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Any and all information will be greatly appreciated. I've got some lines for a few book about preventing an eyeball from popping out at public hangings, but not much more. |
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I think my professor is looking at official execution as a kind of ritual and at the meanings (official, practical, symbolic, etc.) attached to blindfolds and hoods. According to one book there were superstitious meanings attached to every element of state executions, in particular public hangings, but I can't find anything on the specifics of the hood/blindfold. The "supernatural" explanations are very important, but I need to find the contexts in which they emerged, what other traditions they were grounded it, how pervasive they were and so forth. For example, mothers were supposed to spank their children after witnessing a public hanging so that the "lesson" learned would stick. Another thing that is interesting is that at one point the hangmen masked their faces in order ro remain anonymous. Again, I need to find both the practical and symbolic explanations for things like this. There are times when broad generalizations and speculation is unavoidable, but I think the meaning/effect of "looking someone in the eye" is also something that is shaped by its historical context. And that's what I need to find, if there was something wrong with looking someone in the eye, what traditions informed either personal discomfort or/and cultural norms. I found an interesting Website on the topic. Luckily, the guy included a bibliography. |
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As a colleage put it, something about eating....even the worst of humans....you watch them eat, and well, it brings us all down to a common level. Aside from my Aperture article, there is this book that was recently and coincidentally published as well. http://www.commoncouragepress.com/index.cfm?action=book&bookid=240 When Im home, I'll dig up the Aperture article. If you were interested, I could fax it to as Aperture is not easy to find and an expensive quarterly. |
Thanks. |
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Of course, if you mean actual witches, that would be even harder to prove, since it's pretty well known now that most women who were accused of witchcraft were not witches. |
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I was going to say electrocution causes some gruesome things to happen to the face, but I think they have always used cloaks.... |
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They use hoods in electrocution because all you have to do afterwards is wring it out and there's the next dude in line's "chicken noodle soup." |
While we are on the subject, I read on IHT today a very interesting article entitled A Warning on Lethal Injections. You guys know my stance on the death penalty. It should be reserved for the most hiddeous of crimes, when reduntant life sentences seems hollow (IE life sentence for convict #1 for killing a man over a woman, and 5 life sentences for a man over killing 5 children, both are effectively the same). And I am not trying to start a political debate, so if you disagree with me, that's fine. I understand your argument, but you won't get me to budge. However, I think we might want to concider something other then the current 3 chem cocktail we are currently using. |
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deep frozen cons, i would have to figure out why first.... |
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It's just a pity that the victims of said murderers were afforded no such privilege as a blindfold or the traditional hood. |