47 Ronin, Isadora Duncan

Gabbie explores the real story behind Keanu Reeves' documentary "47 Ronin," and Taylor pays homage to Isadora Duncan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
School of Humans. Hello, welcome to another episode of Cadaver Gals,
where we talk about the ways people have died throughout
history to cope with our own mortality. I am your host, Nika,
along with Taylor. Hi, handle am Gabby. Hi. Cute, cute,

(00:28):
very simple, highs simple episodes today. You know, nothing too flashy,
nothing too crazy. It was a little bit crazy. So
on today's show, we are going to be covering a
couple of human sacrifices and why Edna Mode was always right.
No capes, that is just a fact of life. Today's
content warnings include bodily harm, death, fighting with swords, butts

(00:53):
or asses as they are colloquially called, drowning, suicide, and
death of a child. Yeah yeah, okay, great, Yeah that's it.
That's all though. That's all. So I'm with all that
being said, let us forge ahead and Q alligator music.

(01:26):
I'm super excited for this episode. This is just going
to be amazing. And Gabby, I hear you have a
very dramatic story you would like to share with us.
Oh yeah, well I feel kind of bad because I
know you're going to be talking about human sacrifice later
and this is like kind of human sacrifice, but like
kind of not, but it is listed on the human

(01:47):
sacrifice Wikipedia page, so I still feel like it counts, right, Okay,
but you told me, I'm pointing a finger. You told
me to do human sacrifices, I know, And then I
realized it was slightly different, okay, because basically I'm talking
about sappuku, which is the ritual suicide by samurai in Japan,

(02:10):
which in some sense, and the time that I'm talking
about it right now, which is in like year seventeen hundred,
it was used more as like a capital punishment, less
of I mean, it is kind of like sacrificing yourself
for your honor, you know, because apparently it's more honorable
to just like, you know, disembowel yourself as opposed to,

(02:30):
you know, let somebody else do it. So you know,
it's it is the thing. And as I said, you know,
everyone's favorite academic source, Wikipedia does list it as a
human sacrifice, So okay, I don't feel as misled. That's good, Okay,
I just wanted it to be all tied together. I
also feel like, do we really need an excuse to
talk about human sacrifices? Like, do we need know we

(02:53):
talk about them if they want, you know, just girly
things human sacrifice. Okay, so sappuku is they think the
first one maybe was in like eleven than eighty is
when the first time there's a sippuk who that happened.
But then they also kind of went into even like
the nineteen seventies and eighties, like there's still there's a

(03:15):
lot also, like right after World War Two, there's a
lot of sippuk who happening because you know, there's a
bit of a sadness in Japan after World War two
if you get history history, um, but basically it's when
uh a samurai will stab themselves in the gut and
then you know, crank it over and then disembowel themselves

(03:37):
and then your guts you know, we'll usually maybe fall out,
but there's also like a big artery in your guts,
so sometimes you'll be able to slash that and then
you'll just bleed to death pretty quickly. Wait, so after
they stab themselves, they like twist the sword. Well you
can do, I mean there's been various very quick motion Yeah.
I mean they definitely have more stamina and perseverance than

(04:01):
I do. You know, so good for them. But yeah,
there's usually a stabbing or maybe a slashing after or
a twisting. It just depends on the era. And then
also there were sometimes where like you would then have
a buddy who would then chop your head off just
in case. But then if your buddy didn't chop your
head off, then they would be forced to do sippuku

(04:22):
as well. So when you find your head chopping buddy,
make sure that they're gonna you know, do you write
you know? So I might select one of you for
my sappuku just in case it happens. Who would you
select who? Well? I would Okay, I might do Nico though,
just because like I feel actually, oh this is hard though,

(04:44):
because Taylor I feel like would be have very consistent
aim and it would be probably in the right spot
where Nico would do it just like really hard but
also could be effective. Anyway, that's actually very accurate. Yeah,
our personalities and what you know about us and me,
I would just if it was me, I would probably

(05:04):
just miss an accidentally cut my own arm off or something.
So Gabby would just give herself a paper clip or
like cut or something like that. Ohe paper paper clip
cut a paperclip cut. Yeah, okay, yeah, okay, anyway, so okay,
but so we're going to go back to seventeen hundred
into feudal Japan. And at this point there were, as

(05:26):
you know, the Emperor emperor, but he was more just
like a figurehead. But most of Japan at that point
was run by the Showgun because they ran the military
and that gives you all the power apparently, wow wah.
And then underneath the Showgun were like thirty feudal lords
and they had all their jobs kind of seemed to suck,
like they had a lot of responsibilities, and they also

(05:49):
they had to like split their time between their territory
that they were feudal lording over and the castle. And
then they also had to like pay for a lot
of the stuff themselves because and that was the Shogun's
trick because he was like, I don't want you to
ever have enough money so that you could amass an
army and overtake me, so you're going to be poor.
And I'm also like, while you're out on your missions

(06:09):
and shit, I'm gonna keep your family hostage so you
don't do anything crazy. So it seemed kind of like
not the best job. It sounds like a toxic relationship. Yeah,
it's like a really toxic work environment in the Showguns
castle and what is now Tokyo who was HR at
the time that they could talk to, um, probably the

(06:33):
Showgun you know. Oh so just like now, okay, that's fine. Yeah,
it's like I am the Showgun and I am the HR.
So yeah, but I also understand, you know, it's also
a clever way. You know, that's why you should never
pay people that much, because you never know if they're
gonna like start an army and like overtake you, hey,
people that much. Did you just say that? Yeah, I'm

(06:53):
learning a lot of lessons from history anyway, that makes
like so much sense for my work. History, Like it's
all coming together now, thank you got me? Yeah exactly. Yeah.
So just so we get an understanding of our personal
over lords. Anyway, there's this one Lord Asano, and he
was at the palace and he was given the task
to basically organize a big gas party and some entertainment

(07:16):
for the Showguns peeps, like some royal family folks, some
ambassadors and stuff, and they're like, Asano, you make the
party happen. But unfortunately Asano isn't the best party planner.
So he goes to this dude named Kira, who is
a fancy man and a master of ceremonies and he's
part of the showguns like envoy or whatever. And Asano's like, bro,

(07:39):
can you please help me plan a party according to
the rules of the court in the castle and all
this shit, And Kira's like, yes, I will, but I'm
also going to be an elitist bitch to you the
whole time, because wow, you don't know protocols and rules
and how to make a fancy party. Wow, you're just
the worst feudal lord. Wow. Anyway, so you know, we

(08:00):
can see Kira's the fancy man from the city and
then Asano is the feudal lord from the country, and
so they're just having some you know, cultural issues between them.
Their relationships really terrible, and Asana refuses to give Kira
a monetary gift as well for kind of like helping
him out with the party, because he's like, bro, this
is just like your job. You should help me. And

(08:21):
he's like, nah, you should give me money and gifts.
But then it gets really fucked up because then at
one point when they're in the palace. Kira's like, oh
my god, Asana, my shoes like untied, so like will
you tie it for me? Wow? Okay, very rude, very
like intern energy, I know, right. But then Asana's like, ah, yeah, sure,

(08:42):
I'll tie your shoe for you. But then Kira afterwards
was like, wow, you tied my shoe wrong. Okay. I
can't imagine these shoes that they're tying though. For some reason. Yeah,
it was just you know, like some air Jordans. Yeah,
I feel like they would be like lace up boots, right,
they use boots a lot in that time, maybe some

(09:03):
like with a silken something, you know. I feel like
they probably because Kiro was a fancy man, so I
imagined he had very silly like lacy shoes. Like That's
how I'm imagining them. Lots of places at that point,
it's hard to tie those shoes. How would you expect
a country person to know how to tie the fancy
man's shoes? Tie your own shoes, fancy man, you know. Yeah.
Also Asano probably has a lot of other great, you

(09:24):
know characteristics, and sometimes just not being fancy and of
you know, royalty and not knowing how to host a
big party like that's not on you, bro, like it
just Kiro has been really silly. I I empathize though
with fancy men a little bit because one time I
asked an intern to run the dishwasher and he literally

(09:44):
looked at me and said, I don't know how to
do that, and I was like, big, you're literally that's
Taylor's favorite word. Fio, figure it out. And it's weird.
All of our interns have all been feudal lords as well,
super weird. This is weird. Is this our life? Okay?
So after this shoe tying in sident, it gets a

(10:06):
little Asano is a little pissed off, and so what
he does is he tries to kill Kira because he's
just really mad in that moment, but he unfortunately he
gets a dagger and then he goes slashes at Kira,
but then Kira gets out of the way and he
just like slashes Kira's face a little bit. But then
Kira is like wow wow owchee. And then the showgun

(10:27):
was like, bros, like, you can't be fighting in my palace.
That's like against the rules. So I'm so sorry Asano.
I know Kira is a bit of a bit, but
you're gonna have to do sippuku on yourself right now.
I'm so sorry, so sorry. But that's nice of it,
because there's other capital punishments, and you know, sippuku is
the most honorable of the capital punishments. So he has

(10:50):
to disembowel him, stab himself, disembowl himself. I don't think
this is a point in time where they do the
decapitation part of it. So he just stabbed himself with
this dagger. Okay. Also, all of his lands and his
property is confiscated, and everyone's like, damn, this sucks, especially

(11:12):
Asanos samurai who work underneath him. So the samurai become
the Ronan. This is the story of the forty seven Ronan,
and Ronans are basically leaderless samurai and they're like, yo,
fuck this guy Kira. We want to avenge our lord,
so let's have make a plan and let's avenge the

(11:33):
shit out of him by killing this guy Kira. But
they also want to do it on the DL because
they don't want to you know, they don't want people
know about their plan and shit, so they go along
with it. They're like, yeah, confiscate our land, our money,
whatever y'all do. Y'all, we're gonna go disperse and like
be tradesmen and monks for a little bit, but it's
secretly we're gonna plan an attack on Kira to kill

(11:54):
this bitch. Okay, And so the leader, I guess they're
not like real ass feudal lord leader. But the leader
of this band of forty seven ronan is named Oi.
And so what he does. He goes to like Kyoto
for a little bit, and he starts like hanging out
in brothels and like starts drinking a lot, which might
because like be out of like sadness and shit, but

(12:15):
he's also trying to plan this whole thing the whole time.
You know, it could be stress. You know, I know
what it's like to plan big things and be stressed
about it. So maybe that's what you know, leads people
to drinking, like I empathize, yeah exactly. And then when yeah,
one time he got so drunk that he was laying
down the street. I've never done something like that, and

(12:36):
this other samurai walked by him and was like like
caked him in the face. He was like, wow, this
is so embarrassing, my dude, Like you lost your feudal
lord and now you're like passed out in this or
ain't me? But then Oishi's like, yeah, but underneath all
my sadness, I'm still planning revenge, my dude, Okay, this
is my process. They plan out their plan really well.

(12:57):
Oishi's son is the sort of the second in command.
They also had a dude who sneakily married the daughter
of the dude who built Kira's house so that they
could get the blue prints of like the house in
the estate commitment. That's a lot. That's a sneakery that. Okay,

(13:18):
don't you hate that when people marry you so that
they can get the blueprints that your father has. I
hate that. It's the worst can't say that I've ever
had that happen. No, Taylor, it's relatable. This is our lives, remember, Okay, great,
all right, So it's December seventeen o two and Oishi

(13:38):
and his son lead two different groups into Kira's estate. Okay.
You know, also I want to point out that if
you want to visualize this, the forty seven ronin you know,
it's a historical thing that happened. It also became a
huge legend, but it's also a Kiano Reeves movie. So
I knew it. I knew there was I literally Keanu

(13:59):
Reeves pumped in my head when you said that, and
I thought, why, And that's why because he's in that movie.
Because yeah, that movie Reeves. Hello, that movie. Listen to me,
Listen to me if you're listening to this, Keanu Reeves,
I would like to be a friend. Nothing. Nothing seeming cool, dude, Yeah,
exactly nothing. Our celebrity shout outs have really taken hold

(14:22):
well who unfortunately, Okay, I don't want to be some
you know, crazy persons. That's like I want you to
ruin my body, Like no, no, I just want us
to be friends. Is that too much to ask for? Yeah?
I just want you to chop my head off when
I come back, Toko. It's no big deal, Okay. People

(14:42):
are so touchy anyway, So Oishi and his son and
they lead to different groups, onto Kia's to stay right
and so the sun he goes to the back door
and then Oishi goes to the ront door and they
start fighting because Kira this whole time was like, yo,
I know they're gonna even though the show gun had
told them specifically don't seek revenge. He's like, I know

(15:03):
these dudes are gonna do it, so he like extra
security basically, you know, makes sense. He was I think
he was. Kira's a bit of a piece of shit,
but you know he was still smart. You know, he's
a fancy smart dude. Anyway, So they attack the Ronan attack.
They kill sixteen of Kira's men, injured twenty two more.
They get into the house and they're looking for Kure.

(15:25):
They're like, where is he? Mean, all they find are
these crying children and women. You know, they're probably because
they're under attack, that they're probably stressed. At first, I
read that and I was like, oh, why were they crying? Though?
Was that he just like a bad dude who just
like had all these women and children crying in his house? Maybe,
but you know they were also there, everyone was being killed,
so I get it being stressed. So they get to
keep sure. But they get to Kira's room and he's

(15:48):
not in there. Oh no. But then they look at
his bed, they're like it's still kind of warm and
like turned back. So obviously he was here recently. So
they go, you know, look around, try to find him,
and then they find this secret courtyard. Obviously not secret enough,
and they the Ronan go into the courtyard and then
there's all these other dudes that they have to fight,
so they fight them, kill them all ten out of ten.

(16:10):
Great job. And then there's this one dude in the
back who's like trying to stab at them, who just
kind of looks like this frailer dude who doesn't seem
that tough, and they're like, bro, what are you doing?
And then Oishi sees the scar on this guy's face
and he's like, oh my god, that's the scar that
Asano gave to you. You fancy motherfucker. It's Kira. So

(16:33):
they finally have him, and then Oishi's like, yo, because
we're super honorable and we want you to have an
honorable death, we invite you to do sippuku, okay, And
so he pulls out a dagger that is the same
dagger that Asano used to sippuku himself, and he's like, yo, Kira,
stab yourself with this, okay, I do it. But Kia's like, no,

(16:55):
you know, one two direct quote um seems seems pausible.
And then Oishi's kind of like, God, this guy is
such a drag. He's so boring. So he just you know,
chops his head off instead, So okay. Anyway, so they
got what they wanted, but they get at the same time,
the Showgun was like, guys, I told you not to

(17:16):
seek revenge my dudes. So then the forty seven rone
and they turned themselves into the Showgun and he's like, guys,
I respect y'all. Like I think that's like your loyalty
to your feudal lord is super admirable. And there's a
lot of people across Japan who are hearing this story
and they're really inspired by it, and it's teaching us

(17:37):
a lot of like moral values about you know, like
sticking up for your friends and stuff. But unfortunately, I
am going to have to ask all of you to
sippuuku yourselves. And they're like, oh, fine, direct quote. They did.
They did. They all, As you will see in the
documentary by Keanu Reeves, they do all sipouku themselves, except

(17:59):
for one dude who has to go on a quest
to like tell people about what had happened, and then
the Showgun pardons him after that. But they do that.
But you know, this has been a story that's gone
down in history. It's been turned into legends there. It's
inspired a whole like like a whole genre of theater
and like puppetry practice. So it's a very well trodden story.

(18:20):
And I also want to give it up for the ladies, okay,
because sometimes the brides of samurai will also sappuku themselves,
you know, to be honorable and shit, and so like
one of the forty seven Ronins wives did maybe more,
but just there is one direct account, and you know,
I felt like she did in a classy way. What
they would do is in said they would just slit
their throats. But what they would do is they would

(18:41):
before they do that, they would tie themselves in a
way so that when they were found they looked very dignified.
You know. They would tie themselves up so they would
look good. You know, because when you're dying, you probably go, like, nan,
get yourself a little out of sorts. But when they
would be found, then they'd be like, oh, look, she's
just like posed. Well you know that's ideal. That's ideal. Okay, yeah, okay, yeah,

(19:02):
But I think we've all learned our lesson with this story,
where which specifically is, you know, don't be a dick
when people ask you to help them plan parties. That's
the lesson here, right, if someone needs help and they're
from the country and they don't know the protocol of
the palace that you live, and just like, be graceful,
have some kindness, you know. So that is that everyone

(19:26):
has learned from this story. It's about the ethics of
party planning. You know. I'm actually going to start on
boarding someone in the next couple of weeks, and that
actually is a great reminder, Gabby to be patient and
to be nice and to you know, just show grace
as I invite her into the castle, you know what
I mean, Yeah, castle meeting company. But whatever. Yeah, Gabby,

(19:49):
that was a lot. I felt like all I could
see in my mind when you were telling this was
just like blood and guts everywhere. Yeah, really, I meant sexy. Actually,
party planning is dangerous, yeah, I mean there was just
so much blood and guts, so yeah, but there were
also secret courtyards like yeah that's right, Steria. Well, thank

(20:16):
you so much Gabby for that. I just love this.
I love hearing gruesome history stories and I have more,
so we will be right back. Welcome back. So we
heard a very gory but sexy samurai story from Gabby recently,
and I love hearing all of these weird house things

(20:38):
that happened throughout history and in culture. And a big
thing that happened for a very long time the people
used to do and that we do not talk about
enough is human sacrifices. Yeah, we don't talk about this enough, right,
Like how crazy are humans? So we have been sacrificing
people for religious reasons, for superstition, for government or power

(21:01):
reasons or whatever, or for honor as the samurai did,
for anything and literally everything since the actual beginning of time. Obviously,
stories of human sacrifice have been found in the Bible.
If we remember that guy that Abraham I think or
something took his son in, No, took his set up
and then almost all, oh my gosh, I need to read. No,

(21:25):
the guy took his son up to sacrifice him and
then God was like, don't and then he was like,
sacrifice the lamb instead, anyway, or well God was like
telling him to do it, and then he was like
psych bro, No, that's kind of direct quote again, Okay, anyway,
but yeah, stories like these have been found in the Bible,
in ancient texts like Indiana Jones epic of Gilgamesh. Actually,

(21:49):
but good one, Gabby in Greek and Roman mythology and
also yes, in real life mummies. You guys know, I
freaking love mummies, and specifically I'll be I was going
to talk about many other human sacrifices, but this one
has such a story that I would just rather get
into this specific one that happened in the Shang dynasty
in China. Do it, man, could they sacrifice people? They

(22:13):
did that. They knew the assignment and they went for it.
So the Shang dynasty lasted from sixteen hundred to ten
forty six BC, and they ruled during the Bronze Age,
very old times obviously ancient or whatever time ago. I
wasn't there, Yeah, I wasn't there exactly. It is estimated

(22:37):
that they sacrificed around thirteen thousand humans over the course
of around two hundred years. That's it. Oh, I'm kidding,
that's a lot. I was anna say, that's like a
lot of people personally, but whatever. There are many sarcasm.
Well you did so great, which is why I had
to clarify, not to be a bit but okay, but yeah,

(23:00):
so there are many sacrificial pits because that's what they're
called sacrificial pits. It's all over Yink Sue, China, which
was their capital city at the time. And these pits
range from small burial sites which have sorry, Taylor, animal
sacrifice remains rood yeah, okay, well yeah, or like sometimes

(23:21):
one body, you know, just one though, two massive royal burials,
and temples which can sometimes have hundreds of corpses that
were sacrificed there. It's just fascinating to me, how like,
there are literally so many bodies that were buried and
now unearthed in this space. Archaeologists found out that these

(23:42):
were human sacrifices because of this really interesting form of
writing called oracle bone inscriptions. Oracle bone inscription, you know,
it sounds like something out of Kingdom Hearts. Did you
guys ever play that video game? No? Oh my god,
I was obsessed with it. I loved it so much.

(24:02):
I was probably like in college when you were playing that.
That's actually probably true. That's actually probably accurate. Taylor's like,
in my time, we only had an abacus. No, Tamagotchi's Okay,
I had Tamagotchi's too. I love Tamagotchi, but has like
a retro gift. Okay, okay, okay, anyway, so what those are?

(24:28):
It basically means that, um, a diviner, which I guess
is like someone who works in the mystical arts or whatever. Um,
they divine shit. They divine shit exactly. I literally was like,
what is the definition of this? And that's really all
I could find. So they would first anoint the bones
with blood and then carve questions into turtle shells or

(24:48):
ox bones, like, um, what does the emperor's toothache mean?
You know? Or we'll re receive good harvests this year?
And other important things to note on the bone, like,
for example questions, but also like we are sacrificing Timmy
today here will it range tomorrow? You know? Question mark? Yes,
I just wanted to see if it would rain, and

(25:10):
that's why they sacrifice Timmy, I mean yeah, or like
other things like will we win the battle tomorrow? Just
things like that. They get their answer listen. So then
they would do what it's called pyromancy, which is when
you do divination, so like occult things or whatever with fire,
and so basically the diviner would ask the question, you know,

(25:32):
write it out, write the notes, write the dates, and
stuff like that right there. Their name as well, very organized,
and then they would heat the bone with a metal
rod until it cracked, and then the diviner would interpret
the cracks the bone made and also write the answer
on that bone. Sometimes not all the time, but sometimes
we did write the answer, which I find fascinating. I
don't know how you can say, oh, like yes we'll

(25:54):
rain tomorrow based on where this crack happened. People haven't
figured out yet, like archaeologists haven't figured out how exactly
they would interpret it. But they would use the cracks
to interpret over rain. I mean, like it's survival, you know,
I understand, I understand, Okay, yeah, like just wait, patients,
I find out oh tomorrow. But maybe maybe that might

(26:17):
have just been an example tailor and maybe it's not
exactly with it. I mean, but they definitely did do
it for the weather because they were so reliant on
the weather, you know, like back then we couldn't control
the weather. Now we can, you know, according to the
CIA puts on damn metal hat, metal tin hat. Anyway,
I would hate to be sacrificed just for like a

(26:37):
rain that I'm saying. I want to be one of
the battle ones. Like I want. That's the kind of
virgin sac is it? Virgins? Um? No, did not need
to be specifically virgins. So there were actually there were
two t Oh, that's very funny, Gabby, because you have sex.
There were two types of hotel, So there were actually

(27:02):
two types of sacrifices back then had nothing to do
with virgins. And it turns out that they would do
renstion and rank son. Those were the two types of sacrifices,
so rank son can be translated to human companions, and
those sacrifices were usually servants or concubines or bodyguards or wives,
people that the deceased ruler or emperor, because it was

(27:22):
usually like a high society person that would use renk
Son sacrifices, people that this person would need in the afterlife.
And they were usually buried with things as well, so
it would be like the emperor was buried, and then
they would obviously kill his wife, his servants, his bodyguard
and put them all in there with him because he

(27:43):
needed them. You didn't know how to do anything by himself. Well,
I mean yes, exactly. Many times this freaked me out.
Many times they were either buried alive or be headed
or killed in some other way to follow their master
into the afterlife. Love that, yeah, buried alive for me?
Like really got to men. I just oh, I don't

(28:03):
like that. I don't like that at all. Truly, there
is no man on earth that I would be buried
alive for none. Okay. I remember, you're going to get
a bell, Yeah, exactly, a bell. So if that happens,
it can ring outside and then we're all gonna ooma
therma it from the beak in the middle of the casket. Eggs. Actually,

(28:24):
if you're in a casket, you're just gonna be Dad. Sorry, Okay.
By like the fifth century BC, this was not as common,
which is good, and rensin were actually replaced by figurines,
which is nice, you know, taking weights unnecessary deaths. A
really great example is actually the Terra Cotta Army, which

(28:44):
it's like a very extreme example of this because they
built an entire army, so like eight thousand soldiers, hundreds
of horses, hundreds of chariots, and they were all built
to protect the emperor in the afterlife. And they created
that big mausoleum for the emperor. But the emperor's you know,
body and casket and all that sort of stuff in
there and then surrounded him with his army, which I'm

(29:07):
really happy that rankson was not so much a thing,
because if it was, they would have killed eight thousand
people and buried all of them with him. And ye wow,
Taylor and oh they didn't do anything. But people didn't
do anything either. Oh my god. That okay, okay, well

(29:31):
anyway anyway, but yeah, I'm glad that they were able
to just do the figurines because that would have been
a lot of death, A lot of death. I mean,
there was still a lot of death regardless. Because the
second type of human sacrifice Wrenchian can be translated to
human offering, and those were not as special slash sacred

(29:52):
slash nice. They were mostly slaves or prisoners of war
who were used to sometimes like conscrate a new temple,
like oh hey, we're opening this temple. Time to sacrifice
some people because celebration for the temple, or to offer
sacrifices to ancestors or spirits or ghosts, just like whatever

(30:13):
non noble sacrifice was needed, they were used. The numbers
for these sacrifices are her literally insane. One mass burial
site found over three hundred corpses, which is a lot,
and archaeologists can tell that these are not noble people
or anything like that because they were purposely buried like
cattle basically just kind of like thrown into a pit

(30:35):
hence you know, sacrificial pit. And many times they were
beheaded or mutilated before or after death, so their bodies
were just not treated with respect in the way that
the nobles, you know were when they were being buried
with their wives or bodyguards or whatever, which is a lot.
You know, they sacrifice, Yeah, not not surprising in the least.

(30:58):
It's actually super I don't know, just like scary and
uncanny to read about it, because archaeologists like we're going
through the bones of these people to figure out like
what they're eating, habits were, and stuff like that, and
they were like, oh, yeah, they were definitely enslaved and
kept to toil for you know, the emperors or whatever

(31:19):
before finally, you know, whenever sacrifice was needed, just like
grabbing a few of these guys, and and most of
them were like young men from fifteen to I think
like thirty five, so that was also like they were
also many times prisoners of war because that was around
the age that men would go into armies and battle
and stuff. So just real disturbing. Yeah, yeah, real disturbing. Yeah.

(31:50):
A lot of people go to visit that city to
like see the sacrificial pits. But that feels like a
lot of intense energy. I don't know if I ever
want to be a part of or see. Yeah, a
sacrificial pit has very bad vibes. Bad vibes, bad vibes
own over here anyway, Taylor, I hope that you have

(32:10):
a little less of a disturbing story for us, question Mark.
I mean, maybe you know how I am. I like
to talk about the person and who they were, and
like talk less about deaths sometimes, so that's true. Yeah,
I think you also just sometimes do that as a
tactic to make it longer. But that's okay, that's okay,
I think. But it's also like a way to pay

(32:31):
homage to these people. It's true, It's true, you know, Yeah,
you're less like me. I like to be like, they
cut her arms off, they cut her ears off, they
cut her like, I'm very let's get the girls details.
She was married for fifty years. Gapy is like, so
really we're going to talk about this guy. These people
he's just like stabbed themselves in the stuff exactly exactly,

(32:54):
And and I'm like, Okay, we're gonna be back in
the late nineteenth century to early twentieth We're gonna talk
about is it Dora Duncan whoa which I really like?
The name is Adora? I think is pretty name. Yes,
it's so pretty. She was an icon back in the day,

(33:15):
known for dance. Her mother had a music studio and
Isadora would teach dancing despite not being classically trained and
only six years old. Wow, so like this, I think
that's kind of silly, like the you know, a six
year old teaching a bunch of people dance. But by ten,
by the time she was ten, it was like very

(33:37):
like people were trying to get in her class. It
was like a very popular thing. I don't know why,
but it seems relevant to say that she's from San Francisco. Okay,
where was this? Was this in San Francisco? Yes, so
she's this all started in San Francisco. But well we'll travel,
don't you worry a good We'll dance across the country

(33:58):
in the world exactly. Well, at this time, ballet was
popular and like by early nineteenth century. That's when it
evolved to be like what you think about today, where
they up the point she was in the bell shaped skirts,
the two twos, but Isadora felt that all of these
elements were really restrictive and like, you know, messed up,

(34:19):
Like there's you shouldn't have to like harm yourself to
restrict yourself to dance. So she kind of developed her
own version of dance, and she studied sculptures of ancient
Greece and kind of used that to to like evolve
how she would dance. So I would say it was

(34:39):
like more interpretive type dancing. You know. She danced barefoot,
which was super scandalous. Oh, her dresses were less structured.
They're like free flowing, both in dance and her daily life.
You can really see the Greek influence there, Like she
she really does look like a Greek, Like I love God.

(35:02):
And what she said about ballet is so true. Ballet
is extremely restrictive, and yeah, I feel like, I mean,
like some people thrive, but when I was doing ballet,
I personally wanted to just throw myself off of a bridge.
It was the worst. Anyway, Yeah, you're like we got like, oh, oh,
what a pre what's the word I'm looking for? Oh?

(35:27):
What are We'll get there. Okay, we'll get there. Don't
worry about it. If you did not find that word
and you're a little knoggin, that's okay. Sometimes words don't
come to my brain. It's ten. I don't blame anyone
except for cat. Go ahead, Okay, Gabby's holding her cat
right now. Anyway. So she eventually she traveled the world dancing,

(35:48):
and she described her style as quote to rediscover the
beautiful rhythmic motions of the human body. So you know,
is it? Door also opened many dance studios, first in Berlin,
another in Russia, the US, like she was like opening
studios everywhere. Yes, franchise she was, Yes, she really was.

(36:13):
She toured a lot in the US, France, Germany, South
America and Russia. She was also known to be a feminist,
Darwinist and communist lady for then and now. Really let's
be real. But as we all know, this is Kida
her gals and not dancing gals. I don't know dancing gals,

(36:37):
so so a lot of sadness befell poor Isidora. Also
a side note, she didn't believe in marriage but she
had two children with two different men who shared similar ideals.
They were like, we don't need a marriage anyway. One
day in nineteen thirteen, her two kids, one was six
the other four were in a car with their nanny
and chauffeur on their way to new apartment, and they

(37:01):
drove off a bridge into a river, and her two
kids in the nanny drowned. Why did they drive the
bridge just like the cars or something. It wasn't the acid,
don't I don't know. They didn't say. It was just
like a tragic accident. Like that's so sad. And the
chauffeur did survive, which is the guilt. Yeah, but Isadora

(37:25):
was pretty afraid of cars after this, and like not
too long after that, she got into an accident and
in Russia, and she only suffered minor injuries, but like,
you know, after her kids, Like, I mean, that's pretty traumatic, yeah,
I would imagine. But she does what she can to
keep living her life. She begins touring again, although they

(37:45):
weren't quite as successful. I don't know why, but I
guess her sadness was too sudden. Oh I shouldn't be
laughing that that's probably true. Oh yeah, but anyway, along
her travels, she's in Russia. She meets a man that
she actually marries, despite hating the idea of marriage. Side note,

(38:07):
he was seventeen years younger, so get it. He was
a poet. All of all of her men, they were
all into the arts. So she's on tour in the
US as she has been, you know, continuing that journey.
But this was a time like just before the Cold War,
and the US was all afraid of Russia and Communism

(38:29):
and they were accused of being Bolshevik agents, and Isadore
was like upset, and she was like, um, she says,
quote goodbye America, I shall never see you again, and
sure enough she did not. So um, more tragedy happens,
right right. You know, we're not done because this is

(38:53):
not dancing gal. If you were dancing gals, it would
just be happy. We got we gotta find another kidaver
So Isadore's husband struggled with depression. Shortly after all of
this nonsense, he kills himself. Oh no, wow, she's yeah,
so she's sad yet again. She's like, okay, you know

(39:15):
what traveling for dance is just I need to like
stay put for a minute. So she's like, Okay, I'm
going to write a memoir about my life, which she
felt like she that was kind of like a sellout
to write for money. She actually was quoted again. I
she had so many great quotes. I guess she said,
now I am frightened that some quick accident might happen,

(39:38):
and while guess what a quick yep, so is it.
Dora never learned how to drive, I assume because of
her traumas. But she was like trying to get past this,
like what a queen trying to get past this. Her
chauffeur was like teaching her. So she was trying. But
one day she was in there. Oh. Her chauffeur's nickname

(40:00):
was Bugatti, which I think that's funny. Um okay, I
don't know, just got like mentioning that thank you for
share welcome Bugatti survived. Okay? Cool? Well, yeah, so one
day she's in the car, Bugatti's driving, and she's with
the British journalist who's helping her with her memoir, and

(40:20):
so they're driving along, having a grand old time. They
were in a convertible and you remember that red scarf
I mentioned, and all her flowy clothes. Yes, in nineteen
twenty seven her they were in the car, her scarf
was flapping away in the wind when it catches on

(40:40):
the front tire of the vehicle, strangling her and then
like rips her out of the car and like slams
her into the ground. So the chauffeur Bugatti slams on
the brakes and the two of them trying to tangle
her from the scarf and take her to the nearest hospital,

(41:00):
which is where they said that she broke her neck
and died instantly. Oh god, what a freak accident, like
scarves getting caught in that tire. What the hell? And
then it's like wrapped in such a way that it
actually can pull her whole entire body out rather than
just like rip the scarf or you know, like that's intense.

(41:23):
I know, that's some strong fabric that she no more
scarves for me? Yeah, exactly. I this is actually really funny.
That was one day I was at a just at
lunch one day with a friend and she had a
scarf and she like whipped her scarf behind her and
it like covered this one tet behind her, and it

(41:45):
was like, really funny. We give heed a woman's head.
She like whipped her scarf around and it just like
draped over the woman behind her face. That I've done
them to people with my long hair. Like I'll be
like in a dinner and I'll flip my hair and
it'll like hit someone and I'll be like, well that
was back when I had long hair, but still I

(42:08):
I had. That happened once I was working at a
coffee shop. Oh and this woman flicked her braids over
and they know they wrapped around my neck. Oh god,
that's hilarious. Anyway, as we'll get back to Isidora, and
y'all know how I love famous last words and everything.

(42:30):
So hers was in French to her friend and said, aka,
I'm off to love all I think is really pretty
and sweet. I am like very weirded out at how
she seemed to just predict these things. Like she was
such a free spirit. So it's like, you know, very
much into the arts and in touch with herself. So

(42:51):
happens when you fuch with the time spectrum. You know,
she could just see the future. She was the future.
All time was a plane exactly. Wow. And she danced along,
get along upon it. Okay, Wow, there are some videos
of her dancing, and we'll definitely have to put it
on our social because it's great. Well, Taylor, thank you

(43:16):
so much for honoring this person by actually talking about
her life and not just the crazy ass way that
she died. We can all agree that it's like a
total freak accident and that's really crazy, and that makes
me scared of scarves, Scared of scarves and capes. Well,
I know, yeah, the capes, but are you going to

(43:36):
get rid of all those capes you have? Well, I'm
never gonna like dress up for Halloween, but as like
a superhero with a cape. Well, it reminded me of
like in The Incredibles when Edna no capes and I
just you know, no scarves, no capes, no long braides
for us, you know, very puritan lifestyle living here. I'm
just gonna wear my hair in a bunch in a

(43:59):
body suit and hair of budded a body suit that's
not very pure. But okay, anyway, when we come back,
I think we're gonna end the episode on an up note.
So you think I think so? B RB. Hello, welcome back.

(44:19):
I am so happy about the tangent I'm going on today.
Taylor and Gabby actually picked this for me, and it
makes so much sense considering like I am who I am,
we are learning about the history of the twerque today. Yes,
because like twerking and dancing. I'm sure Isadora would have
thought that it was an expression of joy if she
could have seen tworking back then. So Nika is quite

(44:43):
the twerker in case anybody couldn't have already guessed that. Also,
similarly to Isidora, when I go out dancing and I
know I'm gonna be like shaking us, I do not
like wearing constructive clothing. I actually don't understand why some
people go out dancing in like very tight like body

(45:04):
con dresses, because I just feel like your ass cheeks
don't clap with those unless it's a specific type of fabric,
which is a don't I find it at least that
it's hard to find. So if someone can point me
in the direction of you know, as fabric but the
lets your butt move, let me know, because I have
not found it yet anyway, all that to say, yes,

(45:26):
I think she would approve so twerking if you don't
know which whatever no one's judging is essentially tworking as
a dance move that is um usually in like the
best way I can describe it, It's like it's a
squatting position and it involves the twerker basically um throwing
ass back and forth and like thrusting it to the music,

(45:47):
thrusting the ass to the music UM and using hips
and stuff like that, and the music will usually have
like a strong drum beat or bass. Is that yeah? Okay,
I mean yes, and sure I've never described I mean
this is it's the best way I think I can
describe it at least. Yeah, lots of pelvic movement, you know,

(46:10):
it really does have to come from the pelvis and
from the hips anyway. But it's to see that as
jiggle basically, and I feel like it's mostly a dance
to dance alone. All there can be a twerker and
there can be a twerque key who's receiving the twerkue,
but people who receive the twork don't really do anything
other than it will be hard to receive the twerkue

(46:32):
because if it's too close, then you would stop the
motion of the twerkue, you know. So it does make
sense as a solo endeavor on the dance floor, but
not like mostly solo. At first, I thought you meant
so it is a good move to do when you're
alone in your house, which I know Nika you do do.
But I'm I do that. Yes, it's true, but you know,
do it do it in public? Thank you encouraging everyone.

(46:56):
I will, I will, Um, we know we know Nika
tworks in public too. Yeah, don't even worry about me.
You do not need to motivate me more. I mean
and I were at Nica's house one day and we
were like, how long do you think it'll take for
Nika to start working? And I was like, there she is.

(47:17):
She is our beautiful daughter. Okay, um, so it's see
back to the history because we're you know, a very
very proper on this podcast. It's not like I'm doing
this podcast right now in an actual bra Wait. I'm sorry,
I just went into a new dimension where me and
Taylor are your mother's how it's a different It's like

(47:40):
we're we are are you proud of mutually? Okay? Sorry,
now I'm back. I'm back in reality. Sorry, that's like
our paralleled existence? Is it? Probably is? And Columbian child?
Was I adopted or something? Or did I? How? Science?

(48:01):
Science something weird with science happened. Wow, this in this universe.
It's possible from a failed experiment or a very successful experiment,
depending on what you guys feel about me. I'll be
proud of me. Mommy is okay. Um, it seems like
twerking has the roots in West Africa. Obvious, that makes
so much sense. Um. There's a type of dancing there,

(48:23):
specifically in the I hate saying things in French because
I want to do a full French accent, but it
sounds silly, the kik you thank you yeah, which the
Ivory Coast if if we have to say it like that.
There's a dancing there called the Mapuka dance, and that
strongly resembles twerking because again it's so focused on the

(48:45):
hip and the butt movement. There's actually two types of
mapuka dancing. One is the more traditional that has performed
ceremonially and you can do in front of your friends
and family and stuff. And then another is the closest
one to twerking, which is more suggestive and open, and
it was actually outlawed in the nineteen eighties when dang
I love that, yes, Arry suggested, I mean, I don't

(49:07):
love that for them. But I think it's so cool
when stuff like dances are outlawed because yeah, freaking crazy,
like don't move like that, yeah exactly, it's like how
are you? Okay whatever, It's like footloss but different if
precisely um footloose, but with a dictatorship. Okay anyway, So

(49:29):
it became illegal again in the two thousands, but by
then even the laws couldn't stop it because the dance
had traveled all the way to New Orleans. So in
the nineties, bounce music was super popular over there. And
Nolans Nola, Nola, Nolans. I can't, I can't, Nolans. I'm great, beautiful,
and bounce music is basically like a style of style

(49:50):
of hip hop music with a lot of like call
and response chants and then um. It usually is performed
like against core samples that as the backing music. That's
like the best way I can describe it. But just
look up bounce music. It's really interesting and cool. Um.
And so the this artist DJ Jubilee released the song
called do the Jubilee All Okay Yes, and this wasn't

(50:14):
the nice and in it he uses the word twerk
multiple times, and that is the first time the word
is used in music, and etymologists have said it's either
a combination of to work or twist and jerk. Those
are the two kind of like where the word twerk
might come from. Well, I feel like that's all, Like,

(50:36):
I mean, all of those words combined. I feel like
that does describe what it twork is, so you know,
it could be both exactly. Yeah, And that is how
it came to the US. That is how it got
started was in bounce music in New Orleans, and then
it obviously moved into Deep South hip hop, into hip
hop in general, and then of course it was super

(50:58):
popularized around the two thousand and tens when a lot
of white artists started doing it. No one was surprised
by the US, namely Miley Cyrus at the VMAs. Who
could forget this as much as we try not, I
um so yeah, And that is how I got really,
really really big. I think tworking like it's still a

(51:18):
thing now, Like we do it and it's great, but
it's not like the trend dance, you know what I mean? Gabby,
can can you just imagine for two seconds, Gabby Twerking
and Taylor tworking. Yeah, in the parallel universe that my
head lives in my mommy's can twerk and actually talk,
So yes, I actually can in Plass. It really is

(51:39):
a place. Sorry that no, no, it's it's you know,
we'll have to work lessons. It's fine. So that is
the story. We love it. I still think tworking is
pretty popular, but I do think the two thousand and tens,
like that ten year period was when it was like
everyone was like, what is tworking? Oh my gosh, this
is so crazy. And now it's more like, oh yeah,

(52:01):
people do that. That's not and it's like a universal
dance move white TikTok teens. Yeah, well, I feel like
TikTok teens are more like very wooden dance movements. Like
I don't like the dance movements that TikTok teens, so
I feel like it's very like, yeah, whatever, like just stupid,
I don't know choreography. But also I might that might

(52:21):
just age me. Maybe I'm just not in the know
as much. Whatever. Nika just did a dance by the way,
yeahs honestly weren't on this call. But I think that
for this episode, we should all learn to do a
TikTok dance and do a TikTok together the cadaver gals.
That sounds all, oh okay, well I can't complate that

(52:45):
with my current TikTok brands. I'm sorry. Um, oh my god. Okay, Well,
I'm so glad that we ended this episode bullying me.
You know, if Ione wants to bully me more, my
instagram is my name, so go ahead hit me with
your best shot. Actually, no, just say nice things. I'm
a very sensitive person. Um. Okay, last thoughts, how do

(53:05):
we feel? I feel, you know, really inspired to try
to twork and not wear scarves and probably not disembowel myself.
I don't want to do that. Actually, okay, that is
actually am something better than last week when I literally

(53:27):
was worried for your safety and mental health. So it's great.
This is a good thing that we're all. Really I
don't want to disembowel myself anymore. Hey anymore? Okay, Well,
thanks so much for tuning in. We will see you
next week. Dagles is a production of School of Humans

(53:59):
and I Heart Radio. It is edited, hosted, researched, et
cetera by Gabby Watts, Taylor Church, and Nika Duarte. You
can Find us on Instagram and Twitter at cadaver Gals,
and we'll talk about you next week. Vibe