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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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    Want to cheer yourself up? Go for a walk in a cemetery

    Thinking about death can actually be a good thing as it leads people to bring positive changes to their lives and help others

    For an awareness of mortality can improve physical health and help us re-prioritize our goals and values, according to the latest analysis of recent scientific studies.

    Even non-conscious thinking about death - such as walking by a cemetery - could prompt positive changes and promote helping others, say psychologists.

    The report says that past research suggests that thinking about death is destructive and dangerous, fueling everything from prejudice and greed to violence.

    Such studies related to terror management theory, which posits that we uphold certain cultural beliefs to manage our feelings of mortality, have rarely explored the potential benefits of death awareness.

    “This tendency for TMT research to primarily deal with negative attitudes and harmful behaviors has become so deeply entrenched in our field that some have recently suggested that death awareness is simply a bleak force of social destruction,” says Kenneth Vail of the University of Missouri, lead author of the new study in the online edition of Personality and Social Psychology Review this month.

    At last! A penchant for all things morbid is good for you - scientific fact! Sort of.

    • Posted 10 months ago
    • July 3rd, 2012

    10 Likes & Reblogs

    thisbelongsinamuseum: On this date in 1881 U.S. President James A. Garfield died of wounds suffered during a shooting from a few months before. He holds the record for the second shortest presidency (just 200 days) and as one of four presidents to be assassinated. Garfield’s killer, Charles J. Guiteau, lives on…or should I say his brain lives on at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. Another part of Guiteau’s brain as well as his bones sit alongside his victim’s backbone and a couple of ribs at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, the museum sees the need for famous assassinations to stick together. Lincoln’s life mask and hands, the bullet fired from the pistol that ended his life, and pieces of his hair and skull are also part of the museum’s collection. What’s most interesting about the National Museum of Health and Medicine is not the 5,000 skeletons and 8,000 preserved organs, but that it’s America’s oldest Cabinet of Curiosity, going back to 1862. It’s a national trove of plasticized bones, 25 million artifacts in total. One of the most popular exhibits is the preserved hairball of a 12-year old girl who compulsively ate her own hair. Sadly, this taxpayer-funded carnival freak show closed its doors this past April. Walter Reed Army Medical Center voted to close the museum and find a new home in suburban Bethesda by 2012. Let’s hope it reopens soon! (Image Source)

    thisbelongsinamuseum:

    On this date in 1881 U.S. President James A. Garfield died of wounds suffered during a shooting from a few months before. He holds the record for the second shortest presidency (just 200 days) and as one of four presidents to be assassinated. Garfield’s killer, Charles J. Guiteau, lives on…or should I say his brain lives on at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. Another part of Guiteau’s brain as well as his bones sit alongside his victim’s backbone and a couple of ribs at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, the museum sees the need for famous assassinations to stick together. Lincoln’s life mask and hands, the bullet fired from the pistol that ended his life, and pieces of his hair and skull are also part of the museum’s collection.

    What’s most interesting about the National Museum of Health and Medicine is not the 5,000 skeletons and 8,000 preserved organs, but that it’s America’s oldest Cabinet of Curiosity, going back to 1862. It’s a national trove of plasticized bones, 25 million artifacts in total. One of the most popular exhibits is the preserved hairball of a 12-year old girl who compulsively ate her own hair. Sadly, this taxpayer-funded carnival freak show closed its doors this past April. Walter Reed Army Medical Center voted to close the museum and find a new home in suburban Bethesda by 2012. Let’s hope it reopens soon!

    (Image Source)

    (Source: thisbelongsinamuseum)