Following a ritual perspective, the paper identifies a new form of ritual concerning the corpse, which could facilitate separation and allow the living to look at the deceased without disgust. In order to explore the effect of thanato-aesthetic interventions, the experience of the last glance of the bereaved at their deceased loved ones was analyzed. Twenty interviews were performed in three morgues, and thematic analysis was utilized. The aim was to illustrate how post-mortem grief may be affected by aesthetic manipulation of the corpse and ways in which the bereaved relocate their beloveds. The fundamental hypothesis is that the facilitation of concrete contact with the corpse may assist mourners to detach from the deceased. From the qualitative analysis, three areas of meaning prevalence emerged: Kübler-Ross phases of grief work and the conspiracy of silence; immortality and continuing bonds; and the effects of thanato-aesthetic interventions.
The preservation of the skull (or a part of it) of the dead is linked to the cult of the ancestors and with the idea that the spirit dwells in preference in the head of the deceased. The practice of the selection and conservation of human skulls is found quite regularly starting from the last phase of the Upper Paleolithic, the Maddalenian, and then developed during the European Mesolithic period (X-VII Millennium). The archaeological evidence analyzed up to now: the ritual treatment of the skull, together with the care in the disposal of the bodies, the presence of tools, food and non-instrumental objects such as flowers or animal horns, the application of agents such as red ocher and the shells, shows the attention given to the dead from the earliest.
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