Revised practical guidance for first responders managing the dead after disasters

2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (902) ◽  
pp. 647-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Ellingham ◽  
Stephen Cordner ◽  
Morris Tidball-Binz
Keyword(s):  
First Responders ◽  
Disaster Planning ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Essential Services ◽  
Practical Guidance ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Mass Fatality

AbstractThe proper and dignified management of the dead is one of the three pillars of the humanitarian response to disasters, along with the rescue and care of survivors and the provision of essential services. First launched in 2006, the widely used publication Management of Dead Bodies after Disasters: A Field Manual for First Responders offers practical and easy-to-follow guidelines. It has become the go-to guide not only for non-experts confronted with dead bodies in the aftermath of a catastrophe, but also for those responsible for disaster planning and preparedness in countries with well-developed forensic services. Ten years after the publication of the 2006 Manual, a revised edition has been released. The inclusion of a decade of experience in its field implementation, as well as the incorporation of recent scientific developments in mass fatality management, makes the revised Manual an invaluable resource for first responders confronted with the realities of dead body management following a disaster.

Managing the dead in catastrophes: guiding principles and practical recommendations for first responders

2007 ◽  
Vol 89 (866) ◽  
pp. 421-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morris Tidball-Binz
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Response ◽  
First Responders ◽  
World Health Organisation ◽  
International Committee ◽  
World Health ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Proper Management ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Essential Services ◽  
The Dead

AbstractThe proper management of the dead from catastrophes is an essential component of humanitarian response, together with the rescue and care of survivors and the provision and rehabilitation of essential services. Sadly, insufficient recognition of the importance of ensuring proper management of the dead and of caring for the needs of the bereaved, coupled with the frequent collapse of forensic services in the aftermath of catastrophes, contribute to perpetuating the tragedy and trauma suffered by survivors forever unable properly to bury and mourn their dead. In 2006 the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), together with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), published guidelines for the management of the dead, to help improve the management of the dead after catastrophes. The publication, Management of Dead Bodies after Disasters: A Field Manual for First Responders, offers practical and simple recommendations to non-specialists for the proper and dignified management of the dead in catastrophes and for the care of bereaved relatives. It also helps to dispel the principal myth which often complicates this difficult task: the unfounded association of cadavers with epidemics. The manual has proven to be a valuable tool for first responders, including humanitarian workers, for disaster response and preparedness in various operational contexts.

Making an Exhibition of Ourselves: Using the Dead to Fight the Battles of the Living

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
American Military ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Osama Bin Laden ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Nuremberg Trials

In October 2011, graphic images of a blood-stained and dead Muammar Gaddafi were sent around the internet. For some time after his death, his dead body was displayed at a house in Misrat, where masses of people queued to see it. His corpse provided a focus for the Libyan people, as proof that he really was dead and could finally be dominated. When Osama bin Laden was killed by the American military in May that same year, unlike Gaddafi, the body was absent, but the absence was significant. Shortly after he was killed a decision was taken not to show pictures of the dead body and it was buried at sea. The American military appear to have been concerned it would become a physical site for his supporters to congregate, and the photographs used by different sides in a propaganda war. Both cases reflect an aim to control the dead body and associated meanings with the person; that is not unusual: after the Nuremberg trials, the Allied authorities cremated Hermann Göring—who committed suicide prior to his scheduled hanging—so that his grave would not become a place of worship for Nazi sympathizers. These examples should remind us that dead bodies have longer lives than is at first obvious. They are central to rituals of mourning, but beyond this, throughout history, they have also played a role in political battles and provided a—sometimes contested—focus for reconciliation and remembrance. They have political and social capital and are objects with symbolic potential. In The Political Lives of Dead Bodies the anthropologist Katherine Verdery explores the way the dead body has been used in this way and why it is particularly effective. Firstly, she observes, human remains are effective symbolic objects because their meaning is ambiguous; that is whilst their associated meanings are contingent on a number of factors, including the individual and the cultural context, they are not fixed and are open to interpretation and manipulation: ‘Remains are concrete, yet protean; they do not have a single meaning but are open to many different readings’ (Verdery 1999: 28).

Dead Bodies, Affective States and Volatile Icons

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-101
Author(s):  
Daniella Kuzmanovic
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Public Figure ◽  
Turkish Nationalism ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead

Dead bodies are symbolically effective in the context of politics, and enjoy a particular connection with affect. The mass-mediated mobilizations around Hrant Dink and the dead body of Dink suggest that there is indeed something about Katherine Verdery’s insight. Dink was a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, editor, civic activist and a controversial public figure in Turkey. He was assassinated in 2007. Rather than focusing on the Armenian aspect in context of Turkish nationalism in order to grasp the efficacy of Dink and of his dead body, this article dwells on the intertwinement between his dead body and experiences of state subjects in Turkey. I argue that the efficacy of Dink, the semantic and affective density generated by way of the dead body, is produced in a conjuncture where neither meanings around the body and the person it embodied, nor of the state will stabilize.

Bodies Transformed: Negotiations of Identity in Chalcolithic Cyprus

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsi O. Lorentz
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Individual

This paper focuses on how the human body, and the dead body in particular, was used to create social categories and identities in prehistoric Cyprus. Specifically, it explores how a particular condition, such as death, was integrated into social processes, and how the treatment of dead bodies both created and reinforced social categories and identities. The material the paper focuses on is the mortuary evidence from Chalcolithic Cyprus (3800–2300 BC). In particular, it argues that the extensive, intentional manipulation of dead bodies and human remains visible in Cypriot Chalcolithic cemeteries was aimed at integrating the individual to communal, collective wholes on the occasion of death and during the time period that followed.

Explaining Vampirism: Two Divergent Attractors of Dead Human Concepts

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 285-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimír Bahna
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Disease Avoidance ◽  
Behavioral Reaction ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Cognitive Foundations

This paper explores the cognitive foundations of vampirism beliefs. The occurrence of beliefs of the dead rising from graves and returning to harm the living across many cultures indicates that this concept has features that make it successful in the process of cultural transmission. Comparing ghost- and vampire-like beliefs, it is argued that bodiless agents and animated but dead bodies represent two divergent cognitive attractors concerning concepts of dead humans. The inferential potential of the classic idea of a bodiless ghost is based on intuitions produced by the mental system of Theory of Mind, while the traditional concepts of a vampire attribute to the dead only minimal intentionality. The inferential potential of a vampire is based on the system of disease avoidance and the emotion of disgust related to the dead body. Vampirism beliefs represent a cognitively attractive combination of a hazard and relevant actions to eliminate it: they postulate a threat of an animated corpse and relevant behavioral reaction, namely fatal interventions on vampire’s body.

scholarly journals Dead body management amidst global pandemic of Covid-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghvendra Kumar Vidua ◽  
Irena Duskova ◽  
Daideepya C Bhargava ◽  
Vivek Kumar Chouksey ◽  
Parthasarathi Pramanik
Keyword(s):  
Review Article ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Spread Of Infection

Covid-19 has reached almost all the nations in the world. More and more people are dying from it and in some countries, even the army has been called upon to help dispose of the dead as there is a shortage of coffins, and undertakers are overwhelmed. Therefore, it is essential to have measures in place to contain the spread of infection while handling dead bodies. In view of this, different guidelines and protocols have been proposed bearing in mind the limited information we have about the virus. This review article sets them out for better reference.

scholarly journals Dead body as an object of sensory perception in the space of the Andean civilization

2021 ◽  
pp. 300-313
Author(s):  
Е.В. Новосёлова
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Perception ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead

Статья посвящена проблеме отношения к мертвому телу, которое бытовало среди носителей Андской цивилизации преимущественно в XV–XVII вв. Автор анализирует погребальные обычаи и сопутствующие представления, зафиксированные в письменных (в т.ч. архивных) и материальных источниках. Делается вывод, что в Андской цивилизации существовало представление о необходимости регулярного физического контакта с телами умерших, что наложило отпечаток на представления о мертвом теле. Но после того, как этот контакт стал затруднен или невозможен, соответствующие представления подверглись трансформации. В итоге на современном этапе андское отношение к мертвому телу приблизилось к христианскому. The article is dedicated to the attitude to the dead body, which existed among the representatives of the Andean civilization mainly in the 15th – 17th centuries. The author analyzes funeral customs and representations recorded in written (including archival) and material sources. It is concluded that in the Andean civilization of the period under review, there was an idea of the need for regular physical contact between livings and dead bodies, which left an imprint on the idea of a dead body. But when this contact became very difficult or impossible, these representations underwent a transformation. Presently the Andean attitude to the dead body is closer to the Christian one.

scholarly journals RE-MEMBERING THE MOTHER OF THE SEVEN IN 4 MACCABEES

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
Johannes Nicolaas Vorster
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead

Few rhetorical genres so vividly demonstrate how the past can be revived for contemporary political purposes, as the epideictic or encomiastic. Dead bodies are not excluded from this genre. The comforting ‘rest in peace’ never really happens for the dead body when it can be deployed as site of contestation. I argue that the suffering of the mother as portrayed in 4 Maccabees functions as a strategy to demonstrate the superior masculinity of the Jewish male, in its comparison with what the Roman Empire had to offer. The problem is, however, that instead of a shift from victimhood to heroic status, the subversion is not successful owing to the powerful strategies of Graeco-Roman hegemonic masculinity. In continuity with the theme of this volume concerning ‘memory’ this article demonstrates how collective memory may politically perform as epideictic, not only in the making of bodies, but especially also to serve the solidarity agenda of a community. 

“Our Dead are the Ultimate Teachers of Life”. The Corpse as an Inter-mediator of Transcendence

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-240
Author(s):  
Antje Kahl
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Spiritual Experiences ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Funeral Directors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Funeral Director ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Relationship

Today in Germany, religion and the churches forfeit their sovereignty of interpretation and ritual concerning death and dying. The funeral director is the first point of contact when death occurs. Therefore he or she is able to influence the relationship between the living and the dead. In the course of this development, the dead body, often referred to as dirty and dangerous, is being sanitized by funeral directors. Funeral directors credit the dead body with a certain quality; they claim that facing the dead may lead to religious or spiritual experiences, and therefore they encourage the public viewing of the dead – a practice which was, and still is not very common in Germany. The new connotation of the dead body is an example for the dislimitation of religion in modern society. The religious framing of death-related practises no longer exclusively belongs to traditional religious institutions and actors, but can take place in commercial business companies as well.

scholarly journals XXXI. A short account of Dr. Maty's illness, and of the appearances in the dead body, which was examined on the 3d of July, 1776, the day after his decease

1777 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 608-613 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Dead Body ◽  
Short Account ◽  
The Dead ◽  
As If

About two weeks before he died, he was taken with a fit of violent oppressive pain, just above the pit of the stomach, which made him feel as if he was very near dying. He was bled, and gradually recovered; yet so imperfectly, that any motion of his body, or any pressure upon that part with the point of a finger, instantly brought on such oppressive pain, that he was convinced the least addition to what he had several times felt, must have put an end to his life. He had an idea that there might be a collection of matter behind the sternum, which might be discharge by some chirurgical operation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document