Plague that’s killed scores is blamed on dances with corpses (madagascar)

New York Post ^ | 10-26-17 | Ruth Brown

[dynachrome]

The deadly plague sweeping Madagascar may have a particularly gruesome cause — a local tradition of dancing with dead bodies.

SEE ALSO Madagascar's plague outbreak is spreading at an alarming rate Madagascar's plague outbreak is spreading at an alarming rate Health officials suspect it’s no coincidence that the outbreak — which has infected more than 1,100 people and killed 124 since August — coincides with the time of year when families customarily exhume the remains of dead relatives, wrap them in a sheet, and dance with them through the streets in a sacred ritual, AFP reports.

“If a person dies of pneumonic plague and is then interred in a tomb that is subsequently opened for [the ritual], the bacteria can still be transmitted and contaminate whoever handles the body,” said Willy Randriamarotia, Madagascar’s health ministry chief of staff.

[BradyLS]

Necrodancers

[Jeff Chandler]

Dances With Corpses is an unfortunate Native American name.

[Jeff Chandler]

“Groups of people heave the corpses above their heads and carry them off, before laying them side-by-side on the ground to be cleaned and dressed. Their dried burial garments are delicately pulled from their corpses and the bodies are dressed in fresh silk garments. Women who are having trouble conceiving will take fragments of an ancestor’s old shroud and place them under their mattresses (or even eat them) to induce pregnancy.’

So, in other words, these people are stupid.

[bitt]

yes!

[bitt]

strange and mysterious lands ping...

[bitt]

scariest thing ever!

[21twelve]

“Dances With Corpses is an unfortunate Native American name.”

Would make a great band name though!

[nutmeg]

Absolutely grotesque. Thank God I was born in the United States of America.

[Axenolith]

They’re and essential species, and plague isn’t native to North America. Hopefully they develop more resistance because it hammers their populations. Apparently the Feds have a vaccine they put out for them beginning recently.

[BlackVeil]

Looks like election day in some dem districts.

LOL.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

#11 photo. Are they trying to set a record for the world’s longest salamis?

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

The original “Dancing with the Dead” was at Bill and Hillary’s inaugural ball. A practice continued by Obama and Michele.

Pelosi would have been doing the “death dance” except that she was auditioning for “The Walking Dead” and got a walk-on role/roll.

As for Barbra, I don’t think she “danced” since “The Owl and the Pussy Cat”. Remember the hands on her costume? Self-titillation, I think.

[Ann Archy]

OMG!!! Disgusting culture!!

[Right Wing Assault]

the State Department will read about this and think: “What a cool culture to import into the United States.”

Then teachers will introduce this to their classes and encourage them to dig up corpses. Parents will protest but will be slapped down as racists and xenophobes who are trying to stifle their children. Health experts will lament the increase of the disease, but will say that the cultural diversity is worth the risk.

[Covenantor]

Given the strange fauna of the island an animist culture was to be expected.

So gramps and nocturnal lemurs making strange noises in the night with huge luminous eyes might be one and the same. Dead and undead all same same...dance with 'em what brung yah into being.

[Covenantor]

Thanks for the ping.

See my 75

[metmom]

But, but, but, all cultures are equal.....

Maybe that in part explains the spike in vanilla prices.

[Delta 21]

Definitely needs a sound track.

https://youtu.be/aowSGxim_O8

[null and void]

When 18th century scientists saw these mammals for the first time, they thought the creatures looked like ghosts. They named the animals lemurs. This name comes from the Latin word lemures, meaning “ghosts.” In Roman legend lemures were the spirits of people left unburied, who returned by night from the dead to haunt the living.

[SaraJohnson]

Yikes!