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Kansas State University Libraries
New Prairie Press

NPP eBooks Monographs

2018

The Art of Being Human: A Textbook for Cultural Anthropology

Michael Wesch
Kansas State University, mwesch@k-state.edu

Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks

Part of the Multicultural Psychology Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0

License.

Recommended Citation
Wesch, Michael, "The Art of Being Human: A Textbook for Cultural Anthropology" (2018). NPP eBooks. 20.
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ANTH101.
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 The Art of
Being Human
First Edition

Michael Wesch
 Michael Wesch

First Edition

Copyright © 2018 Michael Wesch

New Prairie Press,

Kansas State University Libraries
Manhattan, Kansas

Cover design by
Ashley Flowers

Electronic edition available online at http://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/20/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

ISBN-13: 978-1-944548-13-1

ii
 The Art of Being Human

TO BABY GEORGE

For reminding me that

falling and failing
is fun and fascinating.

iii
Michael Wesch

iv
 The Art of Being Human

FIRST EDITION

The following chapters were written to accompany the free and open
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course available at ANTH101.com.
This book is designed as a loose framework for more and better chapters in
future editions. If you would like to share some work that you think would
be appropriate for the book, please contact the author at
mike.wesch@gmail.com.

v
Michael Wesch

vi
 The Art of Being Human

Praise from students:

"Coming into this class I was not all that thrilled. Leaving this class, I almost cried because I
would miss it so much. Never in my life have I taken a class that helps you grow as much as I did
in this class."

"I learned more about everything and myself than in all my other courses combined."

"I was concerned this class would be off-putting but I needed the hours. It changed my views
drastically and made me think from a different point of view."

"It really had opened my eyes in seeing the world and the people around me differently."

"I enjoyed participating in all 10 challenges; they were true challenges for me and I am so thankful
to have gone out of my comfort zone, tried something new, and found others in this world."

"This class really pushed me outside my comfort zone and made me grow as a person."

"I expected to learn a lot about other people in this class but I ended up learning a lot about
myself, too."

"I came into this class with little understanding, and came out with a massive knowledge of the
world, and myself."

"This class allowed me to rethink who I am, what I am, and what I want to be by looking at
'who we are' as people."

"It changed my way of thinking about life, situations, and others around the world."

"This class is absolutely life changing."

vii
 Michael Wesch

Ten Lessons / Ten Challenges

Lesson 1: Fieldwork
Questions, Connections, and Trying New Things 10
Challenge 1: Talking to Strangers 27

Lesson 2: Culture
The Art of Seeing 29
Growing Up Among the Nacirema 52
Challenge 2: Fieldwork of the Familiar 63

Lesson 3: Evolution
Who are we? Human Evolution 65
The (Un)Making of the Modern Body 86
Challenge 3: The 28 Day Challenge 105

Lesson 4: Language
The Power of Language 107
Challenge 4: Word-Weaving 129

Lesson 5: Infrastructure
Tools and Their Humans 131
Mediated Culture 153
Challenge 5: The UnThing Experiment 169

viii
 The Art of Being Human

Lesson 6: Social Structure

Love in Four Cultures 171
Becoming Our Selves: Identity, Race, and Gender 191
Challenge 6: Get Uncomfortable 213

Lesson 7: Superstructure
Big Questions about Morality 215
The Dynamics of Culture 237
Religion and the Wisdom of the World 251
Challenge 7: The Other Encounter 271

Lesson 8: Globalization
How does the world work? 273
Challenge 8: Global Connections 305

Lesson 9: “The Good Life”

Creating “The Good Life” 307
The Power of Storytelling 320
Challenge 9: Meaning Making 335

Lesson 10: The Art of Being Human

There Are No Accidents: The Paul Farmer Story 337
If Paul Farmer is the Model, We’re Screwed Golden 347
Challenge 10: Write your Manifesto 357

ix
Michael Wesch

x
 The Art of Being Human

DEAR STUDENT,

Welcome to anthropology.

If you're like me, you have no idea what you're in for. I didn't
even know what anthropology was when I first enrolled. Many
people have stepped into anthropology classes expecting to fulfill a
simple requirement by memorizing a few key words and regurgitating
them on the exams, only to find themselves radically shaken and
transformed by the experience.
One way to organize a book about anthropology – the study of
all humans in all times in all places – would be to tell the entire
human story, attempting to give equal space to each moment of our
history.
We might start the book 12,000 years ago, a time when everybody
everywhere was living in basically the same way, by foraging, hunting,
and fishing for food. If the book were roughly the size of the one
you're holding now, each page would cover about 50 years. The book
would begin with a description of our pre-agricultural ancestors,

1
 Michael Wesch

people who lived in small bands with populations that rarely

exceeded 50 people. Somewhere around page 15, somebody plants
the first seeds, we start domesticating animals, and people start to
settle in larger, more stable villages.
But change is slow. Halfway through the book, we're still using
stone tools. Just past the middle of the book, writing emerges, along
with the domestication of the horse and the invention of carts and
chariots. The first empires emerge in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and
China. And in the next chapter the Greeks, Romans, Mayans, Aztecs,
and Ottomans take us to the brink of the final chapter.
With 10 pages left in the book (500 years in the past) you notice
that the book is almost over, and yet almost nothing of the world that
you know and take for granted exists. Most people have never
ventured more than 10 miles from home. College does not exist. The
United States does not exist. Most people would not be able to read
this book.
A flurry of activity ensues. Packed into those final pages are the
stories of European colonial empires spreading to touch nearly every
corner of the globe. The Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment,
the birth of nations, an ever more complex legalistic bureaucracy,
new concepts of the family and childhood, educational reforms, and
the idea of human rights emerge. With just four pages left the
Industrial Revolution appears, along with the rise of science,
medicine, and other new technologies.
The everyday lives of people in these last few pages are
fundamentally different than all those before. And not just because of
the technologies they use, but because of the questions they ask. For
the first time in human history, the average person has to continually
ask themselves three questions that almost no human in that long
history before has had to ask:

• Who am I?
• What am I going to do?
• Am I going to make it?

2
 The Art of Being Human

For almost all of human history, no one asked these questions,

because the answers were already known. We were who we were, we
would do what our parents did, and our future was not in our own
hands. Modernity brought with it a world of choices, and with
choices come questions and an obligation to answer them.
And the questions go far beyond ourselves, for the second-to-last
page signals an irresolvable climax. We build technologies that allow
us to send messages at the speed of light. Automobiles start taking us
faster and farther, dramatically changing the way we live and how we
build our cities. We even learn to fly. By the end of the page, we can
cross oceans in a matter of hours. But such progress is set against a
backdrop of two ghastly world wars that killed nearly 100 million
people. As you turn the final page, it must be apparent that this story
cannot possibly resolve itself and end well.
On the last page you find that humans are more prosperous than
ever, but there is a worrying and perplexing set of problems and
paradoxes emerging. For while the final few pages have brought us
tremendous technological advances and higher standards of living,
they haven't brought us more happiness. In fact, even though we are
more connected than ever, we feel less connected. We have more
power to do and be anything we desire, yet we feel more
disempowered. Our lives are saturated with the artifacts of an
absolute explosion of human creativity, and yet we struggle to find
meaning.
The last page also describes a world of unparalleled global
inequality and a precarious environmental situation. Our population
is more than 20 times what it was at the start of the chapter, but the
richest 225 humans on earth have more wealth than the poorest 2.5
billion people combined. Nearly one billion people make less than
$1/day. Humans produce more than enough food to feed everyone
in the world, yet hundreds of millions are starving, even as we
collectively spend over $1 trillion per year preparing to fight one
another.

3
 Michael Wesch

The final pages describe how we created an astounding global

economy running on nonrenewable fossil fuels, but on the last page,
it becomes apparent that all those resources will be gone by the third
page of the epilogue. Furthermore, the use of these fuels has changed
the chemistry of our planet, leading to a rise in global temperature,
rising sea levels, expanding deserts, and more intense storms. Perhaps
most dramatic, it is in these final pages that we human beings have
attained the ability to literally end the book altogether and annihilate
ourselves. We might do it at the push of a button, launching a nuclear
war; or we might do it slowly and painfully, through environmental
collapse. Whether or not the story continues will largely be up to
choices we make.
Three new questions emerge:

• Who are we?

• What are we going to do?
• Are we going to make it?

Anthropology is the discipline that attempts to answer these

questions about humans and their place in the world. By practicing
anthropology, you might just find a few answers to those other three
questions (Who am I? What am I going to do? Am I going to make it?) and
learn a little bit more about yourself and your own place in the world.

The answers to such questions might not be what you expect. In

fact, the answers to these questions will only open up new questions,

4
 The Art of Being Human

and you will soon find yourself on a sort of quest, question after
question after question. Anthropology doesn't just seek to answer
questions; it leads us to discover new questions that we have not even
considered before.
You might, as I did, come to cherish these questions. Yes, they
will turn you inside out and upside down. You may spend a few
sleepless nights questioning your most basic ideas, ideals, values, and
beliefs. But you might also come to see these questions as great gifts
that reveal worlds and ideas you cannot yet imagine.
Anthropologists look for answers not just in books and data but
out in the world itself, by making connections with people across vast
cultural differences. This is a necessary part of understanding the
entirety of the human condition. We have to understand the diversity
that makes up the human experience.
It is experience itself that lies at the heart of anthropology.
Anthropology opens the doors of the world to you so that you can
experience more. In order to experience more, you will have to step
outside your comfort zone and experience difference. And when you have
experienced difference, you will be able to come back to more
familiar settings and experience differently. Why do we want to
experience more, experience difference, and experience differently?
Because our experiences become an integral part of who we are.
When we experience more, we can be more.
In sum, Anthropology is not only the science of human beings,
but also the art of asking questions, making connections, and trying
new things. These are the very practices that make us who we are as
human beings. Anthropology is the art of being human.
This art is not easy. You will have to overcome your fears, step
outside your comfort zone, and get comfortable with the
uncomfortable. "Anthropology requires strength, valor, and courage,"
Nancy Scheper-Hughes reminds us. "Pierre Bourdieu called
anthropology a combat sport, an extreme sport as well as a tough and
rigorous discipline. … It teaches students not to be afraid of getting
one's hands dirty, to get down in the dirt, and to commit yourself,

5
 Michael Wesch

body and mind. Susan Sontag called anthropology a 'heroic'

profession."
What's the payoff for this heroic journey? If you're like me, you
will discover in anthropology new questions and new ideas. You will
try, as I did, to make them your own. But you can't own ideas. I did
not have the ideas; the ideas had me. They carried me across rivers of
doubt and uncertainty, where I found the light and life of places
forgotten. I climbed mountains of fear. I felt their jagged edges,
wiped their dust from my brow, and left my blood in their soil. There
is a struggle to be had, for sure. You may not find the meaning of
life, but you might just have the experience of being alive.
Above all, the art of being human takes practice. As such, I
present this book not as a typical textbook, full of bold-faced terms
for you to memorize and regurgitate on exams. There will be some of
that, as there are always new concepts and terms to learn as you step
into a new way of thinking. But above all, there will be a simple idea
at work: that anthropology is not just a science. It's a way of life, and
for most people, a new way of thinking that will open them up to
being the best human beings they can be. So we proceed in
recognition of that simple truth:

You cannot just think your way into a new way of living.
You have to live your way into a new way of thinking.

The course will proceed through ten lessons, representing the

Ten Big Ideas that you can learn by studying anthropology. Laid out
together in sequence, they read almost like a manifesto:

1. People are different. These differences represent the vast

range of human potential and possibility. Our
assumptions, beliefs, values, ideas, ideals – even our
abilities – are largely a product of our culture.

6
 The Art of Being Human

2. We can respond to such differences with hate or

ignorance, or we can choose to open up to them and ask
questions we have never considered before.

3. When we open up to such questions, we put ourselves in

touch with our higher nature. It was asking questions,
making connections, and trying new things that brought
us down from the trees, and took us to the moon.

4. It is not easy to see our assumptions. Our most basic

assumptions are embedded in the basic elements of our
everyday lives (our language, our routines and habits, our
technologies).

5. "We create our tools and then our tools create us." 1

6. Most of what we take as "reality" is a cultural

construction ("real"-ized through our unseen,
unexamined assumptions of what is right, true, or
possible.)

7. We fail to examine our assumptions not just because they

are hard to see, but also because they are safe and
comfortable. They allow us to live with the flattering
illusion that "I am the center of the universe, and what
matters are my immediate needs and desires."

8. Our failure to move beyond such a view has led to the

tragedy of our times: that we are more connected than
ever, yet feel and act more disconnected.

1 Quote from John Culkin, 1967

7
 Michael Wesch

9. Memorizing these ideas is easy. Living them takes a

lifetime of practice. Fortunately, the heroes of all time
have walked before us. They show us the path.

10. They show us that collectively, we make the world.

Understanding how we make the world – how it could be
made or understood differently – is the road toward
realizing our full human potential. It is the road to true
freedom.

Each lesson concludes with a challenge that will allow you to

"live your way" into this new way of thinking. You will talk to
strangers, do fieldwork, get comfortable with the uncomfortable, try
new things, break habits, reach out across great distances to discover
how you are connected to other people all over the planet, encounter
and come to appreciate people radically different from you, and
ultimately come back home to see yourself as a new kind of person, a
hero in your own way, ready to be the best human you can be.
You don't have to journey alone. Go to ANTH101.com and
share your challenges and progress with others. It's the perfect place
to ask questions, make connections, and try new things. It's a place to
practice the art of being human.

See you there,

Professor Wesch

8
 The Art of Being Human

Lesson One
Fieldwork
People are different. These differences represent the vast range of
human potential and possibility. Our assumptions, beliefs, values,
ideas, ideals – even our abilities – are largely a product of our
cultures.

9
 Michael Wesch

ASKING QUESTIONS,
MAKING CONNECTIONS,
AND TRYING NEW THINGS

About 20 years ago, I was sitting in a university lecture hall with

almost 500 other students waiting for our first lecture in
anthropology class. We all had our reasons for being there, and most
of them ended with the word "requirement." There was the "Social
Sciences 3 of 4" requirement, the "45 hours of General Electives"
requirement and the "60 hours at our university" requirement, among
many others. For me, it was the "International Overlay" requirement.
I had no idea what anthropology was or why it was required. All I
knew was what I had learned as I looked up "anthropology" in the
dictionary just before rushing off to class.

Anthropology, n. The study of all humans in all times in all places.

A smartly dressed, white-haired, bearded professor entered the

room and showed us what appeared to be a strange ink blot test on
the screen, asking us what we saw. We stared up at these apparently
random splatters of ink that we were supposed to decipher like
children looking for shapes in the clouds.

10
 The Art of Being Human

I felt proud of myself when I recognized that the splatters were

the shapes of the continents and that we were looking at the world
upside down, to which the professor challenged, "Is it really upside
down? The world is a sphere. Who decided that north is up?" He
then showed us a map popular in Australia (McArthur's Universal
Corrective Map) with Australia standing proudly at the top and center
of the world. It struck me that this map was no less true than the one
I knew, which placed the United States and Europe standing proudly
at the top and center.
He then proceeded to convince us that it wasn't just the world
that we had upside down, it was bananas too. We had been peeling
them wrong our entire lives. Monkeys and many cultures on the
planet know that the best way to peel a banana is not from the stem,
but rather "upside down." Even the most stubborn banana opens
easily from this end, and you can then immediately throw away the
fibrous and inedible black tip and use the stem as a handle.
Then he turned our whole lives upside down, challenging our
most basic taken-for-granted assumptions in virtually all aspects of
our lives, moving from the economic realm and on to family, society,
politics, art, and religion. He challenged our views on success, love,
and even happiness. Ultimately, he would challenge us to consider
how even our most basic everyday activities – shopping, driving,
eating – are connected to all humans everywhere, and gave us

11
 Michael Wesch

profound and unforgettable reminders of the impacts we might have

on others.
He framed the course around a very simple idea: that our beliefs,
values, ideas, ideals, and even our abilities are largely a product of our
cultures. He introduced three seemingly simple yet tremendously
powerful terms to help us explore this idea:

Ethnocentrism: holding one's own beliefs, values, ideas, ideals,

and assumptions to be the only true and proper ones. This is like a
prison for the mind. Until we could move past our ethnocentrism, we
would be trapped, with little opportunity to change and grow.

Cultural relativism: the antidote to ethnocentrism. This is the

idea that we must understand other people's ideas, ideals,
assumptions and beliefs relative to their own culture. We have to
suspend judgment and try to understand the world in their terms.2
The beauty of this activity is that once we find our way into a
different perspective, we can then look back on our own culture with
new eyes.

Participant Observation: the hallmark method of anthropology.

We do not just observe other people in our attempts to understand
them. We join in. Only then can we move closer to their experience
and understand them with depth and detail.

While these may seem like nothing more than bold-faced terms in
a textbook, to be memorized and then forgotten, they were like fire-
bombs for my mind. They were a constant reminder that my hard-set
ideas about what was right, true, or possible might be wrong. It was
as if a curtain had been drawn back for me to look at the world for

2 This does not mean we withhold judgment forever and deny all judgement (which would
be "moral relativism"). We simply suspend our judgment so that we can understand them.
As Scott Atran, an anthropologist who studies terrorists such as ISIS notes, the key is to
"empathize with people, without always sympathizing." Empathy allows anthropologists to
understand others from their perspective, regardless of how reprehensible that perspective
might seem.

12
 The Art of Being Human

the first time, and each of the thousands upon thousands of different
beliefs and practices visible there would be a challenge to my own.
I learned about cultures that challenged my perceived limits of
human potential. The Tarahumara of central Mexico can run over
400 miles without stopping. The Moken of Thailand can intentionally
control the pupils of their eyes to see more clearly underwater as they
dive for clams, while also willfully decreasing their heart rate so they
can hold their breath for five minutes or longer! The Inuit survive the
Arctic winter by tracking and killing seals under several feet of ice.
The !Kung of southern Africa find food and water in one of the
seemingly most desolate deserts on the planet. The Jenna Kuruba of
India start making friends with elephants from the time they are small
children, training them and eventually riding on their giant backs,
walking through life together as lifetime partners.
Anthropology can introduce you to cultures where fat is a mark
of health and beauty, or where beauty is not a prominent mark of
worth at all. Places where the body is an integrated part of who you
are, useful and functional in the world, not a thing to be obsessively
carving or pumped so that you can be swole, cut, ripped, or chiseled.
Some differences are cute. Others are disturbing. You might find
a place where dogs or horses are considered good eating, or where
pork and beef are forbidden.
It can transport you to places where people perform strange
superstitious rituals, only to discover that these rituals are
sophisticated ways of managing their culture and environment. For
example, the complex water temples of the Balinese, which have
managed water distribution across their rice terraces on the island for
over 1200 years—and recently came to the rescue and saved the
island from environmental collapse when new agricultural
technologies were introduced.
Anthropology introduces you to worlds without clocks or
calendars. Places where time is measured by the song of birds or the
pangs of a hungry stomach rather than the digits of a clock. Places
where there are no deadlines or jobs. No grades or schools. No laws,

13
 Michael Wesch

lawyers, or judges. No politicians or rulers. Places where

smartphones, cars, and electricity are known but forbidden.
You can find differences that seem to cut to the very essence of
how we perceive the world. There are cultures where the locus of
thinking is believed not to be in the head, but somewhere near the
heart – or where the notion of "thinking" is not separated at all from
the notion of "feeling." There are cultures that believe there is not
just one soul, but several.
There are places where success is measured by how much you
give away, not by the size of your house or the cost of your car.
Places where winning isn't everything. Places where faith is about
being comfortable with the unknown, not with how firmly you
believe.
When anthropology is done right, none of these things strike you
as exotic oddities. Rather, they are exciting possibilities. They make
you reconsider your own taken-for-granted assumptions. They can
make you wonder: If there are humans in the world who can run over 400
miles without rest, or dilate their pupils under water, or hold their breath for five
minutes, or find food in an Arctic winter or desert summer … or make friends
with elephants … why can't I?
All this cultural diversity was new to me, and much of it was
cracking me open to examine parts of my world and worldview I had
never even seen before. The cracks reached deep into my everyday
life.
My girlfriend had just broken up with me. She was the first love
of my life, and at the time I was sure that she was "the one." Now
here was a guy presenting me with the idea that the very notion of
"the one" was nothing but a cultural construction unique to my
culture, time and place. He shared stories about cultures where one
man might have many wives ("polygyny") or where one woman
might have many husbands ("polyandry"). He shared stories about
cultures where marriage was not primarily about romance but about
more practical matters of subsistence and partnership. While we all
dutifully set about to memorize these new terms, I couldn't help but

14
 The Art of Being Human

see that the very terms of my life were changing. A core ideal that
had been the central organizing principle of my life – the idea of "the
one" that I had to find to live a happy life, the idea that each one of
us might have a soulmate made just for us – was clearly not an idea
universally shared across cultures. It was an idea that was contingent
on a vast array of cultural and historical forces. The world, it seemed,
had a lot to teach me about love that I just didn't know yet.
The professor spoke softly and smoothly, as if unaware of the
fact that he was lobbing intellectual fire-bombs into the audience and
blowing minds. What on the one hand seemed like a bunch of simple
facts to be memorized for an exam carried much deeper and more
profound messages for me – that the world is not as it seems, that we
know the world only through our own cultural biases, that even the
little things matter, that taken together all the little things we do make
the world what it is, and that if we are willing to challenge ourselves,
truly understand others with empathy, and shed the comfort of our
familiar but sometimes blinding, binding, and taken-for-granted
assumptions, we can make the world a better place.
The idea that our most central ideas, ideals, beliefs and values are
culturally constructed was liberating. It was also terrifying. I found
myself struggling with questions I had never considered before. I
kept going to the professor with my questions, hoping for answers.
But he never offered any.
He just smiled.

Three years later I landed in Port Moresby, the capital city of

Papua New Guinea. It was as far from my small-town Nebraska
upbringing as I could imagine, both geographically and culturally. If I
wanted the answers to my questions … if I wanted to understand just
how different people could be … if I wanted to explore the vast
range of human potential and possibility … this seemed like the place
to be.

15
 Michael Wesch

Port Moresby was once described by Paul Theroux as "one of the

most violent and decrepit towns on the face of the planet." It
frequently tops the Economic Intelligence Unit's annual survey as the
world's most unlivable city. There are the normal struggles of an
impoverished city: water rationing, intermittent electricity, lack of
sanitation, and rampant corruption. But what really sets it apart is its
crime rate. Foreign Policy named it one of five "murder capitals of the
world." Unemployment runs from 60-90%, and opportunistic crime
is a common way for people, even the most respectable people, to
make ends meet.
But none of this could dampen my young spirit. I was a twenty-
three-year-old small-town boy from Nebraska, eager to explore the
world. Perhaps it was my small-town upbringing that had given me
this sense of faith and trust in other people. I had an unwavering
belief that there are good people everywhere. Open up to people and they
will open up to you, I thought. Every place on the planet has its charm,
and it can usually be found in the spirit of the people themselves. I
was looking forward to diving into the life of this busy little city. I left
the hotel on my first morning in the city with a full spirit and a fully-
loaded backpack, ready for an all-day adventure.
It was a calm and beautiful morning in the tropical paradise. Palm
trees slowly swayed above me in the morning breeze. The streets
were empty, except for two teenage boys walking my way. "Hey!
Moning!" they shouted.
What an exuberant and kind greeting, I thought.
They speak Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, a creole with words
drawn from English, German, Malay, Portuguese and several local
languages. Fortunately, about 80% of the words come from English,
so it is fairly easy to pick up for an English speaker.
"Moning! Moning!" I called back.
"Nogat! Moni! Moni!" one of the boys responded tersely, and the
two, now just 20 steps away, quickened their pace and approached
me with clear determination.

16
 The Art of Being Human

I had misunderstood them, but I was clear on what they wanted

from me now: They wanted my money. I glanced to my left and right
and saw no hope of escape. Fences covered in razor wire crowded
the street on both sides, locking me in. Razor wire, I thought. Why
hadn't I noticed that before? It was an intimidating reminder of just how
dangerous this place might be.
I continued to try to win them over, still hoping that I could
transform this interaction into a polite inconsequential morning
ritual. Perhaps if I could just be charming enough, they would let me
pass; or if not charming, at least so naïve that they might take pity on
me. "Morning!" I replied even more cheerfully, walking confidently
toward them, and hopefully, right past them.
"Nogat! Moni! Moni!" he responded, slapping his pockets for
emphasis.
I thought maybe I could get by them with a little humor. I
pretended that I still didn't understand, and acted as if they were
teaching me proper pronunciation and the proper gestures that go
along with the greeting. "Moni!" I said cheerfully with my best and
broadest smile while I slapped my pockets with exuberance. I hoped
they might just laugh at the stupid foreigner and let me pass.
They did not think I was very funny. They blocked me, looking
angrier than ever.
"Moni!" the boy on the left said sternly, as he pulled back his
jacket to reveal a 24-inch machete.
I turned my back to them, hoping that if they struck me with the
machete the first slash would hit my oversized 40-pound backpack,
and I ran.
They must have paused for a moment, because I had 10 steps on
them before I could hear them coming. But I was no match for two
fit teenagers as my 40-pound pack bounced clumsily on my back.
They were closing in fast.
I came to a street corner and veered right. A large group of young
men turned to see me coming. In my moment of fear, I expected the
worst from them. Blood-red betel nut juice oozed from their lips.

17
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 On the lesser urn were the following verses.

Plund’rers with prying eyes, away!

What mean ye by this curious stay?
Hence with your cunning, patron god,
With bonnet wing’d, and magic rod!
Sacred alone to Pluto’s name,
This mighty work of endless fame.

Saint Austin mentions a lamp that was found in a temple,

dedicated to Venus, which was always exposed to the open weather,
and could never be consumed or extinguished. And Ludovicus Vives,
his commentator, mentions another lamp which was found a little
before his time, that had continued burning for one thousand and fifty
years.

It is supposed, that the perpetuity of these lamps, was owing to the

consummate tenacity of the unctuous matter with which the flame
was united, being so proportioned to the strength of the fire, that, like
the radical moisture and natural heat in animals, neither of them
could conquer or destroy the other. Licetus, who is of this opinion,
observes, that in order to preserve this equality of proportion, the
ancients hid these lamps in caverns, or close monuments: and
hence it has happened, that on opening these tombs, the admission
of fresh air to the lamps has produced so great an inequality
between the flame and the oil, that they have been presently
extinguished.
 Mr. Addison in his Spectator, relates the
following story of the lamp of Rosicrucius.
“A certain person having occasion to dig somewhat deep in the
ground, where the philosopher Rosicrucius lay interred, met with a
small door, having a wall on each side of it. His curiosity, and the
hopes of finding some hidden treasure, soon prompted him to force
open the door. He was immediately surprised by a sudden blaze of
light, and discovered a very fair vault: at the upper end of it was a
statue of a man in armour, sitting by a table, and leaning on his left
arm. He held a truncheon in his right hand, and had a lamp burning
before him. The man had no sooner set one foot within the vault,
than the statue erected itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt
upright, and upon the fellow’s advancing another step, lifted up the
truncheon in his right hand. The man still ventured a third step, when
the statue with a furious blow broke the lamp into a thousand pieces,
and left his guest in a sudden darkness.”
Upon the report of this adventure, the country people soon came
with lights to the sepulchre, and discovered that the statue, which
was made of Brass, was nothing more than a piece of clock work;
that the floor of the vault was all loose, and underlaid with several
springs, which, upon any man’s entering, naturally produced that
which had happened.
Rosicrucius, say his disciples, made use of this method, to shew
the world that he had reinvented the ever-burning lamps of the
Ancients, tho’ he was resolved no one should reap any advantage
from the discovery.[2]
[2] Note.—Mr. Addison seems to have borrowed this story from
the one related by Dr. Parsons. Vide p. 121.

In the tenth year of Henry II. at the digging of a new foundation in

the church of St. Mary-Hill, in London, there was found and taken up
the body of Alice Hackney, she had been buried in that church a
hundred and seventy-five years before, yet was she there found
whole of skin, and the joints of her arms pliable; her corpse was kept
above ground four days without any inconvenience, exposed to the
view of as many as would behold it, and then re-committed to the
earth.
Baker’s Chronicle.

In the reign of King James, at Astley in Warwickshire, upon the fall

of the church, there was taken up the corpse of Thomas Grey,
Marquis of Dorset, who was there buried the 10th of October, 1530,
in the twenty second year of King Henry VIII, and although it had
been lain seventy eight years, in this bed of corruption, yet his eyes,
hair, flesh, nails, and joints, remained as if he had been but newly
buried.

In the year 1554, there was found in Rome a coffin of marble,

eight feet long, and in it a robe, embroidered with Goldsmith’s work,
which yielded six and thirty pounds weight of gold; besides forty
rings, a cluster of emeralds, a little mouse, made of another precious
stone, and amongst all these precious magnificences, two leg bones
of a dead corpse, known by the inscription of the tomb to be the
bones of the Empress Mary, daughter of Stilicoe, and wife of the
Emperor Honorius.

Robert Braybrook, born at a village in Northamptonshire, was

consecrated Bishop of London, January, 5th, 1381. He was after that
Chancellor of England for six months. He died, anno. 1404, and was
buried under a marble stone, in the chapel of St. Mary, in the
Cathedral of St. Paul’s, London. Yet was the body of this Bishop
lately taken up, and found firm, as to skin, hair, joints, nails, &c. For
upon that fierce and fatal fire in London, September, 2nd, 1666,
which burnt so much of St. Paul’s church, when part of the floor fell
into St. Faith’s, this dead person was shaken out of his dormitory,
where he had lain no less than two hundred and sixty two years. His
body was exposed to the view of all sorts of people for divers days;
and some thousands did behold and poise it in their arms, till by
special order it was re-interred.
Fuller’s Worthies.

In the Reign of King Henry II. anno. 1089, the bones of King
Arthur, and his wife Guenevor were found in the vale of Avalon,
under an hollow oak, fifteen feet under ground, the hair of the said
Guenevor being then whole and fresh, of a yellow colour; but as
soon as it was touched, it fell to powder, as Fabian relateth: this was
more than six hundred years after his death. His shin bone, set by
the leg of a tall man, reached above his knee the breadth of three
fingers.
Baker’s Chronicle.

The body of Albertus Magnus was taken out of his sepulchre, to

be re-interred in the midst of the chancel in a new tomb for that
purpose, it was two hundred years from the time wherein he had
been first buried; yet was he found entire without any kind of
deformation, unless it was this (says a celebrated historian) that his
jaw seemed to be somewhat fallen.
 Mr. Brydone in his travels, speaking of a Sicilian Convent, says,
the famous convent of Capuchins, about a mile without the city of
Palermo, contains nothing very remarkable but the burial place,
which is indeed a great curiosity. This is a vast subterraneous
apartment, divided into large commodious galleries, the walls on
each side of which are hollowed out into a variety of niches, as if
intended for a great collection of statues. These niches, instead of
statues, are filled with dead bodies set upright upon their legs, and
fixed by the back to the inside of the niche. Their number is about
three hundred. They are all dressed in the clothes they usually wore,
and form a most respectful and venerable assembly. The skin and
muscles, by a certain preparation, become as dry and hard as a
piece of stock fish: and although many of them have been here
upwards of two hundred and fifty years, yet none are reduced to
skeletons. The muscles indeed, in some, appear to be a good deal
more shrunk in some than in others; probably because these
persons had been more extenuated at the time of their death. Here
the people of Palermo pay daily visits to their deceased friends, and
recall with pleasure and regret, the scenes of their past life. Here
they familiarize themselves with their future state, and choose the
company they would wish to keep in the other world. It is a common
thing to make choice of their niche, and to try if the body fits it, that
no alterations may be necessary after they are dead; and sometimes
by way of a voluntary penance, they accustom themselves to stand
for hours in these niches. The bodies of the princes and first nobility,
are lodged in handsome chests, or trunks; some of them richly
adorned. These are not in the shape of coffins, but all of one width,
and about a foot and a half or two feet deep. The keys are kept by
the nearest relations of the family, who sometimes come and drop a
tear over their departed friends. Some of the Capuchins sleep in
these galleries every night, and pretend to have many wonderful
visions and revelations; but the truth is, that very few people believe
them.
 In the philosophical transactions, we find the following account of a
body found in a vault, in the church of Staverton, in Devonshire, by
Mr. Tripe, Surgeon at Ashburton, in a letter to Doctor Huxham, dated
June, 28th, 1750. There having been a great diversity of reports,
says the writer, relating to a body lately discovered in a vault in
Staverton church, I have taken the liberty of communicating to you
the following particulars. As it does not appear by the register of the
burials, that any person has been deposited in this vault since
October, 5th, 1669, it is certain that the body has lain there upwards
of four score years; yet, when the vault was opened, about four
months ago, it was found as perfect in all its parts, as if but just
interred. The whole body was plump and full, the skin white, soft,
smooth, and elastic; the hair strong, and the limbs nearly as flexible
as when living.
A winding sheet, which was as firm as if just applied, enclosed it
from head to foot, and two coarse cloths dipped in a blackish
substance, like pitch, infolding the winding sheet. The body, thus
protected, was placed in an oaken coffin, on which, as it was always
covered with water, was found a large stone, and a log of wood,
probably to keep it at the bottom.
Various have been the conjectures as to the cause of its
preservation; and it has been reported, though probably without
foundation, that the person was a Roman Catholic; there have been
some of that religion, who not having philosophy enough to account
for it from natural causes, have attributed it to a supernatural one,
and canonized him: and, in consequence of this, have taken away
several pieces of the winding sheet and pitch clothes, preserving
them as relics with the greatest veneration.
In my opinion, says Mr. Tripe, the pitch clothes and water
overthrow the miracle, and bring it within the power of natural
agents; from the former by defending the body from the external air;
and the latter by preserving the tenacity of the pitch.
 In the year 1448, in the ruins of an old wall of the beautiful church
at Dunfermling in Scotland, there was found the body of a young
man, in a coffin of lead, wrapped up in silk: it preserved the natural
colour, and was not in the least manner corrupted; though it was
believed to be the body of the son of King Malcolm the Third, by the
Lady Margaret.

In the year 1764, the following interesting account

appeared in an Italian paper.
“Letters from Rome say, that they have removed to the
Clementinian College there, some antiquities which were
discovered in a vineyard near the church de St. Cesair,
situated on the Appian way, not far from the ruins of the baths
of the Emperor Caracalla. The workmen who laboured in the
vineyard, struck against a thick vault, which they broke
through with great difficulty. In this vault they found four urns
of white marble, adorned with bass-reliefs, the subject of
which left no room to doubt of their being sepulchral urns.
Under this vault they perceived another, which being broke
through, discovered two magnificent oval basons, the one of a
black colour, mixed with veins of the Lapis Calcedonius; its
greatest diameter, was about six feet and a half, the least,
three feet, and two feet deep. This bason contained a human
body. The second bason was of a greenish colour, of the
same dimensions with the other, except its being but a foot
and a half deep. This was covered with white marble, and
contained the body of a woman very richly cloathed; but it
was hardly opened, before the body and its attire fell wholly
into powder; from which was recovered eight ounces of pure
gold. In the same place was found a small statue of Pallas, in
white marble; the work of which is highly esteemed.”
 Alexander Guavnerius, speaking of the old and great city of Kiovia,
near De Borysthenes, “There are,” saith he, “certain subterraneous
caverns extended to a great length and breadth within ground: here
are divers ancient sepulchres, and the bodies of certain illustrious
Russians; these, though they have lain there time out of mind, yet do
they appear entire. There are the bodies of two princes in their own
country habits, as they used to walk when alive, and these are so
fresh and whole, as if they had but newly lain there. They lie in a
cave unburied, and by the Russian Monks are shewn to strangers.”

Some years since, at the repairs of the church of St. Cœcilia,

beyond the river Tiber, there was found the body of a certain
Cardinal, an Englishman, who had been buried there three hundred
years before; yet was it every way entire, not the least part of it
perished, as they report, who both saw and handled it.

At the time Constantine reigned with Irene his mother, there was
found in an ancient sepulchre in Constantinople, a body with a plate
of gold upon the breast of it, and thereon thus engraven.—In
Christum credoqui ex Mariâ Virgine nescetor: O Sol, imperantibus
Constantino & Irene interrem me videbus: that is, I believe in that
Christ who shall be born of Mary a Virgin: O Sun thou shall see me
again, when Constantine and Irene shall come to reign.—When this
inscription had been publicly read, the body was restored to the
same place where it had been formerly buried.

The sepulchre of the great Cyrus, king of Persia, was violated in

the days of Alexander the Great, in such a manner, that his bones
were displaced and thrown out, and the urn of gold that was fixed in
his coffin, when it could not be wholly pulled away, was broken off by
parcels. When Alexander was informed hereof, he caused the Magi,
who were intrusted with the care and keeping thereof, to be exposed
unto tortures, to make them confess the authors of so great a
violation and robbery: but they denied with great constancy that they
had any hand in it, or that they knew by whom it was done. Plutarch
says, that it was one Polymachus, a noble Pellean, that was guilty of
so great a crime. It is said, that the epitaph of this mighty monarch
was to this purpose.
O mortal that comest hither (for come I know thou wilt) know that I
am Cyrus the son of Cambyses, who settled the Persian Empire,
and ruled over Asia, and therefore envy me not this little heap of
earth, where-with my body is covered.

Not long since, at Bononiæ, in the church of St. Dominick, there

was found the body of Alexander Tartagnus, a Lawyer at Imola,
which was perfectly entire, and no way decayed, although it had lain
there from his decease above one hundred and fifty years.

Pausanius makes mention of a soldier, whose body was found

with wounds fresh, and apparent upon it, although it had been buried
sixty two Olympiads, that is no less than two hundred and forty eight
years.
 METHODS
OF
EMBALMING.

The ancient Egyptians had three ways of embalming their dead,

and artists were particularly trained up for that purpose: the most
costly method was practised only upon persons of high rank, of
which sort are all the mummies that have remained entire to the
present times: it was done by extracting the brains through the
nostrils, and injecting a rich balm in their stead, then opening the
belly and taking out the intestines, the cavity was washed with palm
wine impregnated with spices, and filled with myrrh and other
aromatics; this done, the body was laid in nitre seventy days, at the
end of which, it was taken out, cleansed, and swathed with fine linen,
gummed and ornamented with various hieroglyphics, expressive of
the deceased’s birth, character, and rank. This process completed,
the embalmer carried home the body, where it was placed in a coffin,
cut in human shape, and then enclosed in an outer case, and placed
upright against the wall of the burying place belonging to the family.
Another less expensive method of embalming was, by injecting
into all the cavities of the body, a certain dissolvent; which being
suffered to run off after a proper time, carried with it whatever was
contained therein liquified; and then the body, thus purged, being
dried by the nitrous process as before, the operation was closed by
swathing, &c. By the third and lowest method of embalming, which
was only in use among the poor, they drenched the body with
injections, and then dried it with nitre.
The Egyptians had a custom among them of pledging the dead
bodies of their parents and kindred, as a security for the payment of
their debts, and whoever neglected to redeem them was held in the
utmost abhorrence, and denied the rights of burial themselves.
They paid extravagant honours to their deceased ancestors: and
there are at this day to be seen in Egypt pompous subterranean
edifices, called by the Greeks Hypogees, representing towns or
habitations under ground, in which there are streets or passages of
communication from one to another, that the dead might have as
free intercourse as when alive.

FINIS.
 INDEX

Page.

A.

Athens, Law there to prevent premature interment, 3

Asia, Dead bodies kept there several days before burial, 10

Abbé Provost, remarkable circumstance attending, 24

Ackland, Sir Hugh, and his Brandy footman, Story of, 28

Acilius Aviola, burnt to death, for want of being first examined,

60

Armenius Erus, returns to life, after being apparently dead, 69

Alexander, Dr. Story related by, 69

Aberdeen, remarkable affair happened there, 115

Ancients, remarkable Tombs and Lamps of, 121

Atestes, a Town in Italy, Lamp found there that had been

burning 1500 years, 130

Austin, St., Lamp mentioned by him that continued burning 1050

years, 133

Addison, Mr., his story of the Rosicrucian Lamp, 134

Alice Hackney, her body found perfect after 175 years interment,
136

Arthur, King and his wife, their bodies found after 600 years
burial, 138

B.

Boy, remarkable recovery of after being laid out for dead, 20

Benedictus, Alexander, his story of a Lady buried alive, 31

Baldock, Master, resuscitated, after apparent death, 65

Burying in churches and confined church-yards, danger of, 96

Buchan, Dr., his observations on burying in the midst of Cities,

116

Baptistæ Portæ, account by, of a burning Lamp, secreted before

the advent of Christ, 129

Braybrook, Robert, his body found after 262 years interment,

137

Brydone, Mr., his account of a remarkable burying-place near

Palermo, 140

Body found in a Vault, curious particulars of, ib.

Bononiæ, Church of, a perfect body found there, 150 years after
burial, 149

Body buried sixty two Olympiads, described by Pausanius, 150

C.

Cicero, his observations concerning the Dead, 1

Coach office Director, restored to life after being supposed
dead, 19

Civile, Francis. Remarkable story of, 25

Cardinal Espinolæ, ditto, 23

Cornwall, Lady there, ditto, 70

Colchester, a child there, nearly buried alive, 74

Churches, observations on the pernicious custom of burying

there, 96

Ditto, ditto, ditto, 98

Ditto, ditto, ditto, 104

Contagion from opening new Graves, how to prevent, 107

Cleopatra’s Tomb, account of, 126

Cedrenus, his description of a wonderful Lamp, 128

Constantine Chlorus, burning Lamp found in his tomb, ib.

Constantine and Irene, remarkable sepulchre found in their time,

147

Cœciliæ, church of, body found there, buried upwards of 300

years, ib.

D.

Dead bodies improperly treated, 10 to 18

Death, difficulty of distinguishing when persons are really so, 78

Dead, various methods of burying by different Nations, 83

Dead bodies, how to preserve safe in their graves, 120

Dr. Parsons extraordinary story, 121

Dunfermline Church, body of a young Man found there, 144

Dominick, St. Church of, remarkable body found there, 149

E.

Egyptians particularly careful of their dead, 2

England, people there keep their dead several days before

burial, 9

Espinola, Cardinal, not dead when about to be dissected, 23

Elizabeth a Servant, not dead after long hanging, and ill

treatment, 64

Egyptians embalm their dead, 87

Eastern Countries, practice of burying their dead, 117

Edessa, remarkable Lamp found there, 128

F.

Fever patients ought to be particularly looked after before laid

out as dead, 80

France, King of, prohibits burying in churches, 98

Female, extraordinary resolve of, 119

G.

Greeks, great veneration of, for their dead, 2

Geneva, people appointed there to inspect the dead, 9

Genoa, dead people there, dressed according to their rank, ib.

Godfrey, the Honourable Mrs. remarkable trance of, 43

Green, Anne, remarkable story of, 62

Glover, Mr. story related by, of a person restored to life after

hanging, 73

Greeks, old, singular method of burial, 85

Graves, danger of opening too soon, 107

Grave, opened too soon in Aberdeen, fatal consequence

attending, 115

Grey, Thomas, Marquis of Dorset, corpse found after seventy

years burial, 136

Guavnerius, Alexander, curious account of a subterranean

cavern by, 146

H.

Hawe’s, Dr., extract from his addresses to the public, 80

Hale, Sir Matthew, his observations on burying in churches, 98

Hall, Bishop, extract from his Sermon on church burials, 99

Hackney, Alice, her body found after 175 years interment, 136

I.

Interment, premature, great danger of, 1

Interesting account from an Italian paper, 145

 J.

Jews, their manner of burying their dead, 9

Janin, Monsieur, story of a child apparently dead, recovered by,

71

Joseph the Second, prohibits burials in churches, 118

K.

Kiovia, City of, subterranean burying places near, 146

L.

Lady buried alive in Russia, 40

Lamps, ever-burning ones of the Ancients, 121 to 135

M.

Mercier, Monsieur, very remarkable story related by, 31

Mold Church, in Flintshire, singular epitaph there, 98

Montpelier, remarkable circumstance that happened there, 104

Maximus, Olybius, curious Lamp made by, 131

Mary-at-Hill, St., body found there after 175 years burial, 136

Magnus, Albertus, his body found after 200 years interment, 139

Methods of embalming, 151

N.

Navier, Monsieur, observations by, on the danger of burying in

churches, 107
Nevis, Island of, wonderful burning Lamp found there, 129

O.

Olybius, Maximus, curious Lamp made by, 131

P.

Plato, attention by him, recommended to the dead, 1

Primitive church, washed and anointed their dead, 8

Pallas, remarkable burning Lamp of, 129

Philosophical transactions, body found in a vault, described

therein, 142

Pausanius, body mentioned by him, found after 248 years

interment, 150

R.

Romans, great attention paid by them to their dead, 3, 4 and 5

Rouen, siege of, remarkable circumstance happened there, 25

Resuscitation, very extraordinary one, in Sweden, 35

Russia, young lady buried alive there, 40

Retchmuth Adoleh, buried alive, at Cologne, 51

Reanimation of a female in Paris, supposed to be dead, 68

Romans, method of burying their dead, 88

Remarkable fact of Sumovin Feodose, 94

Rosicrucian Lamp, story of, 134

Rome, remarkable coffin and curiosities found there, 137

S.

Syrians, their method of embalming, 2

Spain, method of dressing the dead there, 9

Syncope, sometimes mistaken for death, 21

Schmid, Dr. John, story related by, ib.

Syncope, remarkable story of a person having fallen into one,

22

Scroop, Sir Gervase, story of, related by Dr. Fuller, 29

Sweden, remarkable occurrence there, 35

Spain, lady there, returns to life under the hands of the

anatomist, 59

Sumovin Feodose, remarkable story of, 94

Scripture, quotations from, against burying in churches, 99

Story, remarkable, related by Dr. Parsons, 121

Solomon, King, his servant’s tomb, 126

Sicilian convent, remarkable burial place there, 140

Staverton church, curious particulars of a body found in a vault

there, 142

T.

Turks, scrupulously particular in examining the dead, 7

Trance, remarkable one, of the Honourable Mrs. Godfrey, 43

Tatoreidie, after being laid in a coffin for dead, returns to life, 61

Tissot, Dr. story related by him of a girl returning to life, after

being long in the water, 68

Tossach, Mr. case related by, of a Man recovering, after

apparent death, 69

Tomb of King Edward the First, interesting particulars of

opening, 91

Turks, their burying places, rendered handsome and agreeable,

97

Tombs, fatal consequences frequently happen by opening them

too soon, 107

Tombs, remarkable ones of the Ancients, 121

Temple dedicated to Venus, burning Lamp found therein, 133

Tripe, Mr. story related by, of a body found in a vault, 142

V.

Vesabe, physician, to Philip II. of Spain, opens a body before

dead, 57

Vapour, dreadful effects arising from one at Montpelier, 104

Valentia in Spain, remarkable body found there, 126

W.

Walker, Dr. melancholy account of his being buried alive, 45

Wynne, Dr. William, his epitaph, forbidding church burial, 98