When The Bough Breaks

       So, as much as I know Dr. McGuire disliked ‘forcing’ us to read the article for Wednesday’s class, I did enjoy that it allowed us to have a more in depth group discussion regarding the material. I particularly liked that it let us address the issue of biases within the archaeological record, which in the Waterman and Thomas article manifested as automatically believing that the theory of “ancestor worship” accounted for why the massive tombs were built during the Neolithic period. As the authors point out, however, the fact that a third of the bones in these tombs were non-adults pulls this theory into question. First of all, I was really surprised that the previous article had failed to account for these bones. Doesn’t a third seem like a huge percentage to simply ignore? 

Ross Bay Cemetery: Mausoleums

Ross Bay Cemetery: Mausoleums 

(Old Cemeteries of Victoria, 2012)

Data Collection and Scope:

  Fifteen mausoleums were examined at the Ross Bay Cemetery in the Fairfield neighborhood of Victoria, BC. The low number of mausoleums made it feasible for our analysis to include all of these monuments present in the cemetery. Our first question, “Does the position of a mausoleum in the Ross Bay landscape provide any information regarding an individual’s religious affiliation?”, further necessitated including all mausoleums in the scope of our project. Several of the sections, as defined in the image above provided by the Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria website, included only one mausoleum and so it was extremely important that these examples were included for our analysis. However, it was recognized that preferentially selecting monuments based on their religious section would introduce a bias in the data that we would use to address our first research question. Favoring the mausoleums in the religious sections over the general sections may have overstated the importance of position in the landscape in relation to religious affiliation, but neglecting any of the six mausoleums in designated religious sections may have concealed whether there was a relationship because the sample size is so small. One of the limitations of our study arises from the fact that several of the religious sections of the cemetery were used for the burial of both members and non-members of that denomination, or were later opened up for general use (such as the Wesleyan section). In turn, this does not guarantee an individual’s religious affiliation aligns with their position in the Ross Bay landscape. 

     Our second research question, “In the Ross Bay Cemetery, was mausoleum use favored by (or limited to) a certain social group or social class?” also encouraged us to include all mausoleums in our sample, in an effort to ensure that we would be able to find enough historical information about individuals/families to analyze! Although we hoped to minimize bias against any social group/class by including all the mausoleums, we recognize that our investigation is limited by the fact that there simply tends to be more available historical documents for wealthy individuals and families. Even though our group member Laura spent hours looking through archives and census data it was still much easier to find primary sources, such as old newspaper articles, about the high socio-economic status individuals/families who were placed in the mausoleums. 

Our Google Map of the Ross Bay Cemetery. 

Response to Research Questions: 

1. Does the position of a mausoleum in the Ross Bay landscape provide any information regarding an individual’s religious affiliation? 

The placement of a mausoleum within the Ross Bay landscape does provide some information regarding an individual or family’s religious affiliation, because the cemetery is divided into sections based on religious denomination. As you can see in the above image, the six categories are Roman Catholic, Wesleyan, Reformed Episcopal, Anglican, Presbyterian, and General. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, one of the limitations of our study is that several of the sections were opened up for general use or individuals were simply not buried in areas that corresponded to their religious belief; Harry Dallas Helmcken, for example, is buried in the Anglican section but our census data from 1881/1891/1901 indicates that he was a Reformed Episcopal. There were several other individuals whose mausoleum location did not align with their census denomination including Byron L. Johnson who was a Lutheran buried in the Anglican section, and Charles Chislett who was a Methodist buried in the Wesleyan section. I find Harry Dallas Helmcken’s discrepancy particularly interesting, however, because the Ross Bay Cemetery had a specific section devoted to Reformed Episcopal, whereas Chislett and Johnson did not belong to denominations with a section dedicated to their religious beliefs. Additionally, Helmcken died in 1912 making his mausoleum one of the earliest constructed in the cemetery. Although it is possible that the Helmcken mausoleum was constructed in the Anglican section simply because there was not enough space in the Reformed Episcopal portion of the cemetery, I was curious as to whether there could be another explanation. 

     The Helmcken family have British roots, as the famous John Sebastian Helmcken (father of Harry) was born in London, England. The family mausoleum follows the British trends of being modest in scale (Mytum, 2003), using granite and drawing architectural inspiration from Egyptian iconography (LeeDecker, 2009). Reviewing the history of Ross Bay Cemetery I found that there were plans to build a chapel in the Anglican section, although it never actually materialized (Old Cemeteries of Victoria, 2012). Another tradition of the British elite was to place their dead close to the church, in an effort to create a separate and privileged space away from the growing number of middle class burials (Mytum, 2003). As the Helmcken mausoleum follows several other British traditions, I am left wondering whether the location was chosen to ensure that the mausoleum would be close to the chapel if it was ever built, in an effort to reinforce their elite status. A second facet to consider is that the rural cemetery movement, with its Picturesque ideals that favored beautiful naturalistic settings, remained a guiding force in cemetery construction during the latter portion of the 1800s (Hawker, 1987); this trend contributed to the construction of Ross Bay Cemetery, as the Pioneer Square was publicly unpopular because it live up to the esthetic ideals of the time (Hawker, 1987). In turn, it is possible that the Helmcken mausoleum location was selected because the Anglican section was in a more attractive and desirable part of the cemetery.

The Helmcken mausoleum

2. In the Ross Bay Cemetery, was mausoleum use favored by (or limited to) a certain social group or social class?

Laura completed a lot of research into the history of the individuals and families associated with the fifteen mausoleums in the Ross Bay Cemetery using the website Victoria’s Victoria (Taylor and Mindenhall, 2007). She was able to find both census information and newspaper articles for many of the people related to our monuments, and it appears that the vast majority were high socio-economic status professionals, including doctors, politicians and businessmen. During the 1880s Victoria experienced a period of huge economic growth, and the population of the city during this decade increased by 184 per cent (Hawker, 2007, p. 22). This boom drew many people in the lumber, shipping and coal industries, and the Rithett family became both wealthy and socially prominent because of their successes in business; it should be noted that their accomplishments also earned them enemies, which is demonstrated by the anti colonial graffiti on the inside of their mausoleum. 

The Rithett mausoleum

     During the latter part of the nineteenth century there was a shift from an egalitarian philosophy to one that focussed on success and individual achievement, and this is represented in the grand family mausoleums and extravagant burial monuments that became very popular during this time (LeeDecker, 2009). This focus on individualism would have been very pronounced in a “boom town” like Victoria, where people moved in hopes of making a better life for themselves and their family. In turn I am not surprised that mausoleums were popular in the Ross Bay Cemetery at the turn of the century, because the social and cultural attitudes of the time would have encouraged individuals/families to display their wealth and status publicly (LeeDecker, 2009). Interestingly, the mausoleum trends my group observed aligned quite closely with the national trends, because “construction of expensive family mausoleums peaked during the 1920s and 1930s” (LeeDecker, 2009, p. 151) in North America. 

References: 

Hawker, R.W., 1987. Monuments in the nineteenth-century public cemeteries of Victoria, British Columbia. Material Culture Review, 26, pp. 19-27

LeeDecker, C., 2009. Preparing for an afterlife on Earth: The transformation of mortuary behavior in nineteenth-century North America. In: T. Majewski and D. Gaimster, ed. 2009. International Handbook of Historical Archaeology. New York: Springer Science, pp. 141-57.

Mytum, H., 2003. Mortuary monuments and burial grounds of the historic period. New York: Springer. 

Old Cemeteries of Victoria, 2012. Cemeteries-Ross Bay Cemetery-Sections. [online] Available at:  <http://www.oldcem.bc.ca/cem_rb_sec.htm> [Accessed 18 February 2012].

Taylor, L. and Mindenhall, D, 2007. Index of Historical Victoria Newspapers. [online] Available at: <http://www.victoriasvictoria.ca/> [Accessed 18 February 2012]. 

The Body Farm

The Body Farm: 

       What do you want to happen to your body when you die? Pose this question to a member of the general public, and I am sure the vast majority of individuals will respond with either burial, or cremation. Ask an anthropology student, on the other hand, and I am sure you will get a variety of unique answers! In my case, the first thought that popped into my head was donating my body to science. In an ideal world I would like all of my “usable parts” to be harvested for organ/skin donation, but another option I would consider is donating my corpse to the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee. 

(Note: If anyone reading this is interested in becoming an organ donor, you can register at the following link - http://www.transplant.bc.ca/index.asp) 

  Founded in 1981 by Dr. William Bass, the original Body Farm was opened to allow anthropologists to study decomposition. The reasoning behind creating this facility was there was very little data available to police officers regarding decomposition in different environments. For example, it was a struggle to establish the time of death of individuals who had been disposed of in uncommon ways, such as being being buried with calcium oxide to speed up decomposition. The actual Body Farm is quite large, covering two and a half acres near the medical school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and approximately one hundred bodies are donated to the facility each year (“Body Farm”, 2012). 

WARNING: Before anyone clicks on the video below, I want them to be aware that it does contain graphic images. 

In the video above, Dr. Bass takes the viewer on a tour around the Body Farm, and specifically focusses on the phenomenon of skin slippage and the case of Leoma Patterson, which he discusses in his book Beyond the Body Farm (2007). Although there are many videos on youtube.com exploring the subject of the Body Farm, I really like this particular video because it provides information on both the scientific and social aspects of forensic anthropology. Skin slippage is a phenomenon that traditional archaeologists are less likely to deal with, because it occurs during the preliminary phases of decomposition, but Dr. Bass also points out remains that are being studied in order to determine how night predators interact with decaying bodies. He highlights gnaw marks along the zygomatic arches caused by animals such as raccoons and squirrels. This type of data is valuable to archaeologists because it helps them determine whether damage to a skeleton is the result of natural or unnatural processes, and as we  have discussed in class this sort of information is often used to gain insight into the past behaviors associated with burial and death. Furthermore, I enjoyed the discussion of Leoma Patterson because I believe it helps to humanize the field of archaeology. Often in this discipline we are examining remains from a very scientific perspective, and we can lose sight of the fact that these bones likely belonged to a person who was loved, and loved others. 

It was through Dr. Bill Bass’ earlier memoir Death’s Acre (2004) that I was first introduced to forensic anthropology and the Body Farm eight years ago, when I was sixteen years old. From this point onwards my interest in the this field blossomed, and it was one of my major motivations for taking this class. Often times, when I reveal to others that I am interested in death, and the processes of death, they find this morbid and slightly unsettling. I feel like this reaction arises from the fact that as a society we tend to avoid talking about death, and so it is a somewhat taboo subject; I find this especially interesting from a cultural anthropology perspective, because death is often exploited as a source of entertainment by the media - why is there such a disconnect between what we find acceptable and interesting to watch, versus talk about? As an example, I recently revealed to some of my friends that I was really interested in the Body Farm and determining the cause of death using the physical evidence associated with a corpse, and was met with joking comments like “So, are you a closet sociopath then?!” While I assume this a rather standard reaction, the fact that the Body Farm has been featured on the very popular TV series Bones (see the video below), demonstrates that there is a widespread interest in this topic/genre of material. 

Reference: 

Body Farm. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 15, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_farm#University_of_Tennessee_at_Knoxville

Dr. Nowell's Presentation

Dr. Nowell's Presentation:

      After Dr. Nowell's presentation yesterday I dug up a video on the topic we were discussing if anyone is interested: 

After an absolutely crazy couple of weeks, I finally have time to update my blog. I am definitely glad we have the two ‘freebies’ to use, because I have been up to my eyeballs in work applying for Masters degrees; I honestly did not realize it was going to be such a work and time intensive process!  

So, back to death and burial. I really enjoyed Dr. Nowell’s presentation on Paleolithic burials yesterday. I am very interested in evolution, and have taken Dr. Kurki’s class, so it was nice to have evolution and early Homo tied together with the content this class. The video I posted above was absolutely heartbreaking, especially at the two minute mark where the mother returns to check on the body and then falls on her back after moving a couple of paces away. The journal article that analyzes the event you can see in the footage is titled “Behavioral Response of a Chimpanzee Mother Toward her Dead Infant” by Cronin, Van Leeuwen, Mulenga and Bodamer and was published in the American Journal of Primatology in 2011. The authors explain that following the death of an infant, chimpanzee mothers usually maintain close physical contact for a period of time where they do not allow other conspecifics to investigate, but later allow fellow group members to examine or interact with the body. The film obviously features the latter portion of this ‘mourning’ process. Researchers are interested in examining this phenomenon because it provides interesting information about how chimpanzees learn about changes in social relationships, and it demonstrates the depth of maternal bonding with an infant because the offspring is not engaging in any reciprocal behaviors after death. 

Alternative Burial Practices

Alternative Burial Practices: 

          As all Victorians know, we aren’t exactly on the cutting edge of many things. Amazing concert? Nope, you will have to head to Vancouver for that, sorry. New obscure movie? Again, better luck next time. However, we apparently stay ahead of the times when it comes to burial trends. Victoria has one of only two natural cemeteries that are certified by Canada’s Natural Burial Association; the other lies about an hour outside of Toronto, in Cobourg, Ontario (May, 2010). Royal Oak Burial Park is a nonprofit cemetery, and you can find out more about their natural burial by visiting their website: http://www.robp.ca/our-services/natural-green-burial/ 

  Googling “obscure burial practices” will bring up a wide variety of options, many of which I have seen on other Anth 392 blogs. These include sky burials, “ashes to glass”, space burials, and cryogenics. One option I haven’t seen anywhere else thus far is offered by Holy Smoke, an American company that will place the cremated ashes of a loved one into live ammunition. This option has received a great deal of press in the US, and I couldn’t resist sharing a quote from their website: "The company offers a means to 'continue to protect your home and family even after you are gone,' by turning ashes into fully-functioning bullets." - Fox News. 

Holy Smoke Website 

References:

May, G. (2010, March 3). The green final frontier: eco-burial. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved January 21, 2012, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/sustainability/the-green-final-frontier-eco-burial/article1485643/

Introduction

Introduction

     My name is Claire Taggesell and I'm a BSc. Psychology major, pursuing a minor in Anthropology. I feel like I may be a bit of an anomaly, because so far most people who have posted their blogs are anthropology majors! This is my final semester at UVic and I am taking this class because of my interest in the cultural information about death/burial that can be illuminated through archaeology. In particular, I am interested in the relationship between anthropology and death in the context of the global "Red Market". Outside of anthropology, my academic interests include development over the lifespan, optimal aging, and communicable diseases.