The Body Political: Political Symbolism of Human Remains

The ways in which different cultures treat human remains are a potential goldmine for information concerning the structures of power that influence people in life and death. Cultural anthropology is often considered a social science wholly concerned with the living, often in opposition to the work with human remains that physical anthropology undertakes. However, human remains also have a place in sociocultural anthropology and are particularly pertinent to political anthropology. This paper explores the political structures of the Western world, particularly those within Europe and post-settler colonial contact with North America, as they affect and are reflected in the post-mortem treatment of the human body. The main focus of this paper is the cultural meaning attributed to putrefaction and decay, the historical origins of the moralization of post-mortem preservation, and the role of human remains in maintaining political power. As such, the tradition of the incorrupt saint is traced from its origins in miraculous preservation to examples in recent history wherein politicians are deliberately preserved and displayed to allow them to maintain a degree of the power in death as they had in life.