The Arguments of the Tombs of the Unknown: Relationality and National Legitimation

Abstract

In the wake of the First World War, a new form of commemoration emerged internationally, but in each case focused upon a new kind of national ''hero''-the unknown soldier or warrior. The first instances appeared in France and Britain in 1920, followed by the United States in 1921, and Belgium in 1922. Other nations followed suit over the years, with the most recent WWI Unknown Soldier monument dedicated in 2004, in New Zealand. The motivational calculus of these national tombs was, of course, the massive number of combatant dead whose remains could not be identified. This paper takes up the two very different arguments composed by these commemorative sites. The first argument was directed to surviving family members and was articulated most explicitly by the French as a hypothetical enthymeme ''this could be your husband, your father, your brother,'' etc. The second argument has been directed to national and international collectives as a constitutive proclamation of legitimated nation-state or Empire Although this argument is particularly explicit in postcolonial gestures of independence on the part of former dominions of old empires, it was evident in even the earliest cases of the tombs of the unknown.

Can an archaeologist be a public intellectual?

“…This has created a disparity in the post-mortem treatment of two groups of soldiers from the same battle (Leach Scully and Woodward 2012). Taken alongside the much-publicized identification of the Vietnam Unknown Warrior from an American military cemetery (Holland and Parsons 1999), the break with the past made at Fromelles is an indicator not only of changing technological capabilities, but also of changes in commemorative sensibilities regarding the significance of individual identity and familial bonds with the dead (Blair, Balthrop and Michel 2011). It is possible to envisage that, in the near future, the principle of anonymous burial may be more widely challenged by issue networks that form around the dead of particular battles or particular cemeteries.…”

The dead and their public. Memory campaigns, issue networks and the role of the archaeologist in the excavation of mass graves

“…This has created a disparity in the post-mortem treatment of two groups of soldiers from the same battle (Leach Scully and Woodward 2012). Taken alongside the much-publicized identification of the Vietnam Unknown Warrior from an American military cemetery (Holland and Parsons 1999), the break with the past made at Fromelles is an indicator not only of changing technological capabilities, but also of changes in commemorative sensibilities regarding the significance of individual identity and familial bonds with the dead (Blair, Balthrop and Michel 2011). It is possible to envisage that, in the near future, the principle of anonymous burial may be more widely challenged by issue networks that form around the dead of particular battles or particular cemeteries.…”

The Rhetoric of the Hanging Chair

“…More recently, C. Blair, Balthrop, and Michel (2011) use the concept of enthymeme and identify the minor and major premises of the material argument to tackle the question how "objects or places take on argumentative force, how they accrete to themselves the capacity to argue a case to those who encounter or traverse them" (p. 450).…”

“…C. Blair et al (2011) clarify, prior to their analysis, that "of course, the mediating rituals, speech, media accounts, and interpretations do not remain stable, so the argument made by a place may change with its different circulations and articulations historically" (p. 450). This study, centered on the argument of the empty chair in the tree, uses a similar approach to C. Blair et al and translates the material to a verbal argument.…”

“…C. Blair et al (2011) clarify, prior to their analysis, that “of course, the mediating rituals, speech, media accounts, and interpretations do not remain stable, so the argument made by a place may change with its different circulations and articulations historically” (p. 450).…”