Some one posted this on social media, and the comments all were flippant or negative. ‘Gross’ was one simple denunciation that appeared again and again, but why is revulsion so deeply ingrained in our culture that the photograph of a tooth of a loved one set in precious metal to be worn as a memento mori or talisman inspires negative responses instantly. Instantly, without any hesitation.
I always have felt that we do not treat Death with the respect it deserves, nor in fact do we even consider any real relationship with this inevitable force of Nature. In fact, like the horrible phenominon of the ‘nursing home’ substituting the basic care of the elderly and infirm by their own families with a sort of long term storage until Death, we entrust the preparation of our dead to professionals.
In Islamic tradition, when any one dies, the body is taken to the mosque where members of the family of the deceased wash and prepare it for burial. There are no artificial fluids piped into the corpse, no elaborate artifice to stiffen or alter, no cosmic makeovers. The family washes the body lovingly and thoroughly, and burial usually occurs shrtly afterwards.
Just as we pay for the care of our infirm and elderly, we pay for the entire business of bidding farewell to our dead. We somehow believe that money is an acceptable substitute for our natural duties.
We therefore have little firsthand experience with the last chapter in the life of any human being. Is it any wonder then that people recoil from any REAL part of an individual who has died even in the form of a single tooth?
Our own heritage includes cults that honoured human heads. There are many tales of severed heads who acted as Oracles, including the Northern god Mimir, the Celtic Bran, and others.
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