The Materiality and Spatiality of Death, Burial and Commemoration

Death, dying, and burial produce artifacts and occur in spatial contexts. The interplay between such materiality and the bereaved who commemorate the dead yields interpretations and creates meanings that can change over time. Materiality is more than simple matter; it has meaning, symbolic and interpretative value, and can be a form of selfhood. This book explores the interplay between materiality, spatiality, the living, and the dead, examining the specific interrelationships between materiality, spatiality, the living, and the dead.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 134 pages
Publication date: 25 September 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Death, dying, and burial produce artifacts and occur in spatial contexts. The interplay between such materiality and the bereaved who commemorate the dead yields interpretations and creates meanings that can change over time. Materiality is more than simple matter, void of meaning or relevance. The apparent inanimate has meaning. It is charged with significance, has symbolic and interpretative value—perhaps a form of selfhood, which originates from the interaction with the animate. In our case, gravestones, bodily remains, and the spatial order of the cemetery are explored for their material agency and relational constellations with human perceptions and actions. Consciously and unconsciously, by interacting with such materiality, one is creating meaning, while materiality retroactively provides a form of agency. Spatiality provides more than a mere context: it permits and shapes such interaction. Thus, artifacts, mementos, and memorials are exteriorized, materialized, and spatialized forms of human activity: they can be understood as cultural forms, the function of which is to sustain social life. However, they are also the medium through which values, ideas, and criteria of social distinction are reproduced, legitimized, or transformed.

This book will explore this interplay by going beyond the consideration of simple grave artifacts on the one hand and graveyards as a space on the other hand, to examine the specific interrelationships between materiality, spatiality, the living, and the dead. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Mortality.

Weight: 453g
Dimension: 246 x 174 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367715380