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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Death & dying
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The Vital Dead - Making Meaning, Identity, and Community through Cemeteries (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,565
Discovery Miles 15 650
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The Vital Dead - Making Meaning, Identity, and Community through Cemeteries (Hardcover)
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What can a cemetery tell us about the social and cultural dynamics
of a place and time? Anthropologist Alison Bell suggests that
cemeteries participate in the grassroots cultural work of crafting
social connections, even as they test the transcendental durability
of the deceased person and provide a measure of a culture's values.
In The Vital Dead, Bell applies this framework to the communities
of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and the cemeteries that have both
claimed them and, paradoxically, sustained them. Bell surveys
objects left on graves, images and epitaphs on grave markers, and
other artifacts of material culture to suggest a landscape of
symbols maintaining relationships across the threshold of death.
She explores cemetery practice and its transformation over time and
largely presents her interpretations as a struggle against
alienation. Rich in evocative examples both contemporary and
historical, Bell's analysis stems from fieldwork interviews,
archival sources, and recent anthropological theory. The book's
chapters range across cemetery types, focusing on African American
burials, the grave sites of institutionalized individuals, and
modern community memorials. Ultimately, The Vital Dead is an
account of how lives, both famous and forgotten, become transformed
and energized through the communities and things they leave behind
to produce profound and unexpected narratives of mortality. Bell's
deft storytelling coupled with skill for scholarly analysis make
for a fascinating and emotionally moving read. Groundbreaking in
its approach, The Vital Dead makes important contributions to
cemetery and material culture studies, as well as the fields of
anthropology, archaeology, history, geography, and folklore.
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