History & Art – TalkDeath

The Mascots of Halloween: Our Mortality as Decoration

Charlotte Friend — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 12:18:19 +0000

Each year as the end of October draws near, we are haunted by images of our inevitable demise. The rattling bones of a skeleton, decontextualized from our own anatomy, and spooky white-sheet ghosts, representing our soul, adorn front yards across the world. Halloween, at its roots, has always been a holiday centered around death. From the ancient Pagan New Year of Samhain, to the westernized Christian tradition of All Hallow’s Eve, the end of October has been marked by aesthetics of the deceased emblematic of relevant cultural lessons throughout generations. Modern Halloween celebrants often distance themselves from the meaning within […]

Source

Capturing Death: The Rise and Fall of Post Mortem Photography in America

Charlotte Friend — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 12:13:45 +0000

Since the advent of photography in 1839, the American middle class has used the camera’s ability to document one’s life to cement their place in history. Capturing cherished moments with loved ones in our camera rolls, family albums, and picture frames feels like a primordial human impulse. All media can be seen as a mirror with which society studies and understands itself. Post mortem photography, or taking photos of the deceased, is no different and offers us a quick socioeconomic glance into the culture of a country building itself, its beliefs, and customs from the ground up. Capturing Death: The […]

Source

Endocannibalism: The Mortuary Ritual of Consuming the Dead

Breyane Lepinskie — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:14 +0000

Every culture has unique ways of interacting with and disposing of the bodies of their dead. Some bodies are buried, others cremated, some are fed to animals, and sometimes bodies are consumed by other humans. Evidence of cannibalism goes back 800,000 years, when early hominids ate children as a territorial defence strategy. While it is uncommon today, cannibalism had immense cultural and religious importance for various peoples around the world. This is especially true with respect to endocannibalism. Endocannibalism: The Mortuary Ritual of Consuming the Dead ‘Wait… endocannibalism? Is that different than cannibalism?’ Yes! Good catch. Assuming that you are […]

Source

This Artist Residency is Focusing its Lens on Death

TalkDeath — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 01:00:33 +0000

Ayatana’s Biophilium is a biology school for artists, but what exactly is their Mortem program? During this two-week (now) online residency, death-curious artists are encouraged to explore and develop their perspectives on death. We sat down with Alexis Williams, Director of the Ayatana’s Biophilium, to learn more about the origins of Mortem, what the program entails, and how artists can apply. This Artist Residency is Focusing its Lens on Death How did Mortem begin? As with many great ideas, Mortem emerged from the fringes. In this case, “nerdy artists” who wanted to research unusual things in the natural world. Alexis […]

Source

On Display: Ethics of Human Remains in Museums & Online

Robyn S. Lacy — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 15:38:40 +0000

Content warning: This blog post will be discussing human bodies in collections, which were taken from their cultural places against the wishes of their people, through acts of colonialism. There will not be photos of human remains in this blog post It is a sight that many of us are familiar with. You’re in a big city museum, looking at a display of artifacts taken from Egypt, and there in the corner of the room is a mummy, resting in its wood sarcophagus, wrapped in linen, arms resting elegantly against their chest. You may not think much of this person, […]

Source