This article explores the relation between death, the fear and denial of it, and the appeal of mortuary rites attempting to transcend senses of mortality. It aims to show how our Own death, as a shamefull and solitary characteristic of modernity, has become a taboo and how it simultaneously continues to spur our imagination of the way Others die. Building on research in Suriname, it argues that both colonial compulsion and anthropological gazing have contributed to distorted and ambiguious attitudes toward death cross-culturally. As such, the article seeks to advance discussions on death and taboo as a perpetuum mobile of dread and everlasting enchantment.

This essay argues that the breaking of taboos is an effective means to increase one’s definition-power and discredit the establishment. But rhetorical warfare and satire may also turn into its opposite: strengthening fanaticism. First, the author discusses the controversy surrounding the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo and the militant pleas for maximum artistic freedom, articulated by Salman Rushdie and others. In the second part of this essay the author argues that advocates of an inviolable right to freedom of expression, including the right to insult, may create their own taboos. Within the tabloid press and the outrage industry this ‘right’ gets more aggressive functions. Finally, some ambiguities about political correctness and the racism-taboo are discussed.