I could not for the life of me think of a final blog. So I decided to Google the title of the class 'Archaeology of Death' and see what popped up. The screen above is the result of my search. I decided that I will go through the first three websites and critique them to the best of my abilities. I will also attempt to determine whether they are relevant or pointless reguarding the subject matter that I have searched, as they are the first things to pop up.

1. Archaeology of Death MA Postgraduate - Courses - University of Central Lancashire
This is a website made by the University of Central Lancashire providing information on their MA course in the Archaeology of Death and how to apply. My critique of this being the first website is that it does not inform on the subject I have inquired after. I did not search any of the following words; 'MA,' 'university,' 'postgraduate,' 'learn,' 'school,' 'program,' etc. This should have not been the first result of my search. I would have liked it to be something informative, descriptive or defining. Anyway on to the next.

2. Category: Archaeology of Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 
As it mentions in the title this is a 'category' within Wikipedia that supply links to several pages of specific cases of 'archaeology of death' and is not in itself a page. The best way I can put it is that this is a gateway search that directs people to specific cased of death in archaeology such as: bog bodies of Northern Europe, cheddar man, fire mummies, jade burial suit, wulfsen horse burial etc. Useful information could be derived out of this search if you want an idea of the topics that fall within this category. It is also drilled into undergrads that Wikipedia is not an academic source and thus should not be bothered to even be looked upon. My correction to that statement however is that though Wikipedia is not an academic source they do cite some of their information. Thus the references can be used as they are usually academic, that is if you can find them. The UVic library for seeming to have so many books is not as stocked as it may seem when searching for specific sources. Overall I'd say this was a decent result better than the first but still not what I'm looking for so early on in my search.

3. The Archaeology of Death and Burial - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.        
The third search (especially in regards to this class) is extremely relevant. It is a Wiki page that summarizes and breaks down Pearson's The Archaeology of Death and Burial the very textbook used in our class. It explains he explains all the approaches used to study the subject; his preferred method is post-processual, but he also explores social anthropology and processual archaeology. For people searching on Google who are not in this course this page gives them a good source to start of their research or further their knowledge as it encompasses a great deal within the subject. I would say this along with the second result were much more valuable than the first for this particular search. However I would have still preferred a definition or a small symmetrization on what the subject actually is which was highly lacking in these results. All in all I must say that I was underwhelmed by this search.     

Zombieland

I was watching the movie Zombieland yesterday and it got me thinking... why is it that humans have this obsession with the living dead?

After looking up the definition of 'living dead' on Google I came to the realization that mummies and vampires can also fall within this category. The living dead are not just limited to zombies, like the definition above may suggest but I will be focusing on zombies in particular. There are times through out history when different horrors rise in and out of popularity. They rise and fall and rise and fall in an unpredictable pattern each monster or spirit or idea having its turn in that way. These days however I must say the zombie has been dominating. It cannot be said how long Zombies will stay in popularity. However through the use of film and television, I can trace the history of their recent rise to popularity.

The zombies that have taken popularity in current popular culture are those that become zombies by being 'infected' also known as the 'zombie apocalypse'. People find this method most plausible and can most easily relate to this method, a pose to alternative of a more supernatural means. The original zombie apocalypse genre started with the Night of the Living Dead trilogy. These movie aired in sparsely form 1968 to 1985. Since then there have been zombie movies but none that I find crucial enough to mention. Then the genre of the original trilogy made a come back in the mid 2000's and made four new movies, the last of which aired in 2010. They key difference between the two ages of zombie movies that clearly defines them is that the originals focus on radioactive contamination. this contamination however is not infectious.  Thus the original source of the recent outbreak of zombie fandemonium is not due to the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead but established by the 2002 horror film 28 Days Later. This movie could be seen as the first bite in the recent spread of the infectious zombie drama. This genre has only picked up popularity since and is especially reinforced by movies such as Zombieland and the show The Walking Dead. The last two examples display the creative and successful depiction of Zombies outside their original genre. In the case of Warm Bodies zombies are even established as protagonists in the romantic comedy genre, though I do not know how successful this movie was. With a bigger scope of use, Zombies have kept their popularity and continue to be a popular monster today.

There are several displays of zombie culture throughout society today. UVic runs an annual game of Humans vs. Zombies that is particularly popular. There are also several books and blogs about zombie survival. The popularity of zombies is prominent in today's society. However what I find most interesting is our relationship to the dead. Yes there are still depictions of the scary 'needs to instantly be killed' zombie but with movies like Zombieland and Warm bodies there is a sense of comedy and human emotion (the latter is only in the case of Warm bodies) that has not been associated with the living dead, in this case I mean zombies (excluding the specific case of Frankenstein. For it may be argued that he was created to have more human emotion than an individual who has no control over an infection that takes over all their senses). Back to the point which is that the change in cultural depictions of zombies may correlate to a change in societies perspective of corpses. BRAINS!

      http://www.allposters.co.uk/-sp/Zombie-Brains-Posters_i7347726_.htm 

Then again... maybe not!