Severed : a history of heads lost and heads found /
Larson, Frances, 1976-,
Severed : a history of heads lost and heads found / Frances Larson. - First edition. - xviii, 317 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-307) and index.
Prologue: Oliver Cromwell's head -- Introduction: Irresistible heads -- Shrunken heads -- Trophy heads -- Deposed heads -- Framed heads -- Potent heads -- Bone heads -- Dissected heads -- Living heads -- Conclusion: Other people's heads.
"The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and connects our inner selves to the outer world. Yet there is a dark side to the head's preeminence, one that has, in the course of human history, manifested itself in everything from decapitation to headhunting. So explains anthropologist Frances Larson in this fascinating history of decapitated human heads. From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues, from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads."--
0871404540 9780871404541
GBB4C6252 bnb
016939360 Uk
Beheading.
Head--Religious aspects.
Head--Social aspects.
Human remains (Archaeology)--Social aspects.
Skull--Social aspects.
Symbolic anthropology.
Severed : a history of heads lost and heads found / Frances Larson. - First edition. - xviii, 317 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-307) and index.
Prologue: Oliver Cromwell's head -- Introduction: Irresistible heads -- Shrunken heads -- Trophy heads -- Deposed heads -- Framed heads -- Potent heads -- Bone heads -- Dissected heads -- Living heads -- Conclusion: Other people's heads.
"The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and connects our inner selves to the outer world. Yet there is a dark side to the head's preeminence, one that has, in the course of human history, manifested itself in everything from decapitation to headhunting. So explains anthropologist Frances Larson in this fascinating history of decapitated human heads. From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues, from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads."--
0871404540 9780871404541
GBB4C6252 bnb
016939360 Uk
Beheading.
Head--Religious aspects.
Head--Social aspects.
Human remains (Archaeology)--Social aspects.
Skull--Social aspects.
Symbolic anthropology.