lecture 11: the material culture of a funeral

Harper 2012: Ethnography of early 21st century funerals in the USA and UK

• Focus on viewing stage of ceremony, on the role of the corpse, and on material culture

• Also hoped to document differences between superficially similar US & UK rituals

Harper worked for 3 months in each setting

• In both she participated in funerals as a staff member

• Participant observation is a common technique in both anthropology and sociology

• Interviews done with permission after the 3 month period

The lives and power of objects: Harper’s theoretical framework includes the realization that many objects are not just ‘things’

• We infuse them with meanings that vary based on context and can confer importance on them far beyond material utility

• They can become centrally important for how we see our own identity

• They can gain a kind of ‘personhood’

  • Agency

The lives and power of objects: Objects can also become intertwined with a person’s identity

• Clothing and other objects constantly near/on a person may become so strongly associated with them that they take on some of their identity

• This may let them ‘stand in’ for a person who is absent/gone/dead/moved on – they serve as a focus for memory and a way to keep the absent person ‘here’

Considering grave good: Harper notes a tendency for studies of modern Western deathways to ignore one key class of objects:

Those placed in the coffin and (usually) not kept by the living

These are often called ‘grave goods‘

They have received a lot of attention in archaeology, but less in anthropology/sociology of industrialized cultures

Considering grave goods: Harper borrows from archaeological theory to describe some of the classes/functions these can have, including:

• indicators of rank, status and identity: many items Harper discusses

• Equipment for hereafter

• Disposal of polluted items (i.e. ritually polluted by contact with death)

• Forgetting (items the would keep the dead ‘too close’ - painful reminders)

• Gifts to the deceased

• Potluck (a way for the living to claim prestige)

• Inalienable property (items so personal that it’s not proposed to pass them on)

US/UK grave goods and identity: Harper found that many objects included in burials emphasize personal identity of deceased & reinforce their ties to survivors: clothing

A basic visual expression of identity

• Deceased is dressed in clothing they chose for themselves, or plausibility might have chosen

• Often represents personal style, identity

• In some cases survivors express a concern for physical/emotional comfort of deceased

US/UK grave goods and identity: Harper found that many objects included in burials emphasize personal identity of deceased & reinforce their ties to survivors: Jewerly

Reflects personals tastes but also social roles

• wedding rings - symbol of a long term social identity

• Used by mourners to express continuing (postmortem) relationships

US/UK grave goods and identity: Harper found that many objects included in burials emphasize personal identity of deceased & reinforce their ties to survivors: photos, cards, and letters

• a tangible memory of living actions and social ties of deceased

• A way for mourners to ‘speak’ to deceased as if they were alive

• A way for survivors to accompany, protect and comfort the deceased?

US/UK grave goods and identity: Harper found that many objects included in burials emphasize personal identity of deceased & reinforce their ties to survivors: eyeglasses

• constant wear and association with the face are argued to transform them into part of the self

• Reflected in their inclusion in so many burials, and the statements suggesting the body was not right/complete without them

An interesting special category is items that are placed with the deceased for the liminal period of the viewing and funeral, then removed prior to burial/cremation

• close association with the deceased during this symbolically charged period may make them into a particularly potent memory object

• In some cases, we can easily see how the object itself changes role - from personal possession of the deceased to a physical reminder that can continue to represent them to the living

Harper – the corpse as cultural object

does not focus on the ‘making’ of dead bodies as memory objects but we can still see this

• Bodies are cared for and dressed to present an image of:

  • Repose and peace (good death)

  • Authentic ‘self-ness’ – the corpse as memory/symbol of individual identity

Mueggler – the corpse as cultural object

• Preparation of the body transforms it into a culturally constructed object whose creation confirms (and reflects) identity of deceased & structure of Lòlo social world

• Playing with corpses, assembling bodies

• “dead bodies are fashioned with conscious deliberation” (p. 46)

‘Construction’ of the Lòlo corpse

• Water poured over the body’s head helps to confirm the new identity of the deceased as a dead person (liminal status)

• Body is dressed in way specific to dead people:

• Hair is combed opposite to living direction

• Body is dressed in layers of clothing including hemp socks & shroud

• Items needed to pay fees/taxes needed to enter the land of the dead

• Body is wrapped in hemp cloth and quits

Smith – material culture of Igbo funerals

These involve elaborate material preparations:

• Both deceased and mourners receive special new clothes

• Venue is carefully prepared with viewing platform, tents, chairs

• Highly visible vehicles will carry body and mourners in procession

• Posters and banners spread word and build anticipation

• During vigil and entertainment, food and drink combine with music to crate a vivid immersive sensory experience