The art of dying

What should we celebrate today - Halloween or the Day of the Dead? The end of October in Barcelona is the time when sugar heads, pumpkin, web, zombies are in every window. Young Catalan activists are discussing which holiday is “right”, and which is only a consequence of cultural borrowing, globalization and consumerism. Supporters of Halloween gather for the World Marsh "Witches against Machism." People who choose the "folk" Mexican Day of the Dead go to the altar party. Supporters of a special path fried chestnuts, battles, bake panellets, decorate the squares for local chestnags. Green are prepared for the bright ending of the month of struggle for animal rights. November 1 - Vegan Day. What to choose?

How many copies are broken during battles that determine how to live! We observe how entire countries or continents change moral guidelines under the influence of new irreconcilable guru. Every day there are news about what should be eaten, how to sleep correctly, what is useful to talk about, which is better to buy, which books will make us smarter and the actions - kinder. But the most interesting thing is the movement of the Overton window in the field of ideas about how to die.

In former times, death was the most significant event in human life. Death was perceived as a method, a goal, a bright ending, a victory over reality. Millions of rituals emphasized the place of the deceased and his family on the social ladder, sang and perpetuated achievements, convincing themselves and the rest of the happy posthumous existence of the deceased. A calm dream in the downy grave was opposed to the hardships of life.

Humanity only did, which tried to become like the immortal gods and invincible heroes. Decorating the cataphals, tombs, mausoleums, people tried to reach the highest steps of the posthumous staircase. The resources of entire peoples went to the arrangement of giant burials. Even poor families considered it their duty to give savings to the tombsters - just to observe the tradition, to avoid rumors about the "disrespect" manifested to the dead. The army of secular and church business employees on the bones supported the fire of the altars, legislatively fixing the norms of burial: do not bury, do not burn the bodies, do not dispel the dust! All you have to do is pay professionals in heavenly affairs! It has become dangerous to encroach on an expensive ritual.

Only a few hundred years ago, using the “embalming” techniques for formalin and “restoration” of corpses could be considered a sign of insanity. As well as the conveyor of the autopsy, launched by modern doctors. But everything that civilized people used to do with their dead people is terrifying us. Crafts from deceased hair, portraits with dead, periodic “communication” with ancestors extracted from stone crypts, spiritualistic sessions, kissing the dead, making dolls with the hair of dead children (France, Germany), traveling with the corpse of a spouse ... however, kissing the dead (Ukraine, Russia), marriages with the dead (France, Sudan), dancing with the dead (Madagascar), digging (Indonesia, Mount Athos Mountains), treatment with parts of corpses (everywhere), nutrition by corpses of people (South America, India, Irian-Jaya, Africa) and animals (everywhere), carrying pieces of corpses (everywhere), exposure of corpses in museums (everywhere) are still considered something like a cultural norm. The theater of communication with otherworldly spirits did not change the advertising sign for millennia at all. Emotional stress surrounding the themes of death and eternity brings money to mystifiers.

Filipino funeral urns, 6–9th century, Museum of World Cultures, Barcelona

Historical cemeteries and graves of the Great attract millions of tourists. Books are published for curious researchers of the burial places. The modern guide to Westminster Abbey describes in detail who and when he brought down whose grave and how many people died, who was buried, standing on his head, who, when he stole and returned the royal bone or who kissed the corpse of the queen on the dry lips.

The monk repeated "We approach, we apply to the relics!" and forcibly bent the heads of pilgrims to the corpse

The line between pathology and the norm is completely blurred where it comes to religion. Pilgrimage to the relics is still a very traditional and socially approved way to spend time. Once in an Orthodox monastery, I witnessed the next scene. Hundreds of people with candles in their hands passed by relics - dried bodies lying in lateral recesses in the walls of the dungeons. Near the dark red mummy, wrapped in a decayed fabric, stood a monk. The monk repeated "We approach, we apply to the relics!" And forcibly bend the pilgrims to the corpse. Believers dutifully kissed the bones of the "miraculous" old man. Catholicism without "holy relics" is still unprotected, although scientific examinations of the contents of the gift -guards have established faith in miracles.

Luxurious funerals gradually go into the past. The vanity of the religious is replaced by the shooting: to remain in the memory of descendants as progressive as possible, to do something ecological, useful or at least non-trivial, emphasizing the uniqueness of the bygone nature. The desire to die imperceptibly, leaving no trace on Earth at all, gives the proud people and power lines better erased reliefs on the grave plates of monasteries. Enjoying their "humility", Christians demanded that the descendants have graves on the path of crowds of people. So, even after death, they continued to control the relationship between the world and their own ashes, were in the epicenter of public life.

Every now and then we hear offers to pay for something similar, to worry about the controlled posthumous future. The number of options is elegant to leave this world so rapidly that it is very difficult to make a choice.

Blanca de Luxe, exhibit of the Barcelona Museum of Katafalkov. 1970

Many companies around the world turn the ashes of the dead into diamonds, playing the theme of "eternity" of artificial stone. Thousands of customers spend their savings to order artificial treasures - from one large multi -party to the placer of hundreds of pebbles. Diamond funerals are attractive for lovers of myths about sinners and saints - the color of the diamond depends on the way of life. Of the vegetarians, lighter stones of a blue shade are obtained. Favorite cat or dog can also be turned into a jewel. Leaving a "jewelry" will is to force descendants to rush with a piece of your body, an urgent request to forever preserve the memory of the deceased and grieve tirelessly.

People will surround the kitchen utensils with the additives of bones of great-grandmother, windows with the blood of a millionaire uncle and lamps of hair and skin of distant relatives

The American company Everlasting Memories makes translucent jewelry showing to others gloomy filling. Justin Crowe creates pendants, cups, plates, bottles, candlesticks from the ashes. Merri Coor sprinkles his glass beads to dust and meditates in their manufacture. South Korean Bonhyang and Mikwang on an industrial scale produce beads from dust. Masters of the budget handmade around the world make jewelry, flooding the ashes of colored resin. If ritual jewelers capture the market and create a tradition, over time the cemeteries will disappear, and our bodies and apartments will turn into mobile family memorials. People will surround the kitchen utensils with the additives of the bones of great-grandmother, the windows with the blood of uncle-millionaires and lamps of hair and skin of distant relatives.

What else does the posthumous chic store offer its customers? From one dead man, you can make 240 pencils with the name and dates of the deceased, paint for drawing paintings or tattoos, stained glass, snowball, bird feeder or sand clock - the same, from the Soviet anecdot about the mother -in -law.

The German company offers to bury people in jute cocoons, Belgians sell coffins from algae and water hyacinth

An alternative to the simple disposition of the ashes after cremation is a bi -separated balloon, an urn from old newspapers, an urn - a plush bear, a fireworks, shooting with bullets filled with ashes, a sound letter or a melody on a plate from a dead man. The British have cardboard coffins, decorated with bright photos and similar to boxes with monstrous gifts, rattan coffins resembling picnic baskets, burial boxes from Times and Sun. Burning offers for customers with greatness mania and problems of building long -term plans: the delivery of dust to space, cryonic freezing, mummification in anticipation of cloning. The German company offers to bury people in jute cocoons, the Belgians sell coffins from algae and water hyacinth. What expanse for lovers to collect natural materials! But the deceased does not need a coffin, even ecological.

No one is allowed to store the decaying bodies of deceased relatives in the house, but with dust from the urn you can do anything, and without the risk of getting into a crazy house. If you want - add to coffee, if you want - fertilize the flowers or throw it into the garbage bucket. If you are a recognized artist or experimenter from science, then you have a license for blasphemy and insulting religious feelings. You are allowed to have fun not only with ashes, but also with the bodies of the dead. Mummify, plasticize, cut, cut, fill in chemicals, shoot - the best institutions and galleries of the world will carefully monitor the process. To bequeath your body art is another good way to draw attention to your own remains.

With the ashes from the urn you can do anything, and without risk of getting into a crazy house. If you want - add to coffee, if you want - fertilize the flowers or throw it into the garbage bucket

The fate of the bodies bequeathed to the training of students is doubtful. It is believed that such corpses are treated with respect and attention. But what do you say when you find yourself at the anatomical faculty and with your own eyes will you see dirty formalin baths in which there are a torn dead? When a couple of young cynics will extract the body from the tank and drag past you - so that the corpse’s head will fight against the step? When will thousands of cans with formalin and parts of the bodies surround you? Anatomy lessons, which should contribute to education, destroy empathy and turn the students themselves into cadaurus with formalized brains. Instead of respecting patients, appreciate life, listening to nature, such doctors respect, appreciate and listen to money.

Veganka Kaitlin Dawy wants her body to be given to wild animals after death. She considers it fair because she had eaten animals

Maybe it is better to choose a posthumous immersion in the ground or in the sea? The Scottish funeral house attracts customers using biodegradable woolen coffins. Wool, cardboard, organic cotton at first glance seem to be a patriotic alternative for the dead of the country of checkered blankets. However, wool is a product of the unethical industry of industrial livestock, and the production of cotton always means the destruction of water resources and lands. Slogging precious organic cotton into the ground is the best that we can come up with, or a socially irresponsible investment?

The funeral expert and Veganka Kaitlin Dawy wants her body to be given to wild animals after death. She considers it fair because she had eaten animals. True, the animals did not bequeathed their bodies of Dawy, but were deprived of freedom and family, kept in prisons, were tortured and were brutally killed.

In fact, "returning debts to nature" becomes easier than ever. Residents of Florida can express a desire after death to become part of the artificial coral reef. In Sweden and California, there are ritual services firms that accelerate the decomposition of corpses using chemicals and extreme temperature (high or low), giving out the remains that are suitable for composting or fertilizer of plants. Katrina Spade from Seattle offers to build towers for composting corpses. Korean artist Jae Rim Lee wrapps the dead in the Savan with mushrooms. Many firms make biourns for dust. In such an urn you can plant a plant, and then move it to the ground to a permanent habitat. There are already thousands of "green" cemeteries, funeral forests and parks. Here you can rest like a British writer Nicholas Elberi, founder of Natural Death Center - under an apple tree, in the very paradise of the garden where we had to stay during our lifetime.

We put live and plastic wreaths on the graves, without even thinking why this is needed

Over time, trees and groves can again become sacred to us. Tearing flowers or branches, causing senseless harm to any form of life will not be accepted. A visit to the grave will turn into caring for beautiful plants, into observations of a new form of life, part of which has become a significant person. Now we are acting exactly the opposite, destroying any blade of grass or tree, breaking through concrete, covering the site near the granite stone. Instead of asking older relatives, digitizing old photos and creating memorial books and museums, we put live and plastic wreaths on the graves, without even thinking why it is necessary and what, in fact, we know about the life of the deceased. Nature looks very confident, speaking at the priority of future generations, organized by the Association of natural burial places.

Another method of "not to disappear in vain" is the donation of organs. Oh, I do not believe that you do not care, even if you say "let them do with my body that they want." Because in fact, you do not care, you just do not think about options and legal situation in your country. In some states, people must consent to autopsy, and in some - write a refusal. The autopsy itself is carried out in conditions far from sterility, and an atmosphere that does not imply respect for the deceased. Pathologists are thrown by jokes, argue about the weight of the extracted organs, ironize about the taste of human meat. At least it was on the autopsy, at which I attended Moscow hospitals while studying at the Medical Institute.

Many consent to the seizures of organs contain general formulations that mask real experiments. To spare the feelings of mourning relatives, they are not intentionally reported that they are then done with a corpse. Preference is given to unclaimed corpses and corpses of prisoners. The donation of the body to science is not always a consequence of informed consent, rather the opposite. Do you agree to gutting, cutting into pieces, utilization in parts, mockery of a corpse for experiments that do not bring practical benefits? Do you want 20 people alternately try to get into the plowed space with a needle, saw your skull, sniffed the ribs, merged blood into the sewer?

Mary Rouch wrote a whole book about how the body serves science after death. She talked with many experts and saw experiments beyond the faculty of morality, or rather, conducted in the name of extraordinary moral tasks. ROUCH explained that the use of people's corpses in transport (automobile accidents), military (body armor), medical (training surgeons on "lively" bodies) experiments more and more expediently experiments on living animals or people. It turns out that for ethical reasons, research is never conducted on the corpses of children, and this leads, for example, to the tremendous danger of unscrewed vehicles for babies.

The way we relate to the dead and our own future death tells a lot about the level of our civilization

Archaeologists with brushes crawl along excavations of the whole world and recreate civilizations based on burial materials. The way we relate to the dead and our own future death tells a lot about the level of our civilization. The descendants will be forced to open modern concrete cities of the dead, just like we are now digging up mounds and open sarcophagi. The manufacture of traditional coffins, plastic colors, ritual clothes, religious paraphernalia, embalming the dead, and then the placement of all this in the ground during complex ruin rituals, plus huge areas occupied by stone and metal memorials, plus mercury, which enrich our air of the crematorium ... all this is a kind of inheritable chemical eternity - our inheritance.

The attitude to the dead determines our priorities during life. And since only one prediction is 100% true - each of us will die, we must use this chance of revival: in the form of a new form of life, in the form of a new ethics, in the form of a new society.