Fields
Winter 2013 -
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in Denmark. However, the ways in which they are displayed is very particular. The Tollund Man is displayed with small mirrors that allow the viewer to have visual access to, and thus focus on the noose twisted into his throat. He is also displayed separately from the votive offerings that had been found in the bog. From an archaeological point of view, the Grauballe man is displayed in an even more shocking way. The museum has dedicated a special section of a wing for his display. In this section, viewers are filtered in through a small doorway where they file into the room in a single line. Upon reaching the body, the Grauballe Man is displayed in a small room containing nothing besides his glass display case. There is no text, no information placard, and no audio or visual displays of the associated objects of any kind: just the glass case and the man, with a single spotlight overhead. The intention behind this was so that each viewer of the body could interpret it in his or her own way, thus enabling full subjectivity and endless potential for different experiences without having to outright consider the historical or empirical nature of the display. The issues with this are both numerous and obvious. From an anthropological perspective, how can we interpret the display of a bog body, which actually has a great deal of known historical context, without any form of information? Doing this represents an entirely post-modern standpoint, which suggests that historical and scientific information about a subject is not only irrelevant, but it also can be perceived as ethnocentric. By removing the historical data, we are removing the entire significance of the bog body victim, and figuratively reducing him to exactly that: a “victim.” The sacrifice and what the ritual meant to his tribe thus becomes extraneous. This means of context-less display gives the viewer the ability to ignore data entirely, and consequently generate his or her own subjective
acknowledging that the person is dead, but merely sleeping peacefully (and permanently). Viewing bog bodies in museum settings gives us a means of experience them, yet the cases and displays create enough of a “buffer zone” that the observer isn’t inclined to feel any sense of fear at the presence. However, while we are not experiencing any fear, this enables us to incorporate other emotions. These bog bodies have the ability to generate multiple interpretations by the viewing public. This is what Sanders refers to as “the weight of witnessing,” or, the heavy feeling one has when faced with something holding extreme gravity (Sanders 2009). This would be the feeling one experiences at, for example, a Remembrance Day parade, a Holocaust museum, or when standing in front of Ground Zero in New York. It is the overwhelming feeling that the observer is experiencing something of immense power and significance. This is the “weight” felt by many people who observe the bog bodies; even when the body is presented in the form of a photograph or video clip, there is still the moment in which the body is given the ability to “come alive again” (Sanders 2009:33). As we observe, we often cannot help but to attribute lives and ideas to these people of the past. When there is no personal correspondence, no living photographs, no recorded video, not even a paper trace to give us the full story of their lives, people tend to create life-stories using their own ingrained histories and interpretations. Essentially the bog bodies become re-humanized, without returning to the human lives they actually lived. They become re-humanized in the ways we want them to be: as representations of what we feel they should be and as sounding boards for our own social consciousness. Bodies on display – The ethics and consequences of displaying bog bodies Both the Tollund Man and the Grauballe Man are currently displayed in two museums
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