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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Death in Pictures and Problems

In Alabama, there is a high school student facing suspension for taking a selfie with a cadaver.

But this is not so unusual for anyone who has looked through James Edmonson's book Dissection: Photographs as a Rite of Passage in American Medicine, 1880-1930.


The book itself has many more intriguing and really quite humorous images that cross the boundaries of decorum expected by the university spokesperson. 


I was recently surprised by this notion of "respect" and "dignity" being used as a reason for a highly trained forensic anthropologist and her group (featured on BBC's History Cold Case) to bury a rare and wonderfully preserved anatomical specimen of a young child rather than keep it in a museum setting:




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