Well, considering that I've attempted to pass "Thinking about hobbits" as anthropology related, Tibetan sky burials should count.

I would comment on balrogs, but my brain quit working about 1 sentence in. Though, if they were like Ulmo's Maiar, and couldn't exist in a element other than fire, couldn't they be killed by water? (This is more based on my long held little crack fic of Luna Lovegood forcing a balrog into a lake than any real scientific thought.)