Article2010

Who's afraid of the dead? Archaeology, modernity and the death taboo

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Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies Historical and Archaeological Studies

Abstract

Archaeologists have often taken it for granted that death is a taboo topic in modern society. However, the fear of death hypothesis is contested within the social sciences, so does it still follow that the display of the ancient dead is in some way shameful or unacceptable? In this paper it is argued that death is not taboo and that modern death scholars use archaeological source material as a way to understand the subtlety of the human experience. Funerary archaeology is not a dangerous topic; rather it makes a very real and valuable contribution to modern society, providing one of the few ways that people can experience a corpse and so explore their own mortality and with it their place within the larger human story.

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References

2023Modernity and Self-Identity 2000The archaeology of death and burial 2013Death and the right hand 2007A Social History of Dying 1999On bereavement : the culture of grief 2002The Revival of Death 1991Modern Death: Taboo or not Taboo?1965The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved

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2015Taboo and the different death? Perceptions of those bereaved by suicide or other traumatic death 2019Is Death Taboo for Children? Developing Death Ambivalence as a Theoretical Framework to Understand Children’s Relationship with Death, Dying and Bereavement 2020Archaeology and contemporary death: Using the past to provoke, challenge and engage 2020Is Death Taboo for Older Chinese Immigrants?2019Sharing Is Not Always Caring: Social Media and the Dead 2017Letting skeletons out of the closet: the ethics of displaying ancient Mexican human remains

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