The Reintroduction and Diffusion of Mummification Practices in Taiwan, 1959-2011 (original) (raw)

Most human dead are eventually forgotten but are not supposed to be forgotten too soon. This point is suggested by the ritualization of corpse disposal, which follows special protocols marking it as separate from the disposal of ordinary waste. Even anonymous cadavers are often buried or cremated individually rather than more cost-efficiently cremated en masse or dissolved in pressured vats as deceased pets or livestock often are. This paper describes a small set of “special dead” in Taiwan, namely mummified corpses that have been adorned and enshrined. These are dead that, for some people, are worth remembering and have never died. But the gilded shells that often encase them may lacquer over bodily decay. Currently there are at least eleven formally enshrined, mummified corpses in Taiwan (see Table 1). The first was enshrined in 1879 and the most recent in 2007, although the earliest extant mummy had been held in military and police facilities and museum storage vaults since 1912 and was re-enshrined, on loan from a museum, as recently as 20 September 2011. Below I contextualize and explain mummification in Taiwan by answering the following questions. How do these mummies fit into the broader mortuary culture? How has the practice been disseminated? What are the trends in the practice? Finally, how can we explain its revival?