I’ve only been reading The Empire of Death by Paul Koudounaris a few days and I’m already in love with everything about it. Aside from the well-researched information and beautiful photography, the texture of the pages is pleasing to the touch and it smells like catalogues from when I was small. There’s also a sewn-in burgundy silk bookmark.

Some notes:

From the Introduction

001 p11 We tend to think of death as representing an unequivocal, non-negotiable and irreducible status, its definition and interpretation are matters of context. In the modern Western world, we have come to consider death as a boundary. In many other cultures it is not—it is conceived simply as a tradition, and a dialogue between the living and the dead forms a meaningful part of social discourse.

002 p11 The most dramatic contemporary example is undoubtedly the Famidihana (Turning of the Bones) of the Malagasy people of Madagascar. This ritual involves removing the body of an ancestor from its crypt, wrapping it in a new shroud, and dancing with the corpse to live music. There may even be a family meal at which the deceased is given a place at the table. The ritual serves to unite families by reestablishing their bonds with ancestors, and introducing younger members to family history.

003 p11 Although the Famidihana is not a Christian ritual, Christianity itself does not preclude a dialogue with the dead., and similar practices survive in some pockets of the modern Christian world. On November 2 in Pomuch, Mexico, family members return to the local cemetery to remove the bones of their relatives from their tombs and clean them. In this ritual, the Dia de los Muertos manages to rise above its modern-day kitsch and become a real and intimate interaction between the living and their departed ancestors.

004 p11 Elsewhere in Latin America, the Fiesta de las Natitas on November 8 in La Paz, Bolivia, brings in thousands of people carrying human skulls to the city’s Cemetery General. The skull, of natitas (little pug-nosed ones), reside in the homes of the living so that the souls of the deceased can act as guardians and helpers. The Fiesta is an opportunity to thank and honour the dead.

005 p12 The Fontanelle Cemetery, a large ossuary created in the cave system in Naples during the seventeenth century, is one of the sites where the interaction between the [living and the dead] was at its most pronounced. For over 200 years, the living would come to solicit air from the remains of the deceased, asking for advice on various domestic and personal problems, and expressing gratitude by providing the dead with shrines, prayers and various forms of offerings.

006 p13 In Western Culture, the line separating the living and the dead underwent a fundamental shift during the Enlightenment. The triumph of modern concepts of individualism and the exaltation of private ownership over older concepts of corporateness and community further changed our attitudes toward death. As Baudrillard explained, we have undergone an evolution in which, ‘little by little, the dead cease to exist.’

007 p13 The living would visit mummified or skeletal remains and lovingly robe them, as a means of perpetuating their relationship with their ancestors and loved ones. By contrast, Baudrillard accused contemporary society of being ‘incapable of confronting death without wan humour or perverse fascination.’