless they need to be preserved for cultural reasons, as described above.
Where permitted, organ donation may re-use some of the dead person's organs for medical purposes; in this case, the organs may live on long after the death of their original owner.
Attitudes towards stillborn fetuses have changed in recent years; in the past they were often disposed of as clinical waste, but are now commonly given funerals.