Behind the death chair, a small wooden table is shown against the back wall, and a barely visible sign that reads "Silence" can be seen in the top right corner of the composition.
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The corpse is placed in a death chair (sangadel) during the wake. The Tingguians still practice their traditional ways, including wet rice and swidden farming. Socio-cultural changes started when the Spanish conquistadors ventured to expand their reach to the settlements of Abra. The Spaniards brought with them their culture some of which the Tangguians borrowed.
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Bontoc shaman performing a sacred wake ritual with a death chair. The primary role of shamans were as spirit mediums. They were intermediaries between the physical world and the spirit world, due to their ability to influence and interact with the spirits (anito), both malevolent and benevolent. There are two general types of spirits usually interacted with in séance rituals.
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A small fire is lit beside the corpse to enhance dehydration and prevent insect infestation, as insects are a vital component of normal corpse decomposition. The corpse is then secured in Fowler's position, via ceremonial scarves or blankets, to a "death chair". Community elders then remove the epidermis. Finally, juice from the leaves of native plants is applied to the freshly exposed dermis.
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A fire is lit beneath the corpse to smoke it, while it sits on a death chair or sangadil. Guava branch smoke is preferred. The body fluids drain throughout the process, and are collected in a jar (Balangcod citation). The smoking process can last days to months to even a year, depending on how esteemed the person was before their death.
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Regulated heat from a fire built below the death chair smokes the dead. When the body begins to shrink, the position of the corpse is changed by tying the legs and hands up to the chest in a crouched position. The legs and hands are tied. The string is removed only when both hands and legs are in their desired position.
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Having escaped, Johnny masquerades as Rigo and begins to assist the doctor. He frees Betty and Amos and straps Ziska to the death chair. Caliban appears and, mistaking the figure in the chair as Amos, activates the transducer, removing Ziska's soul from his body. Because there is no one on the surgical bed, there is no soul to complete the exchange, and he is rendered lifeless.
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With the Kolebao (death blanket), the corpse in a sitting position is I-asal (tied to the death chair, that has high stilts and that is set in front of and beside the stairs of the house). Soon, the ends of a piece of cloth ban across the mouth is knotted at the back of the chair - further measure to keep the corpse stay on the chair for at least a week or for until such time fluid oozes from the swollen body; in this condition, the corpse is brought down and placed on the floor in a lying position. Close relatives peel off the epidermis or the outer skin all over the body - the process is called Duduan. After being peeled of its skin, the corpse is washed with cold water, covered with the same blanket, and then returned to the death chair.
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It should also be noted that each ethnic story has a variety of versions. In many cases, stories vary between town to town or village to village despite the peoples in the specified areas belonging to the same ethnic group. Bontoc shaman performing a sacred wake ritual with a death chair. The Philippines is made up of more than 7,000 islands, but they are divided into three main island regions.
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A traditional Bontoc ritual during a wake with a death chair. The pre-Christian Bontoc belief system centers on a hierarchy of spirits, the highest being a supreme deity called Intutungcho, whose son, Lumawig, descended from the sky (chayya), to marry a Bontoc girl. Lumawig taught the Bontoc their arts and skills, including irrigation of their land. The Bontoc also believe in the anito, spirits of the dead, who are omnipresent and must be constantly consoled.
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He now intends to perform experiments on Betty and Amos, to discover the secret of eternal life. Amos and Johnny are captured and brought to Ziska's laboratory, where Betty lies fastened to a surgical bed. Amos is strapped to the "death chair" and connected to Betty through a transducer, which will exchange their souls. Johnny eludes Ziska's henchmen and escapes to the roof, sending up flares which are seen by policemen investigating the wreckage of Amos' car.
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Like earlier works, The Dignity of Survival (1992–3) served as both an explorable environment and site for Young's physically demanding "live procedures." The work's charged objects, displayed in suspended cage-like structures that viewers could enter, included a medical-like device; a vest- like, pregnant-man "coat of shame" with an umbilical cord leading to a rock; a shaving/shearing stand; and The Birth/Death Chair, a fabricated birthing chair connected to a ball-and-chain-like trail of cast-iron bones and human viscera.Barron, Stephanie, et al. Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000, University of California Press, 2000. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
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