Practice on the elements is all kinds of useful... and it can work towards the other ends you mention. In my experience, especially so with breaking apart the body and releasing related attachments, insights into anatta.
I actually put up a cool video in Nick Myer's 1st jhana thread the other day about the 5 elements (the 5th element added is space). Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVthNdcDChII haven't really looked into any specific sets of instructions in any texts about meditating on corpses. I've definitely had meditations where my corpse came up as part of the imagery in a sit, though, and ran with that. The key to meditations on death, to make it as comprehensive as possible is you have to really get into the nitty gritty of how death plays out in all formations, creations of the mind, the cycle of birth, death, and re-birth. Take care not to focus on the content of meditation about your own physical death - as doing so will only solidify a sense of "self". Even getting morbidly curious & fascinated with it, if you have a dark sense of humor like me, can get really content heavy if you're not discerning... so careful there too (although this might reveal some things that might have gone unnoticed, as the hallmark of death for many people is generally that it's considered totally repelling. See how fear and other things might relate in the morbidly curious side of it too - interesting sides of coins can show up). What is it that you want to get from this type of practice? What do you think the purpose of death meditations are?