Plastination for Display

A New Way to Dispose of the Dead

Bibliographic Data

ID2266519
AuthorsTony Walter (0000-0001-9571-5225, University of Reading, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume10
Issue3
Pages603-627
Publication date2004-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9655.2004.00204.x
OpenAlexW2157486342
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited36

Plastination provides a new method, governed by medical technique rather than religious ritual, by which human remains may be transformed from unstable/wet to stable/dry. In the Körperwelten/Body Worlds exhibition, the public pay to view plastinated bodies, and are invited to donate their bodies for plastination after death. This article addresses the question of whether Body Worlds visitors accept plastination for display as a legitimate form of disposal. Three sources of data are drawn on: the ethnographer's account of his first visit to the exhibition in Brussels; the written comments of visitors to the London exhibition; and the stated motives of some donors. Plastination as final disposal is accepted by the vast majority of visitors; they perceive the dry, odourless body interiors within the clinical, scientific framework encouraged by the exhibition, and are often fascinated by what they see. This is complicated, however, by certain surface features and modes of display which enable the problematic reinsertion of personhood. So, plastination itself is accepted, but not all forms of display

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Dead body · Dispose pattern · Exhibition · Sociology · Visual arts · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning · Engineering · History · Museums and Cultural Heritage

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