Comments by "Mat Broomfield" (@matbroomfield) on "Living with the dead in Indonesia - BBC News" video.

  1. That's why we're the superior culture.
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  2. No, absolutely not healthy. Creepy beyond belief, and if that guy with his dad is any indication, it promotes supernatural beliefs and retards letting go. Also, rotting people in your living space. How repugnant is that? Some practices go way beyond mere cultural differences. That's why we don't support child brides, chopping the hands off thieves or stoning women for adultery. This is quantifiably unhealthy from a disease perspective and a psychological perspective.
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  3. The dad has been in the house for two years, and the son is stroking his face. That's not a gradual adjustment - that's a silent member of the family. And the corpse has wadding up his nose. Do you know why? Because his body fluids would leak out otherwise. Embalming or not, that's utterly disgusting. I'm not opposed to ancient cultures, but nor am I willing to do the cultural relativism tolerance dance that you seem willing to do. Not all things are reasonable simply because they're part of a historic culture.
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  4. Or not.
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  5.  nazmi nazmi  Of course it does! Dead bodies decay into a foul, noxious and highly poisonous slush - that's why the civilised world buries or burns them, and even the ancient world at least dessicated them. Keeping bodies around the home is just asking for diseases - just ask all the people who died from the black death.
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