That's a really good observation. If I had to give a guess on the history of it, I'd say it goes back to the early settlers fear of the original settlers (due to their fear of something different from themselves) and the ever present human fear of the dead. When the settlers got here, they were under the impression that all humans were as civilized as they were. I'd say all of the strange (but harmless) rituals that the natives had puzzled them. So, going with the ignorance of that time period, they branded it as evil. Throw that together with the burial grounds and the supposed "evil" beings that were buried there, and you have a creative imagination seeing things, hearing things, etc. Old fears die hard, too. Doesn't everyone cover their mouth when they sneeze? That's the old belief that spirits entered your body when you sneezed. It basically falls into the same pattern as the Wiccans fall to the Christian religions. It was something the masses did not understand, so it was branded evil, the parts they wanted were dissolved into their society, and the parts they still did not understand, were cast aside and left as taboo and dirty. Just as Indian burial grounds were.
That's just my guess *opinion*
Rich
