Memento mori
Subtitle: the dead among us
By: Paul Koudounaris
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 215
ISBN-13: 9780500517789
Subjects: Catacombs; Burial; Ossuaries; History
Description: "Death is universal, but the human response to death varies widely. In Western society, death is usually medicalized and taboo, and kept apart from the world of the living, while in much of the rest of the world, and for much of human history, death has commonly been far more integrated into peoples' daily existence, and human remains are as much a reminder of life, memento vitae, as of death, memento mori. Through photos taken at more than 250 sites in thirty countries over a decade, Paul Koudounaris has captured death around the world. From Bolivia's "festival of the little pug-nosed ones," where skulls are festooned with flowers and given cigarettes to smoke and beanie hats to protect them from the weather to Indonesian families who dress mummies and include them in their household routines; from naturally preserved Buddhist monks and memorials to genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia to the dramatic climax of Europe's great ossuaries, Memento Mori defies taboo to demonstrate how the dead continue to be present in the lives of people everywhere." -- Publisher's description
Notes: Includes index.