[Dragaera] Crack? Or not a crack?

[Davdi Silverrock]

In reviewing the noble Dr. Whom's archive of narrative inconsistencies
(and noting some notable absences among them), I came upon this, which
bothered me intensely enough that I thought I would throw the question
to the list.

The alleged inconsistency appears to be based on a particular
interpretation of an off-the-cuff statement by V. Taltos.

   http://www.speakeasy.org/~mamandel/Cracks-and-Shards/misc-cracks.html#burial

The submitter of the alleged crack appears to think that the
statement, "He has buried (an Eastern term for "outlived"; I'm not
sure why) a wife, a sister, a daughter" can only be interpreted as
meaning that Vlad Taltos has no idea of the custom of burying the dead
(raising the question, if this is indeed the case, of how Easterners
do dispose of the dead in Adrilankha - cremation or exposure to jhereg
being the only possibilities that come to mind).

However, it never occurred to me that that was how Vlad's statement
was meant to be interpreted - I always read it as (and still do read
it as): 'I don't know why Easterners use the term "buried" for
"outlived"', with the reason for the puzzlement not being because Vlad
does not know that the dead are buried, but rather, because Vlad does
not know why survival is referred to in such utterly morbid terms.  We
know that Vlad is somewhat thanatophobic; it seems rather clear to me
that despite his morbid choice of careers, he would rather focus on
the success that is his survival.  For example, I think he blames
himself a bit for the death of his father; he would probably want to
suppress this guilt by thinking of this as outliving his father rather
than burying him.

However, this is my own interpretation of the statement.  I am curious
to know if anyone shares it, or if, in fact, most people agree with
the one who submitted the crack that it means that Vlad does not know
what burying means.

SKZB is welcome to contribute his own ideas, if he can spare the time
from breaking the minds of the unworthy.