Since the times of the enlightenment in Ionian Greece, the removal of skulls from bodies has enjoyed its well deserved reputation as a respectable and honoured profession. However, recent work in the west following the renaissance, and the perpetual arcane research of monks who live on the banks of various eastern rivers, have shown that decapitation is a field still riddled with mystery, puzzles, and theoretical lacunae. For instance, why do human beings so often present themselves at the hermitages of aghori saints, although they insist upon not losing their heads? Why does the offering of heads in sacrifice appease some deities while angering others? How does one invoke the infinite devourer that guards the void between the realms, and profit from the resulting carnage? Can a decapitated person still earn a stellar reputation in the practice of law?
These are the problems that require urgent and unceasing attention today. At the MPI-SoD, we attempt to answer these questions, opening the doors to frontiers that had hitherto remained uncharted.
