Social Memory Identity And Death

- How do the living maintain ongoing relationships with the dead in Western societies? - How have the residual belongings of the dead been used to evoke memories? - Why has the body and its material environment remained so important in memory-making? Objects, images, practices, and places remind us of the deaths of others and of our own mortality. At the time of death, embodied persons disappear from view, their relationships with others come under threat and their influence may cease. Emotionally, socially, politically, much is at stake at the time of death. In this context, memories and memory-making can be highly charged, and often provide the dead with a social presence amongst the living. Memories of the dead are a bulwark against the terror of forgetting, as well as an inescapable outcome of a life's ending. Objects in attics, gardens, museums, streets and cemeteries can tell us much about the processes of remembering. This unusual and absorbing book develops perspectives in anthropology and cultural history to reveal the importance of material objects in experiences of grief, mourning and memorializing. Far from being ‘invisible', the authors show how past generations, dead friends and lovers remain manifest - through well-worn garments, letters, photographs, flowers, residual drops of perfume, funerary sculpture. Tracing the rituals, gestures and materials that have been used to shape and preserve memories of personal loss, Hallam and Hockey show how material culture provides the deceased with a powerful presence within the here and now.

This current volume is a response to those who envision the four fields of anthropology as mutually exclusive entities, and all the papers demonstrate the efficacy of a cross-field or cross-disciplinary approach to analyzing rituals associated with death. The authors engage both ethnographic and archaeological perspectives on mortuary practices, and to describe the interdependence of crafting social memories and identities in mortuary practices, a subject that has received considerable attention from both archaeologists and ethnographers. The powerful combination of ethnographic and archaeological research into mortuary practices in the same volume highlights the interconnections between the archaeology and ethnography and illustrates an exciting dialogue between archaeologists and ethnographers. This rich collection of archaeological and ethnographic case studies of death, identity, and social memory illustrates how much archaeologists can learn from ethnographers, and ethnographers from archaeologists.

This volume of essays is a reflection on social memory as a force for social and economic transformation. Written by scholars and organic intellectuals, it focuses on the uses of social memory, in particular the conflict between the legacies of colonialism and the movement for fundamental change. The content addresses both experts and ordinary citizens alike, with a view to advancing discourse on where we are right now, and how we move on from here to achieve meaningful transformation. As scholars and public representatives with a deep understanding of the social, economic and political dynamics of modern history of South Africa, the contributors offer their unique perspectives and reflections on history, politics, economics, culture, education, ethics and the arts, as well as the links that bind these aspects into an ecology of ideas and attitudes.

In Social Memory and History, a group of anthropologists, sociologists, social linguists, gerontologists, and historians explore the ways in which memory reconstructs the past and constructs the present. A substantial introduction by the editors outlines the key issues in the understanding of social memory: its nature and process, its personal and political implications, the crisis in memory, and the relationship between social and individual memory. Ten cross-cultural case studies—groups ranging from Kiowa songsters, Burgundian farmers, elderly Phildelaphia whites, Chilean political activists, American immigrants to Israel, and Irish working class women—then explore how social memory transmits culture or contests it at the individual, community, and national levels in both tangible and symbolic spheres.

This volume of articles explores social memory as a phenomenon by addressing the complex relationship between embodied memory, history, time and space. The studies richly demonstrate how objects and substances may be significant media through which past and present are shared within communities, and also how specific sites, such as bodies, dwellings or geopolitical places, may be so as well. Articles also present reflections on the challenges of gathering field material, of being reflexive and of reaching beyond the time and space of the immediate field context. All of the articles in this volume are based on high quality ethnographic research. While all are self-standing and grounded in individual research projects, they nevertheless complement each other and can be seen as interconnected. They not only address the complex relationship between history and memory, and between past and present, but also - in many different and challenging ways - show how social memory is implicated in orientations towards the future.

Volume 14 of the Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History series is dedicated to the archaeology of early medieval death, burial and commemoration. Incorporating studies focusing upon Anglo-Saxon England as well as research encompassing western Britain, Continental Europe and Scandinavia, this volume originated as the proceedings of a two-day conference held at the University of Exeter in February 2004. It comprises of an Introduction that outlines the key debates and new approaches in early medieval mortuary archaeology followed by eighteen innovative research papers offering new interpretations of the material culture, monuments and landscape context of early medieval mortuary practices. Papers contribute to a variety of ongoing debates including the study of ethnicity, religion, ideology and social memory from burial evidence. The volume also contains two cemetery reports of early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries from Cambridgeshire.

The Routledge International Handbook of Memory Studies offers students and researchers original contributions that comprise the debates, intersections and future courses of the field. It is divided in six themed sections: 1)Theories and Perspectives, 2) Cultural artefacts, Symbols and Social practices, 3) Public, Transnational, and Transitional Memories 4) Technologies of Memory, 5) Terror, Violence and Disasters, 6) and Body and Ecosystems. A strong emphasis is placed on the interdisciplinary breadth of Memory Studies with contributions from leading international scholars in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, biology, film studies, media studies, archive studies, literature and history. The Handbook addresses the core concerns and foundations of the field while indicating new directions in Memory Studies.

This collection of essays represents the first interdisciplinary study in English to consider social memory in Japan across a wide range of issues and phenomena. The volume examines a variety of memorialization subjects, including music and poetry, artefacts and tools, oral testimonies and written documents, ritual and ceremonies as well as art and artists.