The death of Archaeology of Death?

As the semester wraps up and I check over my blog submissions for the Archaeology of Death, I can't help but wonder how this class has affected me during the semester. I instantly recalled how frustrated I was while doing research for the Tana Toraja magazine project my group recently finished...which is here if anyone would like to check that out. Now, my frustration had nothing to do with the project (well maybe some...) but with the common responses I was finding in association with Torajan burial practices. For those who don't know, Torajans exhume and redress their dead a few times after they're buried as a form of respect to the deceased...which is clearly not something currently practiced in most societies. What really bothered me was the comments from tourists who had visited the group solely to witness their death rituals. Here's my authors note from my article..,

Death tunes...

It may have become apparent to anyone who follows this blog (...crickets...) that I love music. Sure, I might reference groups that no one listens to (or has even heard of for that matter) but that's not the point. The point is that I listen to a LOT of music and a theme that seems to be fairly prevalent throughout is death. Now, I'm not talking strictly evil metal type stuff about sacrificing babies, burning churches, and killing everyone (the genre mostly isn't like that anyways, but most people think it is unfortunately...), I'm talking some stuff that most people would like because it's just solid, well written music, that happens to have a theme about death in some manner. Take, for example, Flaws by Bastille.

Before I start rambling about this song, I have to mention that this is probably my favourite song of 2012. Well constructed song, incredibly catchy, awesome, well sung lyrics...just what I like, even though I generally listen to significantly heavier/faster stuff. Anyways,  personal opinions aside, look at all the death references in this song! First off, singer/songwriter Dan Smith is clearly dead to start the song...then he basically has a sweet day hanging out with some girls done up like day of the dead folks (I've always assumed they are his "flaws"). This is probably the most obvious death reference in the song but the lyrics hold a few more less obvious (until they're pointed out...) mentions of death related topics..

When all of your flaws and all of my flaws
Are laid out one by one
A wonderful part of the mess that we made
We pick ourselves undone

All of your flaws and all of my flaws
They lie there hand in hand
Ones we've inherited, ones that we learned
They pass from man to man

There's a hole in my soul
I can't fill it I can't fill it
There's a hole in my soul
Can you fill it? Can you fill it?

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground
Dig them up; let's finish what we've started
Dig them up, so nothing's left unturned

All of your flaws and all of my flaws,
When they have been exhumed
We'll see that we need them to be who we are
Without them we'd be doomed

There's a hole in my soul
I can't fill it I can't fill it
There's a hole in my soul
Can you fill it? Can you fill it?

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground
Dig them up; let's finish what we've started
Dig them up, so nothing's left unturned

When all of your flaws
And all of my flaws are counted
When all of your flaws
And all of my flaws are counted

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground
Dig them up. Let's finish what we've started
Dig them up. So nothing's left unturned

All of your flaws and all of my flaws
Are laid out one by one
Look at the wonderful mess that we made
We pick ourselves undone 

I see 5 separate lines with imagery that could be directly associated with death...pretty cool in my books. Hope someone enjoys the song!

The science of your death...

After cruising a few of my classmates blogs, I came across a bit that I thought was pretty funny. It was about having a physicist talk at your funeral to explain, in unequivocally scientific terms, the science of your death (unless I totally missed the point, in which case just stop reading right now because I'm about to make myself look like an idiot...). The concept thoroughly entertained me...all I could think of was having a rigid woman wearing a lab coat (obviously with a pocket protector...)wandering amidst all the grieving and crying, calmly speaking about photons, particles, and sciency laws that most people can't grasp. I imagined the confusion people would feel as their emotions came face to face with science, the ultimate emotion killer. As the physicist (let us call her...Alice) tactfully maneuvers through the funeral throng (assuming people actually like you of course...) stoically delivering the facts, she can't help but notice the clasped hands, twisted faces, and cheeks glistening with tears. "There is a scientific explanation for all of this," she thinks to herself, "why don't these people understand?". As she continues to spread the truth, she can't help but notice that the sorrow is turning to anger..."these people don't appreciate this logic" she calmly mutters to herself. Alice begins to realize that she is being surrounded, pushed into a corner by the once sobbing gathering turned irrational mob..."they don't want to hear this" she says in a slightly wavering whisper. Soon, people are demanding to know why Alice is there, ruining their grieving process with crazy talk of photons, particles, and sciency laws they don't understand. "He's gone, show some respect...what about his soul?!?" the funeral attendees bellow in chorus, surging forward in a wave of black cotton. Panic..."He wanted this!" Alice screams, finally showing a crack in her utterly unflappable mask of scientific truth..."He wanted you to know that according to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of him is gone...he's just less orderly!". "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh..." say the mourners collectively, all nodding in approval of their new found scientific enlightenment... OK, obviously this would never happen anywhere except inside my oddish headspace but I still found it immensely funny..."According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly." was the quote by Aaron Freeman that was in my classmates blog that really made me think about this as I could see myself saying something very similar (at what would probably be the most inopportune time to sound like an academic blowhard ever). Seriously, how much would people hate you for dropping science into a completely unscientific scenario like a funeral? As great as I think it would be, probably a lot...so, note to self...keep your mouth shut when people are grieving, no one wants to hear your scientific rationalizations about the source of their irrational emotional behaviour.

A death in the family...

Last week, my grandmother passed away. I know everyone's initial response is to say something like "oh, I'm so sorry to hear that..." or to offer a hug, but I don't really understand the pleasantries involved with death. I find them awkward, strange and usually forced. I don't like the fact that when someone dies, it is often made out to seem shockingly tragic or overly dramatic. All in all, I find the general human response to death to be significantly more disturbing than the actual death itself. Any time I have experienced the death of someone close, I generally see it a natural part of life but maybe I'm weird, I have no idea. I should also mention that I don't attend funerals as I find that dealing with other people’s emotions is significantly more difficult than dealing with my own but I may be a robot so… I suppose I was lucky as my parents were quite logical about the entire thing...we even ended up having a chat about the importance of the whole DNR thing as the family had to make the call on removing my grandma from her life support. The whole event got me thinking about the whole process people experience when someone close dies...and then I thought about the purpose of graveyards. As I've mentioned before, I don't really get the concept of cemeteries...what does burying someone in the ground and then occasionally visiting the site have to do with anything? Is it supposed to jog our memory of the person? Trigger emotions? Give you a depressing place to go cry when your life sucks? What is the actual purpose of a grave site? Do we actually need a grave to elicit our true feelings towards someone we knew? I just don't get what burying a loved one (or anyone for that matter…) is supposed to accomplish...we used to have epic burials with fires and monuments and singing and celebration...now we get slowly lowered into a perfectly dug hole in the ground, preferably on a cold, windy, and possibly rainy day, for added dramatic effect. What's the point? It's not like your uncle Dave really LOVED Oak Bay Cemetery and begged the family to be buried there...so why do it? Is it because that's what people do and we're creatures of habit? It doesn't seem like most people even know anymore. When I lived in Japan, I had the pleasure of experiencing an entire year of holidays that I didn't even know existed. I was pumped...new rituals...let's see what you've got Japan! But often, I was sadly disappointed...when I would ask (in poorly formed half-english, half-Japanese sentences) why people were celebrating a particular holiday, a lot of people didn't even know. To me, it's mind-boggling to not know EXACTLY why you go out and buy a specially made (and expensive…) foot-long maki sushi and eat then whole thing while facing east. Or why you throw beans in the corners of your house on a certain day. Or why you spend hundreds of dollars on a huge broom-cornucopia looking kind of thing that gives you better luck depending on its size. Why would anyone do those things without fully understanding why they're doing them? Habit? Kind of like burying people...if the real reason is lost, why continue to do it at all? Why continue to perform rituals, as the band Against Me! so bluntly put, "...until the meaning has become an imitation of itself, an impression of an original defeats the f****** purpose"? Maybe I'm missing something but it doesn't make much sense to me. I suppose we are some strange creatures and the entire burial ritual actually meant something in our past, but what does it actually mean in our current society? Luckily, my grandmother had asked to be cremated and the family was fortunate to avoid the theatrics of a routine funeral scene. I say, let them go...life is already filled with enough depressing stuff that we don't need to mark places of mourning with rituals we no longer understand. I'll remember the stuff about my grandma that I want to remember, for as long as I want to remember it, and I certainly don't need a funeral based on ancient rituals or a hole in the ground to do it. End rant…

Let us see if this works...
View Pioneer Square, Victoria, B.C. in a larger map

Cemeteries...would it kill people to try?

After having a chance to wander around Pioneer Square cemetery and make some observations while compiling data for our project, I came to this conclusion...our cemeteries suck. Apparently I've never actually  LOOKED around a cemetery. Now, Pioneer Square might be an extra bad example as it's basically become a place for kids to smoke cigarettes while skipping school or for people to do drugs and shadowbox, but man, that place is a downer. First off, it has this ridiculously huge church looming over it...not usually a good time for anyone. Secondly, it looks awful. I know there have been attempts to clean it up but wow, it's still brutally depressing. I'll admit, most of the people interred here died in the late 1800's so it's not like they'll be getting a lot of visits, but pretty much every marker was in complete disrepair. I suppose if I went to one of the new cemeteries I'd be more impressed as I'm sure that the cost of burial in a fancy cemetery includes "greens fees" but they generally look so crappy that it got me wondering...do people even go to cemeteries? Here are a couple pics from Pioneer Square...

Ugh...depressing...

 Yuck...

No wonder no one comes here...everything is falling apart and covered in moss. I literally expected the boney hand of death to bust out of the ground at any second...

OK, just for interests sake...what about this local cemetery in my Japanese hometown of Matsuyama, Japan...

No kidding, I would eat off the ground here, it was cleaner than most of our hospitals...

So there you have it...a nice, clean cemetery...and guess what? People were always there and it was always clean. Not only did people visit, but by taking such good care of everything, it at least gave the impression that people cared. To be clear, I'm not saying Japanese people actually care more but at least they gave that impression (that is a whole cultural anthropology paper in itself...). Also, the people keeping this cemetery nice and clean weren't groundskeepers...they were the ACTUAL RELATIVES OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE BURIED THERE! I guess what I'm saying in rambly, weird way, is that our cemeteries don't suggest any actual respect for the dead. Or maybe they do and I really don't spend enough time hanging out in cemeteries to make that assumption. Either way, paying someone to cut the grass and pick up sticks off your grandmas grave says, to me, that you don't care enough to do it yourself. So maybe if people actually cared more, cemeteries might be more fun places to visit...just a thought. Also, if we got to see things like this in places of remembrance, I bet people would put in a little effort to respect the dead...

Mummies...make it happen...

As I've previously mentioned, I would be pretty excited to be eaten by a tiger or a squid once I'm dead, however, this might be frowned upon in the world of "white" funerary practices. I say "white" funerary practices because many other cultures have super sweet ways of dealing with the dead while European type folks really like their lame old urns, coffins, and silly funerals. I'm not saying it's wrong, but man, only white people can take the death ritual and make it into such a boring and sanitary experience. That being said, I understand why we don't leave our dead lying around to be devoured by birds like the Tibetan sky burials (which, by the way, are AWESOME...) but come on, dumped in a hole to slowly rot away? Where's the creativity? The panache? The flair? Now, this might not be a popular option, but I think we should start mummifying people again. For some reason, people really seem to like to hold on to their dead in memory, constantly bringing them up like it matters...so why not put your money where your mouth is and mummify these people that are so important so you can actually keep them close? Way cooler than an urn right? Also, what a great conversation piece...no one ever, EVER, looks at the urn on the mantle and says, "Man, cool urn, what's the story behind that?"...but you have a mummy propped up in the corner of the games room and I guarantee that you'll have some legitimately interesting conversations because if it. Also, I would assume that the modernized version of mummification would allow you to have a sweet video of the process, not unlike the videos of medical procedures that allow you to watch your leg get sawed off (my dad has a video of his knee replacement...no joke, it's horrifying)...on second thought, maybe we can live without videos of a loved one's brain being removed through their nose.
Personally, I feel like ocean burials are pretty cool...not because I love the ocean (the opposite actually, the ocean terrifies me...) but because it seems like the most logical way to rid ourselves of an enormous volume of bodies...also, circle of life anyone? Dead people feed fishes and fishes feed living people...perfect! I would actually hope to be devoured by Cthulhu but I'm not sure how likely that is so squids and sharks and all the other creepy weird things in the ocean would probably have to suffice. Ocean burials might not be quite as cool as, say, being shot into space on/in a rocket (unless you're shot into the ocean with a giant slingshot or something...) but it's probably a more green option than just sending our dead into space.