Bones.
Indiana Jones.
Ross Gellar.
What do these three things have in common? They are all pop culture references to anthropology and anthropological subject matter. If you think about it, and I mean really think about it, you’ve probably been exposed to anthropological subject matter. Popular television shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Bones have brought anthropology to the forefront of the public’s attention. Even alternative media, such a Ph.D.Comics and Stargate SG-1, feature characters focusing on anthropology. It is easy to point out modern references to anthropology but what about in the past? Is the focus on anthropology a modern concept or one with a long, rich history? Today’s blog post will focus on three not-so-modern examples of how anthropology influenced popular culture.
- Sylvia Plath “All the Dead Dears"
- One of my favorite poets when I was younger was Sylvia Plath. Plath is a world-renowned poet famous for her collection of poetry and infamous demise. But one of her lesser known poems is called “All the Dead Dears” and describes the burial of a Roman woman housed at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. A reading of the poem alludes to the museum display, with the dead giveaway being the line in the poem that reads:
Relics
of a mouse and a shrew
That battened for a day on her ankle-bone.
That battened for a day on her ankle-bone.
- Edvard Munch “The Scream”
- While many hypotheses regarding the inspiration for Edvar Munch’s famous painting “The Scream” exist, the one crafted by Robert Rosenblum has an anthropology connection. In 1978, Rosenblum put forward that Munch may have been inspired by an exhibit of a Peruvian mummy at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, France. The mummy and the painting share many startling similarities, including haunting “screaming” pose.
- James Joyce’s “Finnigan’s Wake”
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| THE CAT & THE RAT The one, presumably chasing the other, became trapped in an organ pipe in the 1850s and were mummified. They are referred to in James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake” where someone is described as being “…As stuck as that cat to that mouse in that tube of that Christchurch organ…” |
16 comments:
Wow! I just saw the picture of the Peruvian mummy from: Gauguin's Nirvana: Painters at Le Pouldu 1889-90 page 104 that proves that archaeology and art have coincide at times in our past and present. This makes learning archaeology that much more interesting.
Edvard Munch's Painting "The Scream" and the Peruvian mummy are still my favorite examples from this blog entry. It is cool how the mummy seams to be screaming in horror and the painting captures this facial expression.
This blog is very relative to the earlier post about preserving archeological pieces and looting. If these pieces were to be lost, or not contained in a museum, they may have been completely walked over and not discovered. It saddens me that more and more of our history is being thrown away, replicated for greed, and simply not given enough credit for what they are. I never gave thought to Indiana Jones of having an anthropology history but now that I have taken the course, it absolutely has many significant pieces that relate to anthropology. In many events, movies, books and biographical pieces, anthropology shines and is sadly never given enough credit. I know myself and I usually just look at it as "history" rather than really reading into it and understand it as anthropology.
There's actually four versions of the scream three oils and one in pastels. The idea of it being based on a mummy, however, was disproved as Munch did not travel to Florence until after the first painting.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288824776_Edvard_Munch_y_la_Momia_de_un_sarcofago_de_la_Cultura_Chachapoyas
This is interesting how anthropology has had a profound influence on culture at any given time period. I wonder how drastically it shaped society back when people began exploring and finding new civilizations and fossils.
Color me morbid, but I had to look up an image of the gnawed Roman skeleton that was the "muse" for Plath's poem--the main impetus being driven by the fact I was convinced there were no volcanoes in England. Along the way, I was able to find condensced explinations about the differences between 'mummication' and 'preservation'.
I would imagine that seeing such a vivid visualization of pain had a deep and lasting impact on her, given the nature of her mental state. I feel that a lot of literary themes flirt with mortality. Seeing how actual manifestions of such have affected authors is fascinating, to me.
This is an interesting read, I watch Bones all the time & I still had no idea it was related to Anthropology until now.
-Monique McAllister
Anthropology really does influence our world! Its cool to see how even past anthropology is incorporated into the world today.
It's great to know that anthropology is very influential when it comes to history. Based on what I've seen through anthropology there's always something new to learn and at any given time histroy can be discovered.
Is fascinating how preserved the cat and rat are from the pipe in the 1850s! They still look so realist, just with the hair/fur.
--Kimberly Wilbers
Its cool to know that Anthropology affects art such as poetry and paintings from the past as well as changing and being popular in media. It seems to be a study area that never loses its flavor when it comes to being in the eye of the public. Although I've personally seen any TV shows that involve anthropology like Bones or something like that. -Malachi Brewer
I enjoy watching CSI and t.v. shows like Bones, I appreciate that a producer created something that also teaches the watchers about Anthropology even if most the details are fake such as the equipment they use to solve crimes.
I personally am not into like shows about things that involve anthropology but i do see how it can have a affect on the shows. like it influences things into pop culture. I do think a lot of them are not realistic enough for me in my opinion. But i like how the producers try to make it real.
Akwila Cooks
The more and more I read these blogs I'm glad that I have token up anthropology as a minor because it really has a huge impact on our history and most people have no idea. I think that everyone needs to be educated about anthropology and what it means.
This is really good! We need to acknowledge anthropologist more often and give thanks to them. They do so many things and it's amazing. I would love to go out and find bones. - Alexis Buford
I agree with her pop culture has introduced us to a lot of things that we didn’t even know we knew about. Like she said most of these popular shows evolve around anthropology. Within the first 5 minutes of one of those shows I bet you can explain how something is related to anthropology.
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