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..,


"While reading this article on ma’nene’ you may have been wishing there was more than just a few pictures...well, since this is an e-magazine and not a boring old paper magazine, I can show you a little clip I found on everyone’s favourite site for cute and cuddly videos, Youtube.  

Walking Dead Zombie in Real World

Insanely misleading title aside, I’d like to suggest that you watch the video, keeping in mind what my colleagues and I have written in the articles presented here. Yes, the quality is awful and looks like it was filmed with an outdated camera phone but this may be one of the most accurate representations of this ritual available in visual media. The sad part is that a quick Google search of “walking dead toraja” will bring up numerous misleading and completely ignorant posts, blogs, and sites on this subject. Words like “wrong”, “crazy”, and “disgusting” routinely appear. Without sounding like a grumpy old man, I’d like to personally scold every person who’s contributed to, and propagated these myths. Your ignorance towards other cultures is absolutely what is wrong in a world filled with wonder and beauty. Learn about things you don’t understand before you open your mouth…and quit looking to pop culture sites to develop your outlook on the world...end rant." (Curé 2013)

First off, I'd just like to point out that I just quoted and referenced myself...finally! That quote basically sums up my feeling son the subject perfectly...secondly, I recognize the irony of voicing my outlook and opinion in a blog, something I would consider a "pop culture" phenomenon. I understand that not everyone has taken a million anthropology/archaeology classes like I have but the ignorance many people show towards customs they don't understand is mind boggling to me. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised though...we (as in white folks...) seem to have some of the most boring customs around. So why, when seeing a super cool mortuary custom, wouldn't we be, oh, I don't know...INSPIRED to do something a little more creative than dumping people in holes until they turn to dust? OK, I'm getting ahead of myself here...why wouldn't you be inspired to learn about what it means or what is happening? Where's the curiosity? 

If I saw a youtube video of people flinging corpses from the Andes with a trebuchet, two things would cross my mind; "woah, that is AWESOME!" and "I have no idea what is going on, I must know more...", but maybe that's me? I'm sure lots of people would see that same video and freak out about the mistreatment of corpses, start a facebook page and then go on to post negative comments about something they have no clue about. I'm not trying to say everyone would do this, just that there are clearly people out there who don't know or don't care to learn about other cultures traditions...and that bums me out. One thing I love about the field I study is that it has given me the tools to consider all possibilities and all angles, no matter how unlike they are from my current reality. I knew NOTHING about Tana Toraja 5 weeks ago...now I know a LOT, and that's sweet (in my opinion...). I guess in summary, I'm frustrated that people aren't more curious for the right reasons. Sure it's easy to be curious when you hear of peoples who slaughter piles of buffaloes for funerals and pry the dead from their tombs to dress them up...and it's easy to go see those peoples in person and take pictures to show your friends while telling them how wrong, crazy and disgusting it was. But it's also just as easy to hear about the rituals, LEARN about the rituals, take the pictures, then tell your friends about what these rituals actually mean to the peoples performing them. At the end of the day, I guess this sort of ignorance is nothing new and I'll probably just have to learn to live with it...luckily I have an extremely high horse to watch the world and its oddities from. We are some strange creatures.