Death of the Father: An Anthropology of Ends in Political Authority:
Mussolini, Hitler, Hirohito, Ceausescu, Stalin, and Tito. How did they die? Why is it important?
Of what significance is the symbolization of the Father and his dead body for the form of national authority that follows the collapse of a regime? Of what importance is the mode of death, treatment of the corpse, and the nature of mourning in bringing closure?
An international team of anthropologists and artists, pose these questions as they address the end of an authority crisis that spanned most of this century, and that crystallized around the regimes of Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and the State Socialist systems of East Germany, Yugoslavia, Romania, and the Soviet Union.
The father is the first authority figure. The idea of the father, of authority, is replicated throughout every level of society. With the creation of monotheistic religions by the elite unlimited power and authority became personified by the ‘father’ in the sky. The master of the universe, inscrutable, unassailable, beyond human comprehension. Authority becomes an idea beyond human, beyond comprehension. Temporally, authority is represented in the guise of the president, the king, the leader, the fuhrer. In your life it is represented by the police officer, the boss. We are subjected to coercion from our youngest years. This constant submission to authority prepares us for our lives as slaves. A good book on this is “The Mass Psychology of Fascism“.
