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> you have a recipe for modern era mummies Except mummies were respectfully cared for throughout the embalming process. Don’t tar ancient civilizations with ou
by thoroughburro 2y ago
> you have a recipe for modern era mummies
Except mummies were respectfully cared for throughout the embalming process. Don’t tar ancient civilizations with our own inhuman neglect of both living and dead.
- WillAdams 2y agoExcept it has been found that female mummies usually began the process in a greater state of decomposition than males with the _raison d’être_ being that it discouraged necrophilia on the part of the workers doing the mummification.
- ffsm8 2y ago> raison d’être Means literally "reason for existence", this being the most important reason. It doesn't really make sense in this context. Interesting tidbit however, if true.
- WillAdams 2y agoYou're right, _rationale_ would have been a better word choice.
- ourmandave 2y agoIs that really the answer to that problem? Or do you just simply drum all the corpse f*ckers out of Embalming Service?
- mikeyouse 2y agoThere's still a big problem with that in modern morgues...
- prepend 2y agoIt seems like it’s easier to just let them decompose than to get rid of the necropheliacs. I think this is a situation if “of course no one wants necropheliacs, but we’re all ears as to how you drum them out” so the practical hack of just letting the bodies sit for a bit so perverts don’t like them any more is much more effective. This comes up a ton in software development where people fixate on what users SHOULD do (eg, rtfm, click this button, register this way) instead of what they actually do. I’m old enough now that I can’t afford the luxury of time spent trying to change users psychology and just want to adapt.
- mistrial9 2y agostunningly ignorant observation given that the religious meaning of that process was literally core to an entire empire at the time
- selimthegrim 2y agoWould you care to expand on what was originally Herodotus’ observation then?
- StrictDabbler 2y agoA human or animal corpse that was accidentally mummified is still called a mummy. It's a technical term. A lot of mummies are just people who died in a peat bog, desert or ice cave. Many mummies were also made cruelly rather than respectfully. The Maori mummified the fallen as trophies of war. The Inca would leave sacrifices to be mummified by the mountain ice. So yes, somebody who dies in a derelict building and dries out is a mummy.