The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession and the Everlasting Dead

I picked up this book recently at the library. And then I couldn't put it down. Author Heather Pringle manages to keep the pace lively throughout this book; not that the subject matters hurts either. I didn't know much about mummies going into this book, except how the ancient Egyptians prepared theirs. "The Mummy Congress" soon put an end to my ignorance, and in a very amusing, captivating way. In the book, we are introduced to the mummy experts and their beloved mummies in detail. Pringle pulls no punches in her descriptions of the people or the ethcial dilemmas they sometimes face. She also gives the reader a multitude of lessons in mummies. Did you know that some of the paintings you may see in museums were painted with a pigment called Mummy -- made out of ground mummies? Did you know that there are many mummies in South America which tell us how the culture faced grief? Did you know that caucasians once lived in China? Read this book, and you'll learn many such facts. The best thing is that Pringle doesn't write for the expert; she's writing for those of us with an interest, but no experience. And she manages to do it in an entertaining way. I couldn't find any dull parts in this book. So, read it and be amazed at the ancient worlds and people you'll get to know. I can't recommend this book highly enough!

Author Heather Pringle brings mummies and their mummyologists into the homes AND hearts of the reader with a style that is easy to welcome in! It is apparent that she is neither an expert nor an ingnoramous but rather an interested party when it comes to mummies. She is "one of us". Sure we encounter the "usual suspects", just in a different manner. The reader gets to meet Egyptian mummies, just who knew that they were "hard-as stone" resinous creatures. We also meet frozen Peruvian Princesses protected by obsessed mountain climbing antisocial scientists who endanger their existence by their very discovery. What about Caucasian mummies in China! Look out China, here come those Germans thinking they discovered EVERYTHING again! And the chapter on Lenin and the Soviet Mortuary Scientists is absolutely fantastic!! This is certainly a terrific and highly recommended narrative, a light-hearted and very informative look at the modern world of mummies, mummy studies, and mummyologists.

To paraphrase Faulkner, the dead are not past; they are not even dead. Heather Pringle, in a wonderful book, _The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead_ (Theia), admits that she knows she is on to a good thing. She had never heard of a Mummy Congress, but her editor at _Discover_ magazine had asked her to watch for any stories on preserved bodies. Readers relish stories about mummies. The information desks at museums are most often asked where the mummies are. And Pringle makes clear in her entertaining book that mummies are still playing a role in science, pathology, religion, and politics. As long as we stay interested in them, they have an active relation to us, and are not dead by a long shot.The Mummy Congress (actually, The World Congress on Mummy Studies) holds meetings of international mummy experts every three years, and Pringle attended its third meeting, in Arica, Chile. She got to enjoy being with many of them, and then to fly around the world to interview many more experts, and her book is full of amusing thumbnail sketches of the mummy authorities and their stories. This is not a book of Egyptology, for Egyptian mummies are mostly covered by accounts of the ways in which people have used them long after ancient Egyptian society had crumbled. Such uses are bizarre, like for medicine or for pigment in oil paints. Mummies might be able to show us how disease prospered in ancient times, so we can better fight it now. There are mummies from other regions, like Tolland Man, excavated from a Danish bog after 2,400 years, and whose bog was recently sought for making an anti-aging cream; after all, it had worked on Tolland Man. Cherchen Man is a mummy unearthed in China with strange striped clothes and a distinctly Caucasian look. This so alarmed the Chinese government that all research became a matter of state security. Juanita is the beautifully well-preserved mummy from the Inca highlands, whose display by _National Geographic_ was subject to accusations of cultural imperialism; a Peruvian firm proposed to use her eggs to make a new Inca baby. Lenin and Stalin were turned into mummies, and met distinctly different fates. The Catholic Church used to have a requirement that a saint?s body had to display a lack of corruption, but has abandoned this since fans of the saints had often mummified them in some way after they died, and the dry, cool crypts of churches might provide a natural explanation for preservation not requiring anything miraculous. Mummies are with us, and always will be. Pringle has made a lively book out of them, and well conveys her own enthusiasm for the long-dead bodies that still have something to tell us.

I purchased this book because I am acquainted with some of the mummies mentioned, and their biographer, although I am not an expert in the field. Ms. Pringle's book helped me to enhance my understanding of the world-wide and historical context of mummies. The manner in which she discussed the mummy researcher as well as his/her subjects made this book an interesting and lively read. It was scientific detail and human interest all in one story, tied with the thread of the Mummy Congress, a little-known and fascinating gathering. Good job, Ms. Pringle!

I know, I know, I can hear you now : why in the name of God would I want to read 300 pages about mummies ? Well, let me just briefly try to convince you that you do want to. First of all, Heather Pringle is a terrific writer. This is popular science writing as it should be done, witty, interesting and accessible. Second, the mummies themselves are fascinating. Though we tend to think of just the Egyptians and old horror movies (which, amazingly enough, she was not a fan of as a youth), a wide range of cultures--including our own, as Pringle shows in the very amusing final chapter--have been obsessed by the idea of preserving the body even after death. The mummies offer her the opportunity to look into each of these cultures and into a variety of topics, including disease, murder, drugs and other equally juicy matters. Finally, the scientists and researchers who study the mummies are a colorful and interesting group in their own right and Pringle, though sympathetic to them, has a good sense of what makes them entertaining. Just trust me on this one; read the book; it's great fun.GRADE : A-