Fire Mummies- Kabayan Philippines

Photo Credit: http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/2070/

In my anthropology of death class we talked about mummies near the start of semester so I was bound to have to mention them in this blog at some point. In fact mummies is what really sold me on the field of anthropology in the first place when I was twelve-ish. In grade six we learnt about King Tut and Egyptian mummies and I was hooked. Now that I am in school and studying anthropology I am learning several different types and techniques of mummification that spreads cross culturally all over the World.  There are two types of mummification spontaneous mummification meaning it happened naturally and anthropogenic mummification, where there was the human intention and intervention in the mummification process.  Within these two types there are a plethora of different methods; ice mummies both intentional and unintentional, bog bodies, saltmen (discovered in the Chehrabad salt mines), and many more all over the world, Inca, Aztec, Australia, USA, etc. In this entry I will be looking at the fire mummies of the Philippines.

 

Fire Mummies of the Philippines are found in Kabayan in the municipality of Benguet Province. This municipality is recognized as a centre of Ibaloi Culture. Mummification of human remains began prior to the Spanish colonization and it is believed to have involved individuals of higher social status. According to a UNESCO article the process of mummification could take upwards of two years and incorporated using salt and herbs and placing the body under a fire to rid the body of fluid. I also learned in one account that individuals that knew they were going to die would drink a salty liquid that would start the process, however another article said that that process began once the individual was dead. Once the body dried the mummy was placed in the fetal position in a pine wood coffin and laid to rest in a man made cave. These graves remained untouched for hundreds of years until they were unfortunately uncovered in the 19^th century and horribly vandalized and looted ruining the integrity of the graves and the individuals.

 

            What I find so interesting about the ‘fire mummies’ is the process. It really makes sense to use fire, but it would have taken immense skill and knowledge. As stated in the articles I found this process was reserved for social elite, but I wonder whether the practice was also gendered?  There are several times where I wished I had a TARDIS of my own to go back in time and just simply observe, not touch or influence just observe the wonders of the world!

Photo credit:http://www.etravelpilipinas.com/tourism_news/explore-the-kabayan-mummies-cave-on-a-day-out-from-baguio.htm

Photo Credit:http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/2070/

 

http://www.wmf.org/project/kabayan-mummy-caves

 

Hanging Coffins of Sichuan Province

Photo credit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2408886/The-hanging-coffins-Sichuan-400-year-old-wooden-tombs-suspended-Chinese-cliff-face.html

 

So this week I came across hanging coffins in China. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of this before. The ones in the pictures above are found attached the cliffs in Gongxian, Sichuan Province in China and are believed to have been placed there by the Bo people.  Hanging coffins are not found exclusively in China, they have also been found in Indonesia and the Philippines.  Some people speculate that they were hung there so that they would be within reach of the gods while others believe it was a way to keep the corpses away from animals or enemies. The coffins themselves are usually carved from a single piece of wood and have various shapes. In other parts of southern China the hanging coffins that have been discovered date to as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1027-777BC) the ones in Gongxian County are more recent and also mark the end of the hanging coffin custom.

I however find myself instantly questioning ‘how did they possibly get them up there?’ Now to answer this I had to do a bit more digging and found out that they really are not sure. One hypothesis suggested that the people carrying the coffins zig-zagged there way up the mountain by making a narrow pathway built on pegs, and then they just carried the coffin up from the bottom. The other suggested that one person would head up first and then send down a secure rope to hoist the coffin up. I personally think that it was probably a combination of methods and cant be pinned to one particular practice for every case.

 

           In the last couple weeks we have been looking at status and gender. I did some preliminary research but I think it would be extremely interesting to look at gender and status representations in these hanging burials where archaeological evidence or human remains are present. Who was buried here? What was their gender and status? Because they weren’t really buried in the conventional sense are there still grave goods? Are there  or were there decorations carved into the outside of the coffins?

 

Youtube clips:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al2c7-zoc9M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko1Tu7i5vWE

 

News article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2408886/The-hanging-coffins-Sichuan-400-year-old-wooden-tombs-suspended-Chinese-cliff-face.html

 

 

Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation in a Mortuary Context

Photo Credit:http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8713614-archaeologists-may-have-found-the-first-considered-gay-caveman

In 2011 the media went wild with the discovery of what they dubbed as a “gay caveman”.  The grave of a male from the corded ware era was discovered by archaeologist in the Czech Republic. These said archaeologist went on to point out that the man’s positioning and posture was not typical of males found in this time period and that his grave more closely resembled that of females. During the period of 2900 and 2500BC men were traditionally buried lying on their right side with their head pointing to the east, while women were positioned on their left side with the head facing to the west. In this particular instance the man was laying on his left with his head facing west. As well as this uncommon burial position the man was buried with house hold jugs and no weapons.  In an era when males were generally buried with weapons or flint knives and women were traditionally buried with jewelry and domestic jugs. The lead researcher at this dig, Kamila Remisova Vesinova, tells media that it is likely ‘that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual, or transvestite.’  The question is how can she suggest this based on the small amount of evidence? This grave is just one example of difference, it cannot be properly compared. Ideas of gender and sexual orientation are culturally constructed and fluid, meaning that they are constantly changing and may be different depending on when and where you are looking. We have assumptions that we form from our enculturation into our societies, but these need to be placed aside when doing archaeology because our beliefs are not always the beliefs of the people we are studying. There are many alternative conclusions to the reason that this man was buried in this fashion and they don’t suggest that he was homosexual or transvestite. Perhaps this is an example of a ‘deviant’ burial where they are positioning him in this way so as to symbolize that he is not male, a non-male, or that he has lost his male standing and not to say that he is female or to suggest anything about his gender or sexual orientation.

 

In class today the professor said “Sex is what’s in your pants, gender is what pants you want to wear and sexual orientation is whose pants you want to be in.” I liked this analogy because it reminds us that gender and sexual orientations are constructs. How they are perceived in a society varies and how they present themselves varies. Archaeologist can’t really make conclusions on these from the context of the grave for many reasons one being ‘the dead don’t bury themselves’. The way in which someone is buried ultimately depends on the ideas or beliefs of the person that is burying them and don’t necessarily represent the feelings and beliefs of the individual being buried.