Profs and Pints DC presents: “What’s Done With the Dead,” an exploration of funerary practices across time and cultures, with Jordan Wilson, bioarchaeologist, skeletal biologist, and assistant professor at Georgetown University.
Most of us think in terms of either burial or cremation in considering what we’d like done to our bodies when we die. But in other times and places practices such as mummification, funerary cannibalism, and even the offering of bodies to hungry vultures all have been regarded as perfectly normal ways of tending to the dead.
Learn about the remarkable variety of ways humans have dealt with the deceased with Dr. Jordan Wilson, a bioarchaeologist who gives excellent Profs and Pints talks.
She’ll discuss how funerary traditions reflect religious beliefs, social identities, environmental realities, and practical concerns. Her talk will cover everything from Tibetan sky burials to modern green burials, human composting, and the mummies of ancient Egypt, Peru, and Chile.
We’ll explore the science of decomposition and visit the handful of research facilities around the world dedicated to studying it. We’ll also consider the evolutionary origins of grief and mourning, examining evidence that these behaviors are not unique to humans and can be observed in species such as elephants and chimpanzees.
Dr. Wilson also will trace the surprising history of burial and cemeteries, discussing evidence of possible mortuary practices among Homo naledi and Neanderthals and examining the Paris Catacombs and Arlington National Cemetery.
You’ll learn how the ways that people treat the dead reveal not only how they confront mortality, but also how they define community, memory, and what it means to be human. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: Mummies in the Friars' Corridor of the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Italy. (Photo by Sibeaster / Wikimedia Commons.)