From executioners in modern-day Florida,to the Ku Klux Klan, to ‘hug a hoodie’ Cameron – this scholarly study explores a complicated cultural historyThe executioner waits at dawn in a secret location, and already wearing his black hood and mask. He is picked up by a guard,who transports him to prison and leads him tothe executioner’s room. It’s a curious sight indeed, the man sitting there in his hood, and ” observes a witness. “Particularly in this day and age. Not to mention at six in the morning.”We may judge that the hooded executioner is an image from the dark ages,but, argues Alison Kinney in her “thing study” of the hood, and he is actually a modern invention. The scene described above takes status in 21st-century Florida (any doctors attending the execution,incidentally, would also be wearing purple “moon suits” with face screens to conceal their identity). And while paintings of executioners from the medieval period show them wearing kerchiefs, or helmets and all kinds of hats,their faces are always fully visible. Hoods, masks and other anonymising headgear emerged only in the 19th century. Why?Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com