An Accessory of Death

I read Maia's post titled "Wearing Death," which describes Victorian jewelry that incorporated animals. The examples she gives are gold earrings that have hummingbird heads in the center of them (Fig. 1). At first I found the earrings both amusing and unsettling. After few moments I realized that while Victorian practices seem gaudy to us and too close to death for our comfort zone, we are guilty of the same practice. 

This may not be seen in jewelry or taxidermy, but animal fur and leather are highly used today. For instance, in Eastern Canada where it gets much colder than it does in Victoria, "Canada Goose" jackets (Fig. 2) are very popular. The majority of these jackets have a coyote fur lining around the hood for warmth. While fur is practical in this case, fur can also be used solely as a fashion statement. I thought about my own life and the amount of leather that I am surrounded by. There are couches, car seats, boots, phone cases and many more products that use leather which are common in our daily lives. On top of that, one of my favourite things to collect are old leather-bound antique books. I do not find our modern "accessories of death" (i.e. leather or fur) to be unsettling like the Victorian earrings because I have been socialized that way. Maybe if I had been born in a different time I would be the one wearing those earrings...


(Fig. 1)

 
(Fig. 3)  

P.S. I just wanted to make a disclaimer that I am not supporting the use of fur or leather and I acknowledge that there are ethical concerns surrounding these materials.

Jeremy Bentham: Present but not Voting

I learned in class the other day that Jeremy Bentham requested that his body was preserved and then put on display at the University College in London where he was a professor. Unfortunately, his head did not preserve well, and was replaced with a wax one. However, the real head was placed at his feet until it got stolen one too many times by students. He is in a box with wheels and for special occasions he has been rolled into meetings to be marked on the attendance list as "present but not voting." A 360 degree view of Jeremy can be seen here. 

Fig 1 Jeremy Bentham on display

I stumbled upon Dr. Jenkins' blog while looking for a photo of Jeremy, and her blog is about displaying human remains in museums. Ethical issues always surround displaying human remains, and some examples include Body Worlds and Maori heads. 

Body Worlds is an exhibit that shows various parts of the human body like the nervous system and muscles. Maori heads are preserved heads taken by colonizers from New Zealand and have ended up in a number of museums. I feel like the differences between the two examples are the individual's permission. The people who are on display at Body Worlds have donated their bodies to science, whereas the Maori did not. As a result, the heads are being repatriated from museums all around the world (for example, France recently returned twenty heads). In Jeremy Bentham's case, he wished to be on display. I feel like his conscious choice validates the display... but what happens to individuals who lived thousands of years ago? 

Usually they are displayed in museums without anyone's permission because it is unclear who needs to give their permission. This is especially true with First Nations individuals, ancient Greeks and ancient Egyptians. I personally think that displays in museums where the remains were found are more respectful than touring exhibits where the remains can be damaged. If the remains stay in one place, even while on display, the remains are less disrupted. However, should the remains be displayed in the first place? I think they should be if there are no identifiable descendants and the people visiting the museum make a choice to see the remains (by having them in a separate area). Ethical concerns always surround displaying human remains in a public context, and should be addressed for each individual displayed.

Why Don't We Taxidermy Humans?

While cremation, donation to science and burial are the first three ways I think of for what to do with corpses, there are alternatives that include being turned into a diamond, frozen, or "buried" on the moon. Some of these ideas are laid out in VSauce's video "Why Don't We Taxidermy Humans?"

 

Taxidermy is all about preservation. In many people's minds, including myself, it would be much too morbid. However, remembering the dead through preservation has been a recurring line of thought in cultures such as in ancient Egypt and Russia. Today, people taxidermy their pets just like the ancient Egyptians mummified animals. Taxidermy involves rearranging and preserving only the skin on a frame, which is not always successful. For this reason (along with sociological, ethical, and legal concerns) taxidermy is not performed on humans.