Remember when I had that post with the title I hoped to be able to explain soon? Well, Theophilous was a bandied-about name for THIS. I am on a mammoth dig and it is awesome.
Be Seeing You.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Large Arm-Head Vessel
See also: brachiocephalic trunk.
I recently realized I was raised in a religion. I'd never thought of Soto Zen as such before, but it TOTALLY IS. Now I feel all empowered and shit.
Be Seeing You
I recently realized I was raised in a religion. I'd never thought of Soto Zen as such before, but it TOTALLY IS. Now I feel all empowered and shit.
Be Seeing You
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Case Study #354: How we view the dead
WARNING: BOIL UPDATE
This unsettles me, and I hope to study rotting bodies someday. Chances are excellent you might find this slightly unsettling. None of the pictures are truly gruesome, but still.
I don't have the time to be writing this since I should be working on my anthro final paper, but it hit me in the face when I opened up the Interwebs and it's really really bothering me. My homepage is currently the New York Times, and the opening picture is this . It's a picture of parents encountering the dead body of their teenage daughter. The rest of the photos include other pictures of the dead. None of them are particularly gruesome, but there is also no attempt to pull a veil between the viewer and the corpse.
Now think about this: how often have you seen photos of contemporary dead Americans? How many pictures of unwrapped in situ (still in place where they were found/died) corpses did you see after Katrina? Our soldiers die every day: how many of their corpses have you seen on the front page of the New York Times?
If we're gonna fucking be squeamish about seeing our own dead, extend that fucking respect to people from other countries. If we're okay with showing the harsh reality of death to the American public, fucking sack up and do it with our own people too. ALSO: to be honest, I"m not as familiar with Japanese death rituals as I could/really kind of should be, but I do know that there's a lot of respect paid to the body. It's why there is a whole issue with organ donations and why they don't embalm. "Good wholesome American Christian" treatment of a dead body has NOTHING on the respect the Japanese have for their dead.
Don't get me wrong: I think that photo of the parents is beautiful, and as long as they were okay with it (if they weren't consulted, um.... omg wtf), I am glad the NYT featured it so prominently, though I'm shocked they had the journalistic balls to do so, given our terror of death. However, if working with 3,000 year old bones has taught me one thing, it's that people and cultures take their death rituals very seriously. I mean, I don't particularly care what happens to me after I die; if a sky burial isn't possible, I'd be down with a Body Farm or "hanging on the hook in the medical school" sort of option. Really whatever is fine by me, but I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority here, particularly since treatment of the dead has almost nothing to do with the dead person and everything to do with the feelings of the survivors.
I don't even know what I'm getting at here. I am exceedingly conflicted about the entire situation, mostly because I feel at least three or four or seventy of the sides all at once. I actually probably respect the dead more than I respect the living because the dead can't make any more mistakes. Respect and compassion are not the same thing though, and in situations like this, it's the compassion towards the living that really matters. Like I said, I don't even know what I'm saying, but still....food for thought.
Be Seeing You
Edit: My friend posted this on his Facebox wall.
It's possible that the photographers are actually Japanese citizens/residents who are documenting from an emic perspective. All the same, the publishing of the photos in our media still raises a number of questions.
This unsettles me, and I hope to study rotting bodies someday. Chances are excellent you might find this slightly unsettling. None of the pictures are truly gruesome, but still.
I don't have the time to be writing this since I should be working on my anthro final paper, but it hit me in the face when I opened up the Interwebs and it's really really bothering me. My homepage is currently the New York Times, and the opening picture is this . It's a picture of parents encountering the dead body of their teenage daughter. The rest of the photos include other pictures of the dead. None of them are particularly gruesome, but there is also no attempt to pull a veil between the viewer and the corpse.
Now think about this: how often have you seen photos of contemporary dead Americans? How many pictures of unwrapped in situ (still in place where they were found/died) corpses did you see after Katrina? Our soldiers die every day: how many of their corpses have you seen on the front page of the New York Times?
If we're gonna fucking be squeamish about seeing our own dead, extend that fucking respect to people from other countries. If we're okay with showing the harsh reality of death to the American public, fucking sack up and do it with our own people too. ALSO: to be honest, I"m not as familiar with Japanese death rituals as I could/really kind of should be, but I do know that there's a lot of respect paid to the body. It's why there is a whole issue with organ donations and why they don't embalm. "Good wholesome American Christian" treatment of a dead body has NOTHING on the respect the Japanese have for their dead.
Don't get me wrong: I think that photo of the parents is beautiful, and as long as they were okay with it (if they weren't consulted, um.... omg wtf), I am glad the NYT featured it so prominently, though I'm shocked they had the journalistic balls to do so, given our terror of death. However, if working with 3,000 year old bones has taught me one thing, it's that people and cultures take their death rituals very seriously. I mean, I don't particularly care what happens to me after I die; if a sky burial isn't possible, I'd be down with a Body Farm or "hanging on the hook in the medical school" sort of option. Really whatever is fine by me, but I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority here, particularly since treatment of the dead has almost nothing to do with the dead person and everything to do with the feelings of the survivors.
I don't even know what I'm getting at here. I am exceedingly conflicted about the entire situation, mostly because I feel at least three or four or seventy of the sides all at once. I actually probably respect the dead more than I respect the living because the dead can't make any more mistakes. Respect and compassion are not the same thing though, and in situations like this, it's the compassion towards the living that really matters. Like I said, I don't even know what I'm saying, but still....food for thought.
Be Seeing You
Edit: My friend posted this on his Facebox wall.
It's possible that the photographers are actually Japanese citizens/residents who are documenting from an emic perspective. All the same, the publishing of the photos in our media still raises a number of questions.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Otters?, Frilled Lizards?, and Theophilous (aka Martin)
1) Sooner or later I'll be able to explain at least part of that title to you.
2) Turns out my professor had a family emergency, so the extreme brevity of his e-mail response makes much more sense. It's kind of amazing he was able to respond at all.
2a) On the other hand, I'm getting sucked into the Foothill Anthropology whirlpool and it's pretty hilariously awesome. More on that later (see #1).
3) We're in list mode.
4) Just in case you hadn't picked up on that one.
5) I grow weary of these lists. Jamby! Bring me the semi-viscous paragraphs!
6) Semi-viscous, because my writing isn't really that "fluid"
7) Yes I went there. In the photoshopped words of Sir Ian McKellan...
8) Oh, no, wait...here's what I meant.
In case you couldn't already tell, it's that time again! No, that is not an euphemism for "my ute's peeling." I mean it's time for another blog-fueled paper-writing craze. Though this only has to be about six pages. I realize that I should have figured out how to connect this to death because then I might actually be really interested in it instead of it only changing my worldview in a significant manner. I did manage to get two sources that tangentially tie into death, including a journal article by James R. Thobaben (fabulous bloody name, btw) with the amazing title: "A United Methodist Approach to End-of-Life Decisions: Intentional Ambiguity or Ambiguous Intentions."
At one point today I was attempting to explain something to an undergrad and used the word adjunct to describe something super quotidian like plastic bags or something and my professor was like, "adjunct?" and then bust into laughter. My eloquent response was, "Shut up!"
I'm prompted to wonder how confusing it is to speak to me. [Incidentally, yes I am aware I just used "quotidian". Sometimes there are words that are super specific and really useful. Like adjunct.]
Also the other day...or maybe today....I think it was actually today (SHUT UP! I HAVE ISSUES WITH TIME-SPACE DISTINCTIONS, OKAY?!) I attempted to explain to my entry-level Cultural Anthro class how quantum mechanics and thought becoming reality are connected. I don't know if it made ANY sense. Particularly since I don't actually know anything proper about the subject. And also because I only spoke for maybe two minutes, if that.
Every once in a while I realize just how far from our society's modal personality I actually am. Curious about what a modal personality is? YOU'RE ON THE FUCKING INTERNET: LOOK IT UP.
In retrospect I realize that I totally lied to them and told them some COMPLETELY WRONG information, but I'm really not sure if anyone's going to fact-check me. They should. Even when you know enough to know you know nothing, quantum/particle physics/mechanics is awesome. I feel like I should have just showed them this and this
2) Turns out my professor had a family emergency, so the extreme brevity of his e-mail response makes much more sense. It's kind of amazing he was able to respond at all.
2a) On the other hand, I'm getting sucked into the Foothill Anthropology whirlpool and it's pretty hilariously awesome. More on that later (see #1).
3) We're in list mode.
4) Just in case you hadn't picked up on that one.
5) I grow weary of these lists. Jamby! Bring me the semi-viscous paragraphs!
6) Semi-viscous, because my writing isn't really that "fluid"
7) Yes I went there. In the photoshopped words of Sir Ian McKellan...
8) Oh, no, wait...here's what I meant.
In case you couldn't already tell, it's that time again! No, that is not an euphemism for "my ute's peeling." I mean it's time for another blog-fueled paper-writing craze. Though this only has to be about six pages. I realize that I should have figured out how to connect this to death because then I might actually be really interested in it instead of it only changing my worldview in a significant manner. I did manage to get two sources that tangentially tie into death, including a journal article by James R. Thobaben (fabulous bloody name, btw) with the amazing title: "A United Methodist Approach to End-of-Life Decisions: Intentional Ambiguity or Ambiguous Intentions."
At one point today I was attempting to explain something to an undergrad and used the word adjunct to describe something super quotidian like plastic bags or something and my professor was like, "adjunct?" and then bust into laughter. My eloquent response was, "Shut up!"
I'm prompted to wonder how confusing it is to speak to me. [Incidentally, yes I am aware I just used "quotidian". Sometimes there are words that are super specific and really useful. Like adjunct.]
Also the other day...or maybe today....I think it was actually today (SHUT UP! I HAVE ISSUES WITH TIME-SPACE DISTINCTIONS, OKAY?!) I attempted to explain to my entry-level Cultural Anthro class how quantum mechanics and thought becoming reality are connected. I don't know if it made ANY sense. Particularly since I don't actually know anything proper about the subject. And also because I only spoke for maybe two minutes, if that.
Every once in a while I realize just how far from our society's modal personality I actually am. Curious about what a modal personality is? YOU'RE ON THE FUCKING INTERNET: LOOK IT UP.
In retrospect I realize that I totally lied to them and told them some COMPLETELY WRONG information, but I'm really not sure if anyone's going to fact-check me. They should. Even when you know enough to know you know nothing, quantum/particle physics/mechanics is awesome. I feel like I should have just showed them this and this
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