• The Insta-Dead: The rhetoric of the human remains trade on Instagram

    Author(s):
    Shawn Graham (see profile) , Damien Huffer
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    Archaeology
    Subject(s):
    Archaeology, Social media, Commerce
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    illicit, antiquities, human remains, Trade
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6M28F
    Abstract:
    There is a thriving trade, and collector community, around human remains that is facilitated by posts on new social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Etsy, and, until recently, eBay. In this article, we examine several thousand Instagram posts and perform some initial text analysis on the language and rhetoric of these posts to understand something about the function of this community, what they value and how they trade, buy, and sell, human remains. Our results indicate a well-connected network of collectors and dealers both specialist and generalist, with a surprisingly wide-reaching impact on the 'enthusiasts' who, through their rhetoric, support the activities of this collecting community, in the face of legal and ethical issues generated by its existence.
    Notes:
    supporting materials at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.546132 Note that Huffer is first author; I don't seem to see a way to reorder that here.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.45.5
    Publisher:
    Council for British Archaeology
    Pub. Date:
    2017-7-10
    Journal:
    Internet Archaeology
    Issue:
    45
    ISSN:
    1363-5387
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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