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I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    Dying To Go Retro? This Modern-Day Morticia Gives Death A Makeover Caitlin Doughty gushes about death like it’s her high-school crush. “I don’t just pretend to love death. I really do love death,” writes Doughty. “I bet you would too if you got to know him.” The young mortician’s web site even includes a checklist of tips for improving your relationship with death, like magazine dating advice (“Spend quality time together,” “Review your expectations,” etc.). Like a character straight out of HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” Doughty is an unassuming Los Angeles 20-something who’s plunged headfirst into the difficult realities of undertaking. A chance decision to join the industry eventually led Doughty to found the Order of the Good Death, an international organization of artists, writers, and other creative folks interested in changing the way we manage dying. In 2011, Doughty began her popular “Ask A Mortician” web series featured on Jezebel, where she answers viewers’ questions concerning the physical and metaphysical curiosities of dying. However, Doughty’s fascination with mortality doesn’t mean she approves of America’s prevalent death rituals, which she finds detached from loved ones and focused on consumerist funerals. As Doughty emphasizes, an important part of understanding death is an awareness of our options, particularly those whose roots go back beyond America’s death-phobic 20th century. Read more here!

    Dying To Go Retro? This Modern-Day Morticia Gives Death A Makeover

    Caitlin Doughty gushes about death like it’s her high-school crush. “I don’t just pretend to love death. I really do love death,” writes Doughty. “I bet you would too if you got to know him.” The young mortician’s web site even includes a checklist of tips for improving your relationship with death, like magazine dating advice (“Spend quality time together,” “Review your expectations,” etc.).

    Like a character straight out of HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” Doughty is an unassuming Los Angeles 20-something who’s plunged headfirst into the difficult realities of undertaking. A chance decision to join the industry eventually led Doughty to found the Order of the Good Death, an international organization of artists, writers, and other creative folks interested in changing the way we manage dying. In 2011, Doughty began her popular “Ask A Mortician” web series featured on Jezebel, where she answers viewers’ questions concerning the physical and metaphysical curiosities of dying.

    However, Doughty’s fascination with mortality doesn’t mean she approves of America’s prevalent death rituals, which she finds detached from loved ones and focused on consumerist funerals. As Doughty emphasizes, an important part of understanding death is an awareness of our options, particularly those whose roots go back beyond America’s death-phobic 20th century.

    Read more here!

    Co-op Funeral Apprenticeships Now Available The country’s first funeral apprentices are to be recruited, The Co-operative Group has announced. The company, which is taking on 800 new apprentices this year, said it will offer nationally recognised qualifications within the funeral industry. An apprentice funeral director would have a starting salary of £18,500 HuffPost UK can reveal. So what makes a good funeral director? “It’s more about personal qualities rather than age,” a Co-op spokesperson told us. “Things like emotional maturity, empathy and compassion and a real ability to want to help and support others are key qualities for working in the funeral industry.” The new apprenticeship will be made available to all Co-operative Funeralcare new recruits and is being launched in the run-up to National Apprenticeship Week. Group chief executive Peter Marks said: “Over the last two years we have succeeded in providing high quality, industry-focused apprenticeships to more than 1,200 young people and I believe the future of our business is now even more solid as a result. “Sadly, we still have a situation whereby far too many young people are out of work in the UK and we believe that businesses have a real responsibility to provide new long term career opportunities so that young talent is supported, motivated and nurtured.” Apprentices will gain a QCF Level 2 and a QCF Level 3 in Funeral Operations and Services (formerly known as NVQ). Good news if you live in the UK and fancy a career in the funeral industry!

    Co-op Funeral Apprenticeships Now Available

    The country’s first funeral apprentices are to be recruited, The Co-operative Group has announced.

    The company, which is taking on 800 new apprentices this year, said it will offer nationally recognised qualifications within the funeral industry. An apprentice funeral director would have a starting salary of £18,500 HuffPost UK can reveal.

    So what makes a good funeral director?

    “It’s more about personal qualities rather than age,” a Co-op spokesperson told us. “Things like emotional maturity, empathy and compassion and a real ability to want to help and support others are key qualities for working in the funeral industry.”

    The new apprenticeship will be made available to all Co-operative Funeralcare new recruits and is being launched in the run-up to National Apprenticeship Week.

    Group chief executive Peter Marks said: “Over the last two years we have succeeded in providing high quality, industry-focused apprenticeships to more than 1,200 young people and I believe the future of our business is now even more solid as a result.

    “Sadly, we still have a situation whereby far too many young people are out of work in the UK and we believe that businesses have a real responsibility to provide new long term career opportunities so that young talent is supported, motivated and nurtured.”

    Apprentices will gain a QCF Level 2 and a QCF Level 3 in Funeral Operations and Services (formerly known as NVQ).

    Good news if you live in the UK and fancy a career in the funeral industry!

    (Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk)

    Ghanaians call for Fridays off as funerals take over weekends Burying the dead is not only costly in terms of time and money but energy, with funeral parties taking their toll in the workplace The chance to show off your best black clothes, eat spicy gibletkyinkyinga kebabs, enjoy unlimited free drinks and perhaps meet the love of your life – welcome to funerals, Ghana style. Such is the love of funerals that they take up most of the weekend, and some Ghanaians want to reduce the working week to make more time for them. “Funerals used to take up Saturday and Sunday, but now I’d say 90% of churches bury bodies on Friday as well, so people are having to take time off work to go to the service,” said Gabriel Tetteh, an online funeral planner. “With the pressure of having to fit in a visit to the service while working on Friday, and all weekend taken up, when you go to work on Monday you feel the pain.” President Yahya Jammeh has just made the Gambia the first country to introduce a four-day working week, decreeing that the extra time should be used to devote more time to prayers, social activities and agriculture. Now some are hoping this will spread to Ghana. “The truth is that over here, public-sector workers have always found ways to have four-day weeks if they want,” wrote Elizabeth Ohene, a former government minister in Ghana. Funerals offer the biggest parties and best socialising in Ghana, and are attended by extremely distant relatives or anyone who has known the deceased (and sometimes those who haven’t). Towns and cities are dotted with signs by the roadside advertising important funerals to passers-by, to attract the maximum number of mourners. Ghana is also famous for its elaborate coffins, with families choosing to bury loved ones in caskets shaped as beer bottles, aeroplanes or giant shoes. “We estimate that the cost of funerals in Ghana often runs into thousands of dollars,” said David Dorey from MicroEnsure, a UK-based company that provides life insurance in Ghana. “There is obviously this cultural thing that seems to have spiralled slightly out of control.” Some Ghanaians have complained that the fixation of funerals represents a prioritisation of the dead over the living. “We Ghanaians, we love funerals. If you are sick, no one has money to pay your medical bills. If you need money for school fees, no one can help you. But if you die, everyone is running to give money for your funeral – a lot of money! We love funerals too much,” said Seth Akpalu, who lives in the capital, Accra. “In Ghana, people do spend more on the dead than the living,” said Tetteh. “There are some people, when a relative is living, they wouldn’t mind. But when the person dies, they put a lot of money into it, otherwise other people will be there insulting them.” Asked why they enjoy attending funerals, young Ghanaians said it was mainly for the social aspects, and the refreshments. “Free Fanta and small chops,” tweeted Deborah Vanessah, a singer and model. “Sexy black clothes,” tweeted another. “Funerals are grounds to meet new partners if you are unmarried. I have met a girl at a funeral on two occasions,” said Samuel Kofi Nartey, a law student in Accra. “You know, in Ghana our funerals are parties. You get to dance with a person or sit around with them and talk about stuff and one thing leads to another.”

    Ghanaians call for Fridays off as funerals take over weekends

    Burying the dead is not only costly in terms of time and money but energy, with funeral parties taking their toll in the workplace

    The chance to show off your best black clothes, eat spicy gibletkyinkyinga kebabs, enjoy unlimited free drinks and perhaps meet the love of your life – welcome to funerals, Ghana style.

    Such is the love of funerals that they take up most of the weekend, and some Ghanaians want to reduce the working week to make more time for them.

    “Funerals used to take up Saturday and Sunday, but now I’d say 90% of churches bury bodies on Friday as well, so people are having to take time off work to go to the service,” said Gabriel Tetteh, an online funeral planner. “With the pressure of having to fit in a visit to the service while working on Friday, and all weekend taken up, when you go to work on Monday you feel the pain.”

    President Yahya Jammeh has just made the Gambia the first country to introduce a four-day working week, decreeing that the extra time should be used to devote more time to prayers, social activities and agriculture. Now some are hoping this will spread to Ghana. “The truth is that over here, public-sector workers have always found ways to have four-day weeks if they want,” wrote Elizabeth Ohene, a former government minister in Ghana.

    Funerals offer the biggest parties and best socialising in Ghana, and are attended by extremely distant relatives or anyone who has known the deceased (and sometimes those who haven’t). Towns and cities are dotted with signs by the roadside advertising important funerals to passers-by, to attract the maximum number of mourners.

    Ghana is also famous for its elaborate coffins, with families choosing to bury loved ones in caskets shaped as beer bottles, aeroplanes or giant shoes.

    “We estimate that the cost of funerals in Ghana often runs into thousands of dollars,” said David Dorey from MicroEnsure, a UK-based company that provides life insurance in Ghana. “There is obviously this cultural thing that seems to have spiralled slightly out of control.”

    Some Ghanaians have complained that the fixation of funerals represents a prioritisation of the dead over the living.

    “We Ghanaians, we love funerals. If you are sick, no one has money to pay your medical bills. If you need money for school fees, no one can help you. But if you die, everyone is running to give money for your funeral – a lot of money! We love funerals too much,” said Seth Akpalu, who lives in the capital, Accra.

    “In Ghana, people do spend more on the dead than the living,” said Tetteh. “There are some people, when a relative is living, they wouldn’t mind. But when the person dies, they put a lot of money into it, otherwise other people will be there insulting them.”

    Asked why they enjoy attending funerals, young Ghanaians said it was mainly for the social aspects, and the refreshments. “Free Fanta and small chops,” tweeted Deborah Vanessah, a singer and model. “Sexy black clothes,” tweeted another.

    “Funerals are grounds to meet new partners if you are unmarried. I have met a girl at a funeral on two occasions,” said Samuel Kofi Nartey, a law student in Accra. “You know, in Ghana our funerals are parties. You get to dance with a person or sit around with them and talk about stuff and one thing leads to another.”

    • Posted 3 months ago
    • February 8th, 2013

    8 Likes & Reblogs

    thisbelongsinamuseum: A taphophile is someone who loves cemeteries and funerals, which is completely different from necrophilia, a sexual attraction to corpses. Did you know there is a law in Egypt called “Jamaa-ul-Widaa” (“Farewell Intercourse”) in which men can have sex with their dead wives up to six hours after their death? Of course that’s totally disgusting but let’s get back to the original point of this story, which is to talk about people who love cemeteries. I am one of those people, and I’d be happy to go on old cemetery road trip, if only time and money weren’t an issue. First on my list would be the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia, the oldest public cemetery in the state. There are five small “house” museums on the grounds that interpret the history of the cemetery, city and surrounding counties. Inside the Cemetery Center is the Mourning Museum. Dedicated to 19th- and 20th-century American mourning customs, the permanent exhibits interpret mourning attire, hairwork jewelry, the evolution of coffins and embalming, and funeral and mourning etiquette. So basically if you’re all morbid and like to talk about death all the time, like my grandmother, aunt and goth friend, then this is the place to be. But shit doesn’t end there. Visitors can also check out the Chapel and Columbarium, the Caretakers’ Museum and the Station House Museum, a historic C&O railway depot. But the best part is the Pest House Medical Museum, an old hospital built in the 1840s where people went to be quarantined, die and be buried. It’s kind of like those retirement homes or hospice facilities that are located right next to cemeteries. Every elderly person looks out their window and are reminded where they’re headed next. Anyway, the Pestilence House wasn’t really a hospital, more like a place to keep people with contagious diseases away from the general population. Most didn’t make it out alive, even though by the time Dr. John J. Terrell took over during the Civil War he reduced the mortality rate from 50 percent to 5 percent. Today the two-room building looks much as it did when the country doctor successfully treated Civil War veterans here in the mid-1800s. A memorial dedicated to the 102 soldiers who died of smallpox is not far from the museum in the Confederate Section of the Cemetery. But before you pay your respects to these fellas, make sure to check out Dr. Terrell’s original operating table, “poison chest,” “asthma chair,” hypodermic needle, clinical thermometer, chloroform mask and surgical amputation kit through the windows of the house. (Image Source)

    thisbelongsinamuseum:

    A taphophile is someone who loves cemeteries and funerals, which is completely different from necrophilia, a sexual attraction to corpses. Did you know there is a law in Egypt called “Jamaa-ul-Widaa” (“Farewell Intercourse”) in which men can have sex with their dead wives up to six hours after their death? Of course that’s totally disgusting but let’s get back to the original point of this story, which is to talk about people who love cemeteries. I am one of those people, and I’d be happy to go on old cemetery road trip, if only time and money weren’t an issue. First on my list would be the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia, the oldest public cemetery in the state. There are five small “house” museums on the grounds that interpret the history of the cemetery, city and surrounding counties. Inside the Cemetery Center is the Mourning Museum. Dedicated to 19th- and 20th-century American mourning customs, the permanent exhibits interpret mourning attire, hairwork jewelry, the evolution of coffins and embalming, and funeral and mourning etiquette. So basically if you’re all morbid and like to talk about death all the time, like my grandmother, aunt and goth friend, then this is the place to be. But shit doesn’t end there. Visitors can also check out the Chapel and Columbarium, the Caretakers’ Museum and the Station House Museum, a historic C&O railway depot. But the best part is the Pest House Medical Museum, an old hospital built in the 1840s where people went to be quarantined, die and be buried. It’s kind of like those retirement homes or hospice facilities that are located right next to cemeteries. Every elderly person looks out their window and are reminded where they’re headed next. Anyway, the Pestilence House wasn’t really a hospital, more like a place to keep people with contagious diseases away from the general population. Most didn’t make it out alive, even though by the time Dr. John J. Terrell took over during the Civil War he reduced the mortality rate from 50 percent to 5 percent. Today the two-room building looks much as it did when the country doctor successfully treated Civil War veterans here in the mid-1800s. A memorial dedicated to the 102 soldiers who died of smallpox is not far from the museum in the Confederate Section of the Cemetery. But before you pay your respects to these fellas, make sure to check out Dr. Terrell’s original operating table, “poison chest,” “asthma chair,” hypodermic needle, clinical thermometer, chloroform mask and surgical amputation kit through the windows of the house.

    (Image Source)

    The top twenty pop songs requested at funerals in 2012 are: 1. Frank Sinatra – ‘My Way’ 2. Sarah Brightman/Andrea Bocelli – ‘Time To Say Goodbye’ 3. Bette Midler – ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ 4. Eva Cassidy – ‘Over the Rainbow’ 5. Robbie Williams – ‘Angels’ 6. Westlife – ‘You Raise Me Up’ 7. Gerry & the Pacemakers – ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ 8. Vera Lynn – ‘We’ll Meet Again’ 9. Celine Dion – ‘My Heart Will Go On’ 10. Nat King Cole – ‘Unforgettable’ 11. Tina Turner – ‘The Best’ 12. Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton – ‘I Will Always Love You’ 13. Monty Python – ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ 14. Luthor Vandross – ‘Dance With My Father’ 15. Louis Armstrong – ‘Wonderful World’ 16. Daniel O’Donnel – ‘Danny Boy’ 17. Eva Cassidy – ‘Fields of Gold’ 18. Righteous Brothers (and various) – ‘Unchained Melody’ 19. Westlife – ‘Flying Without Wings’ 20. Eva Cassidy – ‘Songbird’ via NME



    The top twenty pop songs requested at funerals in 2012 are:

    1. Frank Sinatra – ‘My Way’
    2. Sarah Brightman/Andrea Bocelli – ‘Time To Say Goodbye’
    3. Bette Midler – ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’
    4. Eva Cassidy – ‘Over the Rainbow’
    5. Robbie Williams – ‘Angels’
    6. Westlife – ‘You Raise Me Up’
    7. Gerry & the Pacemakers – ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’
    8. Vera Lynn – ‘We’ll Meet Again’
    9. Celine Dion – ‘My Heart Will Go On’
    10. Nat King Cole – ‘Unforgettable’
    11. Tina Turner – ‘The Best’
    12. Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton – ‘I Will Always Love You’
    13. Monty Python – ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’
    14. Luthor Vandross – ‘Dance With My Father’
    15. Louis Armstrong – ‘Wonderful World’
    16. Daniel O’Donnel – ‘Danny Boy’
    17. Eva Cassidy – ‘Fields of Gold’
    18. Righteous Brothers (and various) – ‘Unchained Melody’
    19. Westlife – ‘Flying Without Wings’
    20. Eva Cassidy – ‘Songbird’

    via NME

    (Source: muzooka, via mysendoff)

    • Posted 7 months ago
    • October 18th, 2012

    9 Likes & Reblogs

    Taiwan’s funeral strippers dance for a dead crowd

    Should you meet your demise in Taiwan, a funerary option open to you is the Electric Flower Car (EFC), a wheeled, neon-lit platform upon which pulchritudinous women strip down to their skivvies for the benefit of audiences…both living and deceased.

    We spoke with University of South Carolina anthropologist Marc L. Moskowitz about this practice, which is detailed in his recent documentary Dancing for the Dead: Funeral Strippers in Taiwan. Moskowitz told us about the societal role of EFC entertainers, who often perform their titillating trade in front of the bereaved family and neighborhood passers-by.

    Er…full story here!

    'I never wear all black’: Meet the glamorous 29-year-old funeral director shaking up the business

    Funerals and death are a taboo subject in modern society, but one woman set about changing that.

    Poppy Mardall quit her high-flying job as deputy director at auction house Sotheby’s and is forging a new career where she can channel her skills to help people.

    Poppy’s Funerals was born- a small independent company, passionate about helping people get what they want and need from a funeral.

    The 29-year-old from Hammersmith, London takes pride in providing the down-to-earth, practical, emotional and highly professional service needed when faced with the death of someone you love.

    ‘It’s not all about wearing a black or a top hat, it’s about supporting your family. The industry needs change.’

    And that is exactly what Poppy is doing.

    It all began last year when her father was diagnosed with cancer and then Poppy herself contracted typhoid during her travels of Ghana.

    ‘It made me realise that there is no time like the present. I was sat at home horizontally for six months, separate from the world and I realised how, as a culture, we don’t talk about death.

    ‘We go into the funeral experience unequipped with so many choices. 

    ‘I wanted to strip away the frillyness of the industry and say “yes you can have a lovely extravagant funeral but you can also have something very simple and affordable.”’

    Novosibirsk Museum of World Funeral Culture

    Novosibirsk Museum of World Funeral Culture

    DEATH MUSEUM in Novosibirsk is the only Russian museum of its kind. It is an international project – the one and only Museum of World Funeral Culture.

    The intention of creation of the new Museum of World Funeral Culture is to form public attitude to ethic, social and ecological aspects of funeral services and death. The potential impact of this project will be enormous as individuals, communities and countries will be able to see death as an integral part of our life.
    Oh, I want to go! Road trip to Russia?!? See more pictures here and for a list of other funeral museums worldwide, click here!

    The Most Unusual Tech Startup: Bury Your Deceased Loved Ones in Space and Get a SMS Every Time They Pass Over You

    When I was in Seoul recently I met a tall French man named Thomas Civeit. The usual chatter popped up, “What are you doing?” I asked. “A start-up.” He replied. But he proceeded to tell me about his idea which is definitely the most unusual one I’ve ever heard. Rather than bury your deceased family in the ground, Thomas wants to launch them into space and allow you to track them with your smartphone. His start-up Elysium Spaceflights is an early stage start-up that plans to have a detailed flyer for funeral homes and customers this summer. Sound crazy? Oscar Wilde once said “An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy ofbeing called an idea at all.”

    Slighty bonkers, but I love it! Click through to read the rest!

    Co-op funeral firm piled naked bodies up in grim warehouse morgue

    Britain’s biggest funeral firm has been accused of treating the dead with shocking disrespect and stacking bodies ‘like television sets’ at industrial-scale storage units.

    Instead of being kept in a chapel of rest before burial or cremation, the dead are kept among ‘rack upon rack of bodies’ in a warehouse-style ‘hub’.

    An undercover investigation revealed overworked staff were ‘treating bodies like luggage.’

    In one incident four bodies had to be transported in the same van and the lid was taken off an elderly woman’s coffin so they could all fit.

    The woman’s nose was almost touching the shelf above and when the body was unloaded in view of a block of flats a member of staff held the lid over the coffin to ‘preserve some dignity’.

    Co-operative Funeralcare, which has 900 funeral homes across the country and last year made a profit of over £52million, has apologised for bad practices revealed in Channel 4’s Dispatches programme and has launched an internal inquiry.

    Click through for the rest - the programme is on Channel 4 tonight and I shall most definitely be watching!