Keeping the dead at arm’s length

Williams, Howard

doi:10.1177/1469605305053369

Cited by 19 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 44 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…Artefacts evoke social memories by metaphorically alluding to aspects of the deceased. 11 Funerary rituals affirm the absence of the deceased 12 and allow mourners to reanimate the lost presence through objects but also by remembering and speaking the name of the departed. One can also view this from another perspective: the beloved object that belonged to the deceased person is reanimated by the absent presence of the deceased.…”

Section: Recapture Of the Dead In Funerary Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Genealogy's Necronominalism

Hatton¹

2020

JGFH

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This article explores the relation of genealogy and necronominalism, or naming the dead. It discusses funerary practices as a recapture of the dead, gravestones as complex signs, and memory and death including a memento mori and a liber memorialis. An authentic search for the dead involves considering the cultural legacy they left. The article suggests that genealogy charts are modeled after historical consciousness which is formed on the basis of naming the dead. Naming and learning about the dead help some people gain or deepen their sense of identity. Naming the dead reverses the oblivion into which the forgotten dead disappear. Genealogy works in the opposite direction as political erasure. Genealogical research is essentially a practice that names the dead which enables the researcher to include an ancestor, relative, or research subject on genealogy charts and in the cultural world of the living. But genealogy is also sometimes used as an exclusionary power tactic.

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Section: Recapture Of the Dead In Funerary Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%