Grave History

Grave sites not only offer the contemporary viewer the physical markers of those remembered but also a wealth of information about the era in which the cemeteries were created. These markers hold keys to our historical past and allow an entry point of interrogation about who is represented, as well as how and why. Grave History is the first volume to use southern cemeteries to interrogate and analyze southern society and the construction of racial and gendered hierarchies from the antebellum period through the dismantling of Jim Crow. Through an analysis of cemeteries throughout the South-including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Virginia, from the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries-this volume demonstrates the importance of using the cemetery as an analytical tool for examining power relations, community formation, and historical memory. Grave History draws together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, including historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and social-justice activists to investigate the history of racial segregation in southern cemeteries and what it can tell us about how ideas regarding race, class, and gender were informed and reinforced in these sacred spaces. Each chapter is followed by a learning activity that offers readers an opportunity to do the work of a historian and apply the insights gleaned from this book to their own analysis of cemeteries. These activities, designed for both the teacher and the student, as well as the seasoned and the novice cemetery enthusiast, encourage readers to examine cemeteries for their physical organization, iconography, sociodemographic landscape, and identity politics.

A controversial look at the end of globalization and what it means for prosperity, peace, and the global economic order Globalization, long considered the best route to economic prosperity, is not inevitable. An approach built on the principles of free trade and, since the 1980s, open capital markets, is beginning to fracture. With disappointing growth rates across the Western world, nations are no longer willing to sacrifice national interests for global growth; nor are their leaders able—or willing—to sell the idea of pursuing a global agenda of prosperity to their citizens. Combining historical analysis with current affairs, economist Stephen D. King provides a provocative and engaging account of why globalization is being rejected, what a world ruled by rival states with conflicting aims might look like, and how the pursuit of nationalist agendas could result in a race to the bottom. King argues that a rejection of globalization and a return to “autarky” will risk economic and political conflict, and he uses lessons from history to gauge how best to avoid the worst possible outcomes.

Neil Gaiman's perennial favorite, The Graveyard Book, has sold more than one million copies and is the only novel to win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal. Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him. Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? The Graveyard Book is the winner of the Newbery Medal, the Carnegie Medal, the Hugo Award for best novel, the Locus Award for Young Adult novel, the American Bookseller Association’s “Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book,” a Horn Book Honor, and Audio Book of the Year. Don't miss this modern classic—whether shared as a read-aloud or read independently, it's sure to appeal to readers ages 8 and up.

A large-scale investigation into grave goods (c. 4000 BC-AD 43), enabling a new level of understanding of mortuary practice, material culture, technological innovation and social transformation.

In 1868, Frank Toovey Lake, a young British Midshipman, died while serving with the Royal Navy and was interred on the island of Hiroshima in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan. Up until recently Lake’s grave on Hiroshima had been identified only by his family name ‘Lake,’ and he was described as an English officer who died while serving on the Royal Navy survey ship, HMS Sylvia. However no further information on Lake could be found until new research showed that in one important detail these facts were wrong: namely that the ship had been incorrectly identified as HMS Sylvia when in fact he died on HMS Manilla. From knowing this, it has now been possible to give the young officer his full name, Frank Toovey Lake, and to build an understanding of his life. Since the burial the islanders have both maintained and improved the grave until the present day. This led to admiration among the late-19th century British community in Japan (including prominent members such as Sir Ernest Satow and Thomas Glover), and a flurry of newspaper articles appeared around the world in 1899 recounting the story and praising the conscientiousness of the local people. Since then the grave’s story has made only sporadic appearances in the media but continues to be celebrated locally. This grave is far from unique: the graves of many foreigners can be found in Japan, most within the foreign cemeteries in cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki and to whose numbers we can add those of souls buried at sea within Japan’s waters. But there are at least two good reasons to celebrate its continued existence. First, in the mid-19th century as Japan became more accessible to the outside world this created, at least initially, mutual distrust between foreigners and Japanese; these newcomers were viewed as barbarians and intruders (albeit at times justifiably), and this was a period when some were slain and their vessels fired upon. So without suggesting that widespread conflict existed - because it didn’t - nonetheless it is notable that during this period a group of villagers decided to care for and not destroy the grave, and that today this grave is as well tended as ever. Second, at one time Lake’s death was commemorated on a monument in the churchyard of the village where he was born. A few years ago that monument - along with other Toovey graves - was swept away, the graveyard cleared for ease of maintenance, and all trace of Frank Toovey Lake has now gone. This story also touches on other aspects of Japan and Britain’s 19th century history not least the display of typical contradictory characteristics of Pax Britannica in the Inland Sea: the rapid deployment of the Royal Navy into Japan’s territorial waters yet undertaking surveying and other benign operations; the threat and occasional use of gunboat diplomacy, and at times an arrogance towards the country yet countered by great affection for the place and its people by some - or many -individuals. The story also involves personalities such as Richard Henry Brunton, T B Glover and the British diplomat Ernest Satow who took important roles in helping Japan develop. In short, the story of Lake and his grave is more than the story of an individual and a granite monument.

"This book will help to dispel the notion that cemeteries are dark and depressing places to visit. In the 19th century, families visited cemeteries and often had picnics there on the weekends. The Gardino's hope to bring some of that park like atmosphere back to the cemeteries. In covering the brother's favorite cemeteries and graves their aim will be to make the chapters easy to read and fun, introducing readers to unusual little known historical facts. The book will delve into the histories and biographies of noted historical personalities in prominent cemeteries on the East Coast, as well as history about the cemeteries themselves. Detailed directions based on the author's personal experiences, to the cemetery's residents, as well as the cemeteries themselves, is provided. The book also hopes to emphasize to the public how the past can be relevant to today"--

Grave Injustice is the powerful story of the ongoing struggle of Native Americans to repatriate the objects and remains of their ancestors that were appropriated, collected, manipulated, sold, and displayed by Europeans and Americans. Anthropologist Kathleen S. Fine-Dare focuses on the history and culture of both the impetus to collect and the movement to repatriate Native American remains. Using a straightforward historical framework and illuminating case studies, Fine-Dare first examines the changing cultural reasons for the appropriation of Native American remains. She then traces the succession of incidents, laws, and changing public and Native attitudes that have shaped the repatriation movement since the late nineteenth century. Her discussion and examples make clear that the issue is a complex one, that few clear-cut heroes or villains make up the history of the repatriation movement, and that little consensus about policy or solutions exists within or beyond academic and Native communities. The concluding chapters of this history take up the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which Fine-Dare considers as a legal and cultural document. This highly controversial federal law was the result of lobbying by American Indian and Native Hawaiian peoples to obtain federal support for the right to bring back to their communities the human remains and associated objects that are housed in federally funded institutions all over the United States. Grave Injustice is a balanced introduction to a longstanding and complicated problem that continues to mobilize and threatens to divide Native Americans and the scholars who work with and write about them.

The exotic and impressive grave goods from burials of the ÔWessex CultureÕ in Early Bronze Age Britain are well known and have inspired influential social and economic hypotheses, invoking the former existence of chiefs, warriors and merchants and high-ranking pastoralists. Alternative theories have sought to explain the how display of such objects was related to religious and ritual activity rather than to economic status, and that groups of artefacts found in certain graves may have belonged to religious specialists. This volume is the result of a major research that aimed to investigate Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age grave goods in relation to their possible use as special dress accessories or as equipment employed within ritual activities and ceremonies. Many items of adornment can be shown to have formed elements of elaborate costumes, probably worn by individuals, both male and female, who held important ritual roles within society. Furthermore, the analysis has shown that various categories of object long interpreted as mundane types of tool were in fact items of bodily adornment or implements used in ritual contexts, or in the special embellishment of the human body. Although never intended to form a complete catalogue of all the relevant artefacts from England the volume provides an extensive, and intensively illustrated, overview of a large proportion of the grave goods from English burial sites.