Buried with stuff...or not.

On this particular topic, I feel that the Cobra Skulls summed up my feelings on this quite well in the song Cobra Skulls Graveyard...

An epitaph is propaganda for a memory
For people who aren’t really worth remembering
Like people with wealth that save it for themselves
A casket is a container that’s built to bust
Preventing the inevitable dust to dust
A shell in vain we save
So when I die don’t put me in a grave

If my soul goes to another place
Then a grave is a waste of space
Yes, a grave is a waste of space
So don’t put me in a grave

As if our cities aren’t already crowded enough
We set aside a little green patch in the rough
A place for the dead to rest their heads
While the kids of the city have no place to play
We make sure the dead have a place to stay
A place to rot away

So basically, I'm not a fan of burials...also, I don't want to be reanimated when the eminent zombie apocalypse arrives. I guess that means I won't be bringing any sweet grave goods with me into the afterlife. Honestly, I'm really hoping I just get eaten by a tiger, a squid, or something awesome like that. Now, if someone (who I will hopefully be able to haunt...) decided to bury me against my wishes, they might have a few suggestions for things to clutter my new quarters. I'm sure my music collection would be included as it is probably the thing I have wasted the most time and money on...there would be some heavy guilt on anyone denying me of my tunes once I'm dead and have endless time to rock out with. If someone was absolutely incredible, they would find my Dad's New York Islanders jersey, the one item I'd give anything to have as it's an irreplaceable memory and the main reason why I'm such a passionate hockey fan. If some nerdier (and more observant...) friends sent me off with stuff, I'm sure my H.P. Lovecraft books would give me plenty of reading material and my laptop would have endless cartoons and Asian movies to help pass the time...and maybe some hockey cards because I'm a super dork...and a chunk of obsidian, because IT'S FREAKING VOLCANIC GLASS!!! So maybe if all that stuff could be packed into a small box and my body vapourized into dust, anyone who knows me would find me a quiet hill back in Japan, or a mountain in the Nass Valley, just to let me watch over the two places I love most.

Sacred Stones response...

Without any explanation of what Mike Parker Pearson has said in the past in relation to Stonehenge, Bluestonehenge, and Woodhenge, it's difficult to know exactly how accurate the bloggers comments are. While there may be some similarities, I'm not convinced that what was mentioned by Ramilisonina really suggests any actual "evidence". I was also a little thrown off by his "element of magic" comment. I'm sure circles and ancestor stones (or something similar) hold value in many groups and times throughout the world so I'm not exactly sure what the specific comparisons between Neolithic Europe and Madagascar are supposed to be...just because stones represent death and wood represents life it seems a little far-fetched to suggest a direct connection there. I'm fairly sure that anyone working in any ancient burial/ritual site would be able to come up with correlates as well, possibly completely different ones than mentioned in the article/blog. That being said, culture may have started small and branched out over time, meaning that beliefs and rituals from varying groups and places have their basis in the same original ideas, thus, leading to correlates between completely different groups/places/times/etc. Perhaps this is what M.P.P. and Ramilisonina are suggesting and the blogger took their comments too literally? Or maybe they believe there are direct, specific linkages between Neolithic Europe and Madagascar that forced the blogger to call them out? Maybe I missed the point but I suppose I don't know the whole story as I'm sure it's much longer than a double-sided sheet of paper...if taking lots of anthropology and archaeology classes has taught me anything, it's that no matter what your stance is there is some way to correlate it and someone to break it down. Maybe if everyone spent more time on building time machines and less time writing enormously long winded opinion pieces about what may or may not have happened in the past, we could avoid these disagreements...

Heyo...

As the great anthropologist Louis C.K. once said, "most people are dead...out of all the people that ever were, almost all of them are dead...there are WAY more dead people". I really feel like Mr. C.K. is on to something there. My name is Shawn and I dig anthropology/archaeology...any of it, it's all cool. Human beings are crazy and interesting and amazing, all in the same moment...how can you not want to know more about them? I'm taking this class because, well, I'm interested in dead things and it seemed appropriate. I like the idea that by looking at different beliefs in death, we're able to get a better understanding of the living and why they did what they did. I spent a year in Japan and a good portion of my free time was spent wandering through cemeteries snapping pictures of intricately detailed shrines and the such...pretty much been interested in the theme ever since. I'd eventually like to parley my experiences in school into working with First Nations on discovery and repatriation of human remains in association with the Indian residential school genocide here in Canada. I guess that's me...?