Death in the Early Twenty-first Century: Authority, Innovation, and Mortuary Rites

296 Pages·2017·22.03 MB·English

by  Sébastien Penmellen Boret

fi
Death in the Early Twenty- rst
Century
SébastienPenmellenBoret(cid:129)SusanOrpettLong(cid:129)SergeiKan
Editors
Death in the Early
fi
Twenty- rst Century
Authority, Innovation, and Mortuary Rites
Editors
SébastienPenmellenBoret SusanOrpettLong
IRIDeSBureau JohnCarrollUniversity
TohokuUniversity UniversityHeights,Ohio,USA
Aoba,Sendai,Miyagi,Japan
SergeiKan
DepartmentofAnthropology
DartmouthCollege
Hanover,NewHampshire,USA
ISBN978-3-319-52364-4 ISBN978-3-319-52365-1(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-52365-1
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017940491
©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017
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A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
The chapters included in this volume were originally presented during a
doublesessionon“TheAnthropologyofDeath:SocialChange,Religion
andSyncretism,” which wasorganizedforthe AmericanAnthropological
Association annual meeting in Chicago in November 2013. The only
exception is the contribution of Long and Buehring that was added to
completethestructureofthebookanditsrationale.Wewouldliketotake
this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to Michael Jindra from
the University of Notre Dame, with whom Sébastien had the great privi-
legeandpleasuretoorganizethissession.Also,wewouldliketothankthe
presenterswhosepapers,forvariousreasons,didnotendupbeinginclud-
ing in this volume: Kalyani D. Menon, Rebecca Marsland, Satsuki
Kawano,HannahRumble,andHikaruSuzuki.Theirparticipationsignifi-
cantlycontributedtothesuccessandsomeoftheideasfoundinthisbook.
Finally, we would like to thank the Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science (JSPS) that at the time of the conference, was sponsoring
Sébastien’s postdoctoral fellowship (2012–2014) at Tohoku University.
We are also very grateful for financial assistance from John Carroll
University forthe finalstage ofmanuscript preparation.
If the outcome belongs to each and every author of this book, Susan,
Sergei, and I remain indebted to all the people involved in bringing this
projecttocompletion.Wehopethatthisvolumeconstitutesamodestbut
hopefullynoteworthy milestonein the anthropologyof death.
v
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
Sébastien PenmellenBoret, SusanOrpett Long
andSergei Kan
PartI Culture, Religion,and the Usesof Tradition
2 FearandPrayers: Negotiating withthe Dead in Apiao,
Chiloé(Chile) 31
GiovannaBacchiddu
3 Quellingthe “Unquiet Dead”: PopularDevotions
inthe Borderlands of theUSSR 63
Catherine Wanner
4 LifeAfterDeath/Life BeforeDeath andTheir Linkages:
TheUnited States, Japan, andChina 85
Gordon MathewsandMiu YingKwong
PartII Personhood,Memory,andTechnology
5 Reincarnation,Christianity and Controversial Coffins
inNorthwesternBenin 115
SharonMerz
vii
viii CONTENTS
6 Forthe Solace of the Youngand theAuthority
ofthe Old Death:Photography in Acholi,
Northern Uganda 151
Sophie H.Seebach
7 MediatingMortality:Transtemporal Illness Blogs
andDigitalCare Work 179
Tamara Kneese
PartIII Individual, Choice,andIdentity
8 Agency andthe Personalizationof the GraveinJapan 217
Sébastien PenmellenBoret
9 Rememberingthe Dead:Agency, Authority,
andMortuaryPractices in InterreligiousFamilies
inthe United States 255
Susan Orpett LongandSonja SalomeBuehring
Index 291
L F
IST OF IGURES
Fig.2.1 ThefiscalAbelardoNeunandElianaGuenchuman,table
guest,withtheirritualgiftofbreadandmeatonthelastnight
ofnovena 43
Fig.2.2 EricaVelasquezandhernieceTamaraCalbuante,lighting
candlesonanoldfamilytomb,afterhavingplacedafreshly
madeflowercrown 51
Fig.2.3 RosendoMillalonco,prayerspecialist,prayingatafamily
tombonSoulsDay 53
Fig.3.1 PoliticalmapofUkraineWikimediacommons 65
Fig.3.2 Twoexamplesofarushnyk 76
Fig.5.1 MapoftheRepublicofBeninandsurroundingcountries 117
Fig.5.2 Bodyinburialchamberinfoetalposition 119
Fig.5.3 Piercingaholeintheearthenwarepot 131
Fig.6.1 Lanyero’spictureofherdeadhusband 152
Fig.6.2 WomenarepreparingVentorina’sbodyforthefuneral 164
Fig.6.3 ApicturefromMary’sphotoalbum.Notethecrossonthe
foreheadsofthemanstandingtotheright,andofthechild 172
Fig.8.1 Outerviewofthetreeburialcemetery:Itsmountainand
surroundingpaddyfieldsandvegetablegardens 222
Fig.8.2 Innerviewofthetreeburialcemetery:Agravecomposed
ofatree,awoodentabletontheleft,andthenetworkof
footpaths 223
Fig.9.1 AgravemarkerofaChristianhusbandandaJewishwife,
UnitedStates 276
Fig.9.2 AtombstoneofaJewishhusbandandChristianwife,illus-
tratingthetrendtowardthepersonalizationofmortuary
practices,UnitedStates 277
ix
L T
IST OF ABLES
Table5.1 Coffins:good,badorindifferent? 127
xi
CHAPTER1
Introduction
Sébastien Penmellen Boret, Susan Orpett Long and Sergei Kan
Since its beginnings, the discipline of anthropology has encompassed
the study of death, describing the centrality of its rituals in our lives,
the richness of its material culture, and its multilayered functions and
meanings in societies past and present. Looking at mortuary rites,
anthropologists examine the ways a community deals with the depar-
ture of the deceased and the disposal of his or her remains, material
and immaterial. To the Western reader this would usually imply
a funeral, followed by burial or cremation. Yet anthropological
research has shown tremendous variety in practices across the
S.P.Boret(*)
IRIDeSBureau,TohokuUniversity,Aoba,Sendai,Miyagi,Japan
S.O.Long
JohnCarrollUniversity,UniversityHeights,Ohio,USA
S.Kan
DepartmentofAnthropology,DartmouthCollege,Hanover,
NewHampshire,USA
©TheAuthor(s)2017 1
S.P.Boretetal.(eds.),DeathintheEarlyTwenty-firstCentury,
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-52365-1_1