I should really stay off google...

The other day I was reading some old tweets of mine (I tweet, deal with it) and I came across one from that I posted at the beginning of the semester: "Ugh. Should not have googled 'hermetically sealed coffin." Looking at this I thought it might actually make an interesting blog post. 

Why am I so grossed out by the idea and why what is up with the internet?!

Once I started googling hermetically sealed coffins though, I found that I was much less disturbed. I thought I was desensitized to grossness before this semester, but nearing the end I realize how much more of it I understand; or at least have covered in so much detail that it just can't gross me out anymore (well, I say that, but don't test me please). This semester I not only have our class on the archaeology of death, but as well I have a class on the anthropology of zombies, and forensic osteology. Mix that with the details of the project my group is doing on vampire burials and well... it's not all that gross anymore. 

I did find myself in that corner of the internet that sort of weirded me out. I know I should have been ready for it since well... you can find anything on the internet if you look. Through various links and articles I got pretty deep into the funerary part of the internet. Let me at least share some of the more interesting sites that I found, it was pretty fun perusing through them. 

From the Readers Digest article below.

The first link I want to share is an article done by the Reader's Digest website:

13 Things The Funeral Director Won't Tell You.

This article follows the basic framework they use for a number of articles to help people find good deals and learn the in's and out's of whatever it is they are looking to purchase. For instance they also have links to 13 things your Car Mechanic won't tell you and 13 things your computer guy won't tell you. It was interesting though because it just points out the amount of unnecessary things that are included in funerals and how easy it is to avoid them. It forces you to remember that funeral directors are salespeople, they provide a service but they also want to make as much money as they can from you. Why not up-sell the grieving widow some ridiculous extravagant casket for her husband, that is at least a few more thousand dollars onto her bill! 

If you look at that list you will possibly be led down the same rabbit hole that I was: Walmart sells coffins. Thats right, Walmart.com (not .ca only the America Walmart website sells coffins... I checked...) sells coffins that you can order easily off the internet. 

Personally I like this stainless steel one. Not that I would want a casket. Or would need one that costs $2000 US.

Not only does it sell caskets, but it also has a variety of different styles of urns, even some with clocks on them (???), and 'keepsakes' which are like miniature urns (I guess?).

I guess so you can keep it with you?

This is not something I ever would have thought to look for on Walmart.com. Even Costco.com sells caskets. 

After this I just went too far. I googled: Strange funerals. 

To be honest a lot of the things I came up with were just those joke websites that are there to shock you and make you laugh, therefore there was a lot of funeral rituals posted and things written about them that were fairly... ethnocentric. This was especially the case in regards to the tradition of creatively shaped coffins in Ghana that Meredith posted about earlier in the semester. 

My favorite thing that I found was the tradition of the hanging coffin left from the Bo people of China. 

Thanks fuckyeahantiques.tumblr.com for the picture.

I will leave you here with this clip (aww yeah bringing it right back around to archaeology):