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And the gender parts of the article made me think of the Taj Mahal a lot: that one is rarely seen as a demonstration of any power held by that woman, it's seen
by usrusr 5y ago
And the gender parts of the article made me think of the Taj Mahal a lot: that one is rarely seen as a demonstration of any power held by that woman, it's seen as a demonstration of the power held by the man she left behind. Dead people don't commission lavish tombs. Widowers do (or perhaps widows, in a culture with women in power)
- smogcutter 5y ago> Dead people don't commission lavish tombs. The pyramids.
- usrusr 5y agoCommissioned long before death afaik, due to some cultural oddity that made leaders care a surprising amount about long term storage of personal remains.
- rsynnott 5y agoWealthy Romans also did this a lot; typically under the guise of building a _family_ mausoleum, and in no way centered around the builder, goodness no. Actually, ‘mausoleum’ is an example in itself; the building that the word derives from was almost certainly built during the lifetime of the guy who was buried there.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoThe pyramids weren't commissioned by dead people.
- smogcutter 5y agoYes, that was the point. It was a reply to parent’s claim that tombs are commissioned by the survivors, not the deceased.
- FooBarBizBazz 5y agoAllow me to point out the Prince Albert Memorial.