[XXI] 



CHRONOLOGICAL HIGHLIGHTS ON 

 HUMAN DISSECTION 



H, 



.uman dissection is intimately associated with the regard of 

 the Kving for the dead. Along with man's beginnings and why 

 he exists, death constitutes one of the three great mysteries of 

 human life. Before the dawn of civilization, primitive man was 

 undoubtedly more concerned with the significance of death than 

 with the other two. Very early in his evolution, man compared 

 this state to sleep and he called it the "long sleep." Terror and 

 flight were among his first reactions to this condition. Then, he 

 concocted the concrete idea that the dead live on as ghosts or 

 spirits. This probably developed from the interpretations he gave 

 to his dreams, his shadow, his image in water and other similar 

 phenomena. It was logical for him, with his mentality, to con- 

 clude that all human bodies were tenanted by a spirit, a vital 

 principle, responsible for all his activities. He assigned great 

 flexibility, traveling power, transferability and even divisibility 

 to it. 



The uncivilized explained death as being due to a mystic 

 or supernatural force. Man was always "doomed" to die by the 

 malign influence of an enemy, usually a sorcerer or a spirit. He 

 had two worlds, the living and the dead, where the latter re- 

 mained alive in another form. A ghost, particularly that of a newly 

 deceased, was evil-disposed and vengeful and there were a hun- 

 dred ways in which it could show displeasure. Every human 

 accident and diseased process was attributed to it. It had to be 

 catered to because there was no way to retaliate. Contact with 

 the departed, in any way, was dreaded. It was considered 

 dangerous and even contagious. A dead body on the ground made 

 it unfertile and barren. Greater horror was aroused when an in- 

 dividual died in an unusual manner. The longer after death, the 



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