The Living Dead
While avoiding starting my homework, I was watching clips on YouTube from different TLC TV-shows. I quickly fell down the rabbit hole of watching clips from the Untold…
Tag: Death
Celebrating the Death of an Evil Person
In our society, when someone is on the brink of death it is common for the patient’s loved ones to ask for prayers. We pray for the person…
The Weird, Wild World of Mortuary Customs
A couple of months ago, I attended the funeral of a friend. Howard was almost 90 years old when he died, and not only did he live longer…
Anthropological Reflections on a Family Death
Comparing my own experiences of death to those of the Tiwi culture that I learned of in my anthropology studies, the void that I felt in the months…
Grief Can Make Us Wise
A candlelight vigil on February 15 honored the victims of the recent mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Jim Rassol/Getty Images In the first hours…
The Desire and Fear of the Immortal
A phrase from the immensely popular series, A Song of Ice and Fire, valar morghulis is translated as “all men must die,” an idea prevalent in human culture. …
The Obsession with Death, But Fear of Dying
In my observation of society there has always been an obsession with death. Death is everywhere in pop culture from blazing articles on tabloid pages at the supermarket…
Death in the Spotlight
A look at what happens when the rich and famous die. Many of us are familiar with death whether it is someone close to us or a friend…
Funeral Traditions in Tana Toraja
Death is something that is unavoidable. Whether you have experienced the death of a close one or have yet to do so, it is a universal experience. However,…
The Death of a Hungry God
[no-caption] Paul Keil One evening in August 2014, a wild elephant was accidentally killed in Gajbari village* in Assam, a state in northeast India. He was a young…
The Chinese History That Is Written in Bone
These “oracle bone” fragments, some of which show an ancient Chinese script, are housed at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The pieces here are just a tiny…
Consider the Vulture: An Ethical Approach to Roadkill
By Jonathan L. Clark Roadkill is disgusting. Many people just want it removed from the roads as quickly as possible, and they don’t care where it goes. In…
Why Do So Many People Want to Die?
[no-caption] Colin Knowles/Flickr This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons. “You said that you’re afraid of dying. What are you …
How Culture Shapes Perceptions of Miscarriage
Miscarriage memorials come in a variety of public and private forms, depending on personal beliefs and cultural norms. Susie Kilshaw Charlotte’s* tattoo, a black etching of a feather,…
Sonic Breakdown, Extinction and Memory
by Lina Dib Originally published in continent 6(1) CC BY 2.0 DOWNLOAD PDF (https://soundcloud.com/continent/lina-dib-sonic-breakdown-extinction-and-memory) This soundtrack features sounds of environme…
Death – The Great (In)Equalizer
A traditional Western European plague doctor; they were hired en masse during the “Black Death” epidemic. Retrieved from http://www.themiddleages.net/plague.html Death is an omnipotent for…
Living longer- How long is too long?
Following a paradigm shift from infectious to chronic disease, life expectancy rose for individuals, currently at 78.8 years of age (U.S based). The article linked below addresses how the…
Cryonics and Death
A few months ago, there was a story in the news that relates to an interesting aspect of death— cryonics. Cryonics is the science of using…
History of Cannibalism and Cultural Differences
From one of our initial discussions in class, the subject of cannibalism stuck out to me because I didn’t know too much about it. Having grown up in…
Fracking, mining, murder: the killer agenda driving migration in Mexico and Central America
Why negotiate with poor Indigenous communities sitting atop valuable oil, water, wood and ore if they can be pushed off their land with hidden criminal, political and misogynistic…
Book Forum––Robert Desjarlais’ Subject to Death: Life and Loss in a Buddhist World by Todd Meyers
Robert Desjarlais’s Subject to Death is like stepping onto a train already in motion. Its momentum isn’t fierce but there’s no time to ease in––from its…
1000 Risks and Birth-and-Death in Cape Town by Kathleen McDougall
“I was willing to die,” Terri told me, “I just didn’t want to have another caesarian.” She referred to her vaginal birth after three c-sections (a VBA3C), which…
How did we get here? A review of Yasmin Gunaratnam’s “Death and the Migrant: Bodies, Borders and Care” by Branwyn Poleykett
Death and the Migrant: Bodies, Borders and Care by Yasmin Gunaratnam Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013, 208 pages David Tasma, a Polish Jew and survivor of the Warsaw ghetto,…
Migrant Deaths: Data, Trends and Possible Causes
In a recent article published at Allegra, Ferruccio Pastore addresses some of the problems related to counting migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. Furthermore, while stressing the arduousness of…