The Beginning is the End

For my last blog post for my Anthropology course I'd like to look at Fayum Portraits. These portraits are actually mummy portraits, and were incorporated in their wrappings. They were meant to represent the individual in the sarcophagus, and have been described by the Smithsonian as "the first modernist paintings."

These portraits strike me as individual, and expressive. They reminded me of an issue that came up during our field work in local cemeteries. Some cemeteries have banned photos and video screens from being incorporated into headstones. This ties into the idea of memory. To what degree do we want to remember a person? Names and ages are automatically culturally acceptable, but a representation of them is too realistic for some people. The photos and tv screens don't allow for people to distance themselves from death. However, representations of people associated with their burial locations have been happening around the world for thousands of years, as seen by the Fayum portraits. The big difference between the Fayum portraits and modern photos or t.v. screens is that Fayum portraits were not public. They were for the individual's private use in the afterlife. I personally think that photos and t.v. screens are new and innovative ways to commemorate the dead. Funerary art and representations are in the process of incorporating technology to preserve the memory of the deceased.   

Fig. 1 Examples of Fayum Portraits