This is another interesting documentary shown on Art Central,
produced by National Geographic.
First episode was on food. One man’s delicious food is another
man’s horrible object. Durian is an good example. Asians love it
while Europeans hate it. Eating snake, dog or even cockroaches may
be taboo for many of us, but are loved by others.
Second episode was on death. In Indonesia, the dead was kept
with the living for as long as a month and treated as alive. Food
are brought to them daily until they save enough to give the dead
grand burial ritual even when they can’t even afford to feed
themselves. Relatives have to spent up to a year worth of their
income to purchase a pig or even cow as offering. A house is build
to keep the coffin locked inside for the dead to continue living
their afterlife inside.
But in India, the dead was treated as an empty shelf. The dead
body was burned in the public beside the river without any cover
and the remaining thrown into the river. And in America, some
doctors cut up dead body to investigate how they die.
So what is right and what is wrong? It’s all relative…
