Oprah

 I was looking at a video for another anthropology class and came across this video.
 http://www.theonion.com/video/oprah-invites-hundreds-of-lucky-fans-to-be-buried,18443/
It reminded me of what we were talking about in class last week about status and the different kinds there are and someone mentioned celebrity status.  Now if there is a celebrity of the 20th and 21st century its Oprah.  Her empire is worth millions if not a billion dollars and people love her and take her word literally with everything she says and does.

While watching this video I couldn't help it but wonder if this were true what would happen in several thousand years when all knowledge of Oprah is gone and archaeologists open up her tomb and discover her in a sarcophacus with hundreds of dead women lying out in front of her.  What would they think of her? or those other women who are layed out in front of her?

Most likely they will think of her as a queen, for the amount of material goods left within her grave would be enourmas, though maybe not luxourious.

My interest however is more how the archaeologists would look at those women who are buried with Oprah.  They would probably consider them to be servants, slaves or even members of her household who where either forced to or chose to die with their queen.  It may be infered by the placement of the bodies that they are lying in wait for her, as they would be displayed in front of her in what may appear to be a chamber.  Also it would be interesting from the archaeologists point of view that all of the women would be quite similar in age to each other.

By looking at the spoof of our own pop culture as well as how burial practices are viewed not only by the scientific community but also the public we can see that we may infer things about people or culture simply because we believe that a high status individual has a lot of grave goods and may have others buried with them to assist them in the after life is just one interpretation.