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.

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).

scholarly journals Finding the dead: bodies, bones and burials from the 1845 Franklin northwest passage Expedition

Polar Record ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas R. Stenton
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Northwest Coast ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
Failed Attempt ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Back River

AbstractOn 22 April 1848, after three years in the Arctic, and 19 months spent ice-bound in northern Victoria Strait, the 105 surviving officers and crew of the Franklin Northwest Passage expedition deserted HMSErebusand HMSTerroras the first step of their escape plan. They assembled at a camp south of Victory Point on the northwest coast of King William Island and made the final preparations for the next step, a 400 km trek along the frozen seashores of King William Island and Adelaide Peninsula to the Back River. All of the men died before reaching their destination, and their remains have been found at 35 locations along the route of the retreat. These discoveries have played a central role in reenactments of events thought to have occurred during the failed attempt to reach the Back River and to the disastrous outcome of the expedition. This paper presents a summary of these findings and examines the criteria used to attribute them to the Franklin expedition. It is suggested that approximately one-third of the identifications have been based on information that is inadequate to confidently assign the human remains as those of Franklin expedition personnel.

scholarly journals The disorderly body: considerations of The Book of Numbers, 19 and ritual impurity after contact with a corpse

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
Sandra Junker
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Living Body ◽  
The People ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Living Creature

This article deals with the idea of ritual bodily impurity after coming into contact with a corpse in the Hebrew Bible. The evanescence and impermanence of the human body testifies to the mortality of the human being. In that way, the human body symbolizes both life and death at the same time; both conditions are perceivable in it. In Judaism, the dead body is considered as ritually impure. Although, in this context it might be better to substitute the term ‘ritually damaged’ for ‘ritually impure’: ritual impurity does not refer to hygienic or moral impurity, but rather to an incapability of exercising—and living—religion. Ritual purity is considered as a prerequisite for the execution of ritual acts and obligations. The dead body depends on a sphere which causes the greatest uncertainty because it is not accessible for the living. According to Mary Douglas’s concepts, the dead body is considered ritually impure because it does not answer to the imagined order anymore, or rather because it cannot take part in this order anymore. This is impurity imagined as a kind of contagious illness, which is carried by the body. This article deals with the ritual of the red heifer in Numbers 19. Here we find the description of the preparation of a fluid that is to help clear the ritual impurity out of a living body after it has come into contact with a corpse. For the preparation of this fluid a living creature – a faultless red heifer – must be killed. According to the description, the people who are involved in the preparation of the fluid will be ritually impure until the end of the day. The ritual impurity acquired after coming into contact with a corpse continues as long as the ritual of the Red Heifer remains unexecuted, but at least for seven days. 

Christian Duty to Bury the Dead and its Contemporary Challenges

2020 ◽  
pp. 233-248
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Zadorożny
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
Christian Teaching ◽  
Imitation Of Christ ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Church

The custom of burying the dead is not merely commonly accepted by Christianity the way of disposal of the human body after the death. It is most deeply rooted and perfectly expressing Christian anthropology, revealed in the Holy Scriptures as a consequence of original sin, sign of hope in the Resurrection, and imitation of Christ, who was buried in the tomb. In Catholic view the burial is a corporal work of mercy, act of care for the dead and their loved ones. Gaining popularity the practice of cremation is accepted by the Church for the sake of hygiene, economy, or community. Human remains, also in the form of ashes, always must be buried or placed in the columbarium. Church does not allow the human body to be disposed via resomation or promession. Alternative forms of memorializing the deceased, though attractive esthetically and sentimentally, are not only outlandish in Christian culture, but also contrary to the Christian teaching on origins, nature, and destination of the human person.

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.

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.

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.

Figuring the Dead Descartes: Claude Clerselier's Homme de RenééDescartes (1664)

2003 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Wilkin
Keyword(s):  
Human Physiology ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Human Mortality ◽  
Principal Difference ◽  
Nature Of Time ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Way

Two editions of Descartes's treatise on human physiology were published in the 1660s, more than a decade after his death: Florent Schuyl's Renatus Des Cartes de homine (1662) and Claude Clerselier'sL'Homme de Ren´´e Descartes (1664). The principal difference between them lies in the figures that illustrate the text. Schuyl's figures undermine Descartes's optimism; his anatomical sketches foreground human mortality,while his landscapes remind the reader of the fleeting nature of time and of the inevitability of death. In contrast, Clerselier's illustrations develop Descartes's comparison of the human body to a machine, which does not live nor, as a result, die. They thus obscure the fate of the author's dead body and in turn pave the way for the resurrection of his esprit.

scholarly journals The Dead Body as a 'Lieu De Mémoire'. The Body-Object and the Living Body in Caitlin Doughty’s Nonfiction

Linguaculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-101
Author(s):  
Cristina-Mihaela Botîlcă
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
First Century ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Personal Memory ◽  
Living Body ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Twenty First Century

Between Pierre Nora’s lieux de mémoire and Paul Ricoeur’s body-object there appears to be a relation of community and personal memory. Before death, the human body holds three meanings: material, symbolic, and functional, but post-mortem the body also becomes a place where both community and individual can update their relationship with death and mortality. In the twenty-first century, secularization of death practices inevitably leads to a secular view of the body. In Cailin Doughty’s nonfiction, the body seems to stand at the crossroad between spirituality and secularization, so between the meaning of the body and the body as a lieu. This paper will discuss how Nora’s and Ricoeur’s interpretations of memory and body apply to Doughty’s representation of the dead body within a death denying twenty-first century Western society.

scholarly journals Forensic excavations and burials in Uruguay, 2004–10

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-66
Author(s):  
Jose López Mazz
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Right

This article will describe the contemporary scientific techniques used to excavate and identify the dead bodies of disappeared detainees from the Uruguayan dictatorship. It will highlight the developments that have led to increased success by forensic anthropologists and archaeologists in uncovering human remains, as well as their effects, both social and political, on promoting the right to the truth and mechanisms of transitional justice.

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