I like my giraffes alive, thanks

If you always thought the stuffed menagerie at Nixon Park was uber-creepy, be forewarned; you might want to stop reading this post now.

via the blog of granite
I refuse to post a larger or more
detailed picture of plastinated
humans; I hope this one is enough
to give you the general idea. Also,
I relish any opportunity to insert
pictures of Daniel Craig.

Controversial anatomist Gunther von Hagens, father of  plastination and the associated Body Worlds exhibition -- famously depicted in Casino Royale--has reestablished the public display of his technique in his native Germany. As a result of a series of legal challenges, the original Body Worlds exhibit has, according to Wikipedia, been absent from that country since the Summer of 2004.

The new exhibit, entitled Körperwelten Der Tiere (Bodyworlds of Animals) features plastinated specimens of species other than Homo sapiens sapiens, including Troglodytes gorilla, Struthio camelus, and Giraffa camelopardalis. 

Anatomist Gunther von Hagens looks at a plastinated giraffe
during an exhibition at Neunkirchen Zoo in Neunkirchen near
Saarbruecken March 19, 2010. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

Although, based on press photos, the exhibit is at least a year old, I first heard of it last week via The Daily Need, a blog by the editors, producers, and hosts of PBS's Need to Know. A press photo of a plastinated lamb (Photo of the Day for April 18)  showed up in my Facebook feed; its caption mentioned a plastinated giraffe. One Google image search later, and voila! The inspiration for this post.

I've viewed plastination with a critical gaze ever since graduate school, where I read and presented a scholarly article by sociologist Tony Walter in my Anthropological Perspectives on Body and Person module (I considered rereading it before commencing this blog post, but alas, it disappeared, along with many a PDF, when my last hard drive kicked the bucket.)

ABSRACT: 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.

Walter, T. (2004), PLASTINATION FOR DISPLAY: A NEW WAY TO DISPOSE OF THE DEAD. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 10: 603–627. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9655.2004.00204.x

As I recall, one of the most interesting insights to come from that article and the subsequent class discussion on the voyeuristic dimension of plastination was that, as the only American in a British classroom I was the only one to have ever seen a dead person; open-casket funerals are extremely rare  in Britain.  (I'd be interesting in reading this article by Linda Schulte-Sasse on the Americanization of Bodyworlds.) 

I'm not going to deny that human anatomy is  fascinating; you're talking to a girl who can easily spend an hour just thumbing through the pages of Emily's Color Atlas of Anatomy.  But I have never  and have no desire to EVER see the original Bodyworlds, probably owing in large part to a NAGPRA-induced wariness towards human remains of sketchy provenance. For more insight into the moral and ethical objections to the display of plastinated cadavers, check out stopbodyworlds.) 
 

via Animalfwd

But getting back to giraffes.

A visitor looks at a plastinated giraffe during an exibition

at the Neunkirchen Zoo in Neunkirchen near Saarbruecken

REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

According to Von Hagens (as quoted on the exhibit's official site - Where I could REALLY do without the creepy blinking giraffe eyeballs):

The more the individual thinks about the fragility of his or her body, the more respectful he or she will become toward other people and animals. BODY WORLDS of ANIMALS makes a valuable contribution to animal welfare and to increased appreciation of endangered species.

I think that statement is something of what we like to call in English, "a stretch." (No pun intended. Ha ha ha.)

You know what REALLY makes people more respectful of animals? Living, breathing animals. As opposed to glorified taxidermy.

 

P.S. This is the shirt I'm wearing as I type this. Christmas present 

from Emily from, if you can believe it, Five Below.

P.P.S. Everything I ever wanted/needed to know about giraffes,

I learned from reading Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes by Lynn Sherr