Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: An Expert in Death Anthropology

This is my first time participating in this event, but it sounded like an excellent way to talk about my greatest passion in life!

I have a bachelors in Anthropology with a focus in Death Culture and Forensics (yes, like the show Bones). I have studied human funerary practices across the globe, the Torres method of Aztec heart removal for human sacrifice, and have worked with human remains. I am more than happy to answer any questions in relation to my field.

If I do not know the answer off the top of my head, I will be more than happy to do a bit of research for the specific question to give as accurate an answer as I can. From curiosity to questions you have for better cultural working in your writing, have at it!

Well that sounds interesting!
Forensics and culture of death…

So I have a specific question, just in relation with the name you choose, van Helsing.

What is your point of view of the ‘undead’ ?
And I don’t mean your view in some RP, no, the culture of death and ‘not’ dead.
Could there be a scientific background?

While I can't point to a scientific background on the topic of undeath, I can give an anthropological viewpoint of the topic.

Death, as a concept, is considered a stage of life in a majority of cultures, and because of this, that means there is most often a reverse to this. A corruption of the stage. If someone is dead, they can be made undead, or violated, from their state of death.

Regardless of where you point on a map, you will find a story relating to someone being brought back from the grave. More often than not, these creatures tend to prey on the living. Now, from how I see it, this is in reference to the way that 'death' preys on the living, and on how the concept of grief lingers and feeds off of those who remain behind. A quite literal 'haunting of the narrative' if you will.

There are of course myths were someone chooses to become undead, but these are usually tales that talk about the risk of hubris and the downfall of violating the 'natural order' of life and death.

Ooooooo, that sounds like a super interesting field to get into!

I'm really curious about what made you choose this field? Have you always been interested in those things or did you fall into it as you got older?

This has always been a passion of mine, even when I was younger. I was the "weird kid" in school, so it was not entirely surprising when I decided to take up such a morbid field of study. It just felt natural to me, and topics that made my peers queasy or upset did not strike me in the same way. I am not entirely sure why that is, but it certainly made my studying easier!

If I had to pin point where my interest started, I would probably pick back when I was 11 or 12? That was when I first started reading history textbooks about the bodies cast in the ashes of Pompeii and the process of mummification in Egypt. The passion just bloomed from there!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane