alternative death rituals...here's where i get creepy

So, being that I have no problem looking at dead people, I was pretty excited when Erin chose this as a blog prompt this week. Fresh off today's lecture on mummies, I was feeling inspired...a mummy high if you will, and I remembered a death ritual I discovered about a year ago, Victorian post mortem photography. This death ritual became popular in the 19th century, as the infant mortality rate was unusually high and many children weren't alive long enough to have a 'proper' photograph taken of them. Pictures were also a way of capturing the last remaining image of a loved one, which is why so many of the people are propped up in action poses, or posed with their eyes open. If you look closely, sometimes you can see that the eyelids are shut, but have eyes painted on, or you can see wire rods attached to the deceased, the only thing holding them up in a 'living' position. The families often do this because they want to remember the person at their best, not remember a  corpse. But then again, many photos are depicted as the deceased in a peaceful slumber, so the practice and composition of the picture really depends on the family's wishes. So here, I will attach a link to some examples of post mortem photography. Please, if you can't handle seeing dead people with their eyes open, or many deceased infants, DO NOT OPEN.

http://ken_ashford.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/creepy-post-mortem-photos-from-the-victorian-age.html

and here's a link to an organization who still offers this service, targeting families who have just lost a newborn, or young child.

http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/about_us/

But since that was a death ritual I already knew about, I found another...the Aghori, a Hindu cult that is known for eating the remains of dead animals and human flesh, drinking human blood and urine, and use the skull of the deceased for ritual practices. A more succinct quote from the anthropologist Henry Balfour, upon his encounter with the tribe explains it all...

“They go about nude, with a fresh skull in their hands, of which they had previously eaten the putrid flesh, and afterwards scraped out the brain and eyes with their fingers, into which is poured blood, urine, and whatsoever is given them to drink, and to this they pretend to be indifferent whether it be ardent spirits of water. The Aghori is an object of terror and disgust as they roam the Indian countryside, but on being approached they once bolted into the jungle and cannot be tracked. The habits of these (Aghori) are said to be of the filthiest possible descriptions; they stick at nothing, and will eagerly devour human flesh, human or other excreta, and drink urine.”

What I found interesting about these fine people, is that most Hindu sects don't drink alcohol, or eat meat, and the Aghori do both of these, daily in their rituals. I won't summarize the whole article because this post would be HUGE, but do read it, it's very interesting.

http://factoidz.com/the-aghori-hinduism-cannibalism-and-immortality/

Until next week,

Baylie