Keeping Man's Best Friend

For centuries cultures have been mummifying the members of their families in order to preserve their memory. Not only have they been preserving human family members but animal family members as well.  Egyptians believed that their animals were not only pets for enjoyment but they were also earth bound Gods.  These animal mummies were treated in the exact same fashion and care as human bodies.  This included the same embalming products wrapping and ceremonies.  Egyptians mummified many types of animals from bulls, to monkeys, cats and dogs, monkeys, gazelles, lizard, fish, and finally beetles. Though many other cultures used animals in ritualized sacrifice, no other culture has been found to have mummified their pets.   Eventually even mummifying humans slowly faded away as cultures became more industrialized. 

However, a new form of keeping family members spirits close has begun with man's best friend, pets.  In today's American culture, much the same as Egyptian culture, pets are now as much part of the family as any blood relative.  Pets are thought to have their own personalities, ideas, dress in designer clothing, eat organically, and now they can live with their family until the end of time.  It's technically not mummification, but pet owners are having their closest pets stuffed and repositioned after death so that the family can still venerate their pet.

"On our way back from the museum visit, the stuffed dog was brought up again as a topic
of discussion among the students and some of them identified themselves with the dead
animal’s caretaker. One student said, “Imagine if it was your dog” and “Imagine if it was
your rabbit.” Another student reflected over what it would feel like to have had the
company of your dog when it was still alive, and then come to the museum and see it
stuffed. Desmond (2002) refers to pets as a special case in taxidermy. Pets have a special
position in human society since they are often regarded as “family members” and
therefore the pet’s body, to a larger extent than most other animals used in taxidermy,
represents the pet’s being. Bryant and Shoemaker (1988) refer to pet taxidermy as a form
of “nostalgia taxidermy” that for some may be a way of dealing with emotional loss,
whereas others may view it as a morbid practice. "

As humans the fear and uncertainty of an afterlife causes us to try to keep our family members, including pets along with us in order to remember them and to keep them safe.  Animals as much as any other family member bring security and love and devotion into any family, therefore it is just as important to protect their memory and spirit as any other family member. However, even though we harbor these feelings how is this practice any different than mummifying a human body which has been banned in most cultures.  It is understandable that people love to keep their animals with them or as trophies, but what happens when this practice is taken too far.

Sources:

Owen, James. Egyptian Animals Were Mummified Same Way as Humans. National Geographic News. England. September 15, 2004. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0915_040915_petmummies.html


Thomas, Adrienne Elizabeth. PET LOSS: A STUDY OF GRIEF AND BEREAVEMENT. Christchurch. 1997

Google images

Pedersen, Helena. Animals on Display: The Zoocurriculum of Museum Exhibits. 2010. Critical Education. vol. 1, 17 p. Institute for Critical Educational Studies. http://dspace.mah.se:8080/dspace/handle/2043/10948

Self Mummification

For a little less than three years the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots of pine trees for another three years and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree. This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it made the body too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive.
When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed. After the tomb was sealed, the other monks in the temple would wait another three years, and open the tomb to see if the mummification was successful.
If the monk had been successfully mummified, they were immediately seen as a Buddha and put in the temple for viewing. Usually, though, there was just a decomposed body. Although they were not viewed as a true Buddha if they were not mummified, they were still admired and revered for their dedication and spirit.
 It is believed that many hundreds of monks tried, but only between 16 and 24 such mummifications have been discovered to date.
 Video of a shrine to a self-mummified priest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usaWz4KwG6w&feature=player_embedded


Sources:
Yoldas, Ilker.The Self-Mummified Monks of Japan. July 1, 2007. Visited Nov 29, 2010. http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/07/self-mummified-monks-of-japan.html

Hori, Ichiro.  Self-Mummified Buddhas in Japan. An Aspect of the Shugen-Dô ("Mountain Asceticism") Sect . History of Religions. Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter, 1962), pp. 222-242. Published by: The University of Chicago Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062053

Sharf, Robert H.  The Idolization of Enlightenment: On the Mummification of Ch'an Masters in Medieval China . History of Religions. Vol. 32, No. 1 (Aug., 1992), pp. 1-31. Published by: The University of Chicago Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062719

Mummies from other Civilizations

Besides the Egyptian and the Inca Civilizations you may be surprised that several others also practiced this form of burial, by both natural and through the practice.  Natural mummies have been found in Italy, North America, and Russia due to the extreme cold that preserves the body. Another form of natural mummification occurs when a person dies and falls into a  sphagnum bog, the acidity of the water, cold temperature and lack of oxygen combined to tan the body's skin and soft tissues and preserve the body. These have been found in many locations, Europe seems to be a popular location to find these mummies. A tribe called Guanches, from the Canary Islands, practiced a form of embalming their dead and therefore helped the bodies withstand time and become mummified. Chinchorro mummies are the oldest mummies known, these were mostly accidental in the beginning as bodies were placed in the dry wastelands they became completely dried and preserved.  The Chinchorro tribe are found in South America in Chile and Peru. In China mummies have been found, with complete bodies and organs.

Some claim that some Buddhist monks, buried themselves and through meditation and slow starvation and suffocation, their bodies have been recovered with very little damage.  Most were buried with several drying agents and prior to their death the monks stuck to a sparse diet made up of salt, nuts, seeds, roots, pine bark, and urushi tea.

Citations:

"mummy: Mummification in Other Parts of the World." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.
© 1994, 2000-2006, on Infoplease.
© 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.
29 Nov. 2010 <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0859827.html>.

Fletcher, Dr Joann. Mummies Around the World. exploreegypt.com. 2009. Visited on Nov 29, 2010. http://www.exploreregypt.com/Explorer-Egypt/Ancient-Egypt/mummies-around-the-world/Ice-mummies.html

The Basic Life as an Inca Mummy

 The Inca empire consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four provincial governments with strong leaders: Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Contisuyu (SW), and Collasuyu (SE). At its height, the Inca Empire included Peru and Bolivia, most of what is now Ecuador, a large portion of what is today Chile north of Maule River. The empire also extended into corners of Argentina and Colombia. However, most of the southern portion of the Inca empire, the portion denominated as Collasuyu, was desert wasteland.

At the top of Inca society was the emperor, the Sapa Inca. The Incas believed their ruler was descended from the sun god and he was treated with great respect. Below the Sapa Inca were the nobles. Below them were a class of men called curacas. They were not necessarily Incas. When the Incas conquered a people they took the leader's sons and taught them to rule the Inca way. They then became curacas. At the bottom of Inca society were the craftsmen and farmers.

The Inca ruler and the mummies of his predecessors were the most important religious leaders. They were assisted by a hierarchical priesthood headed by the high priest of the Coricancha. Important shrines also had staffs of female attendants who wove cloth and brewed chicha (maize beer) for use in festivals. Most ceremonies involved sacrifices of cloth, chicha, plants, or animals. Important Incas were mummified and typically buried in their finery amid rare objects and provisions that would be needed for the journey to the afterlife. Their long list of burial possessions even included, on some occasions, sacrificed humans. An elaborate ritual life surrounded the mummies of deceased rulers, who were treated as if they were still alive. They were maintained in state in their palaces, and they continued to own the property they had accumulated during their lifetimes. Their descendants managed the mummies' property for them, consulted them as oracles (bearers of messages from the gods), made sacrifices to them, ate and drank with them, took them to visit one another, and brought them out of their palaces to participate in major ceremonies. During important festivals, the royal bundles were moved from their places of rest, and dressed up in the finest garments available in order to attend the festival. The dead also sat in on important meetings and functions, but in all cases were treated with the utmost respect.

The Incas believed that their dead ancestors governed various aspects of their lives, and for this and other reasons were worthy of being worshiped. The bodies of dead rulers were among the holiest shrines in the empire.
 

The mummy bundles served many purposes to the Inca, not only did they provide a strong heritage and history, they also became a link to strengthening power relations.  They still had the remains and could trace the connection of kings all the way back to the first Inca Manco Capac. Incas created songs of each of the deceased lords in order to remember them and their time as king, after each successor a new phrase was added to remember.

Sources:
MacCormack, Sabine. Processions for the Inca: Andean and Christian Ideas of Human Sacrifice, Commission and Embodiement. 2000. Vol 2, Issue 1. p110-140

Zuidema, R.T. Kinship and Ancestorcult in three Peruvian Communities: Hernandez Principe's Account of 1622. 1973. Vol 2, Issue 1, p16-33

MacCormack, Sabine.  The Incas and Their Spanish Historians. 1991. Religion in the Andes. Vol 1. p 80-138

Bauer. The Mummies of the Royal Inca. 2004. Ancient Cuzco. p 159-184.

Doyle, Mary Eileen, Ph.D. The Ancestor Cult and Burial Ritual in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Central Peru. 1988. University of California, Los Angeles.