L. A. Swift
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199577842
- eISBN:
- 9780191722622
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577842.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores how Greek tragedy evokes Thrēnos and other forms of ritual funerary song. The chapter begins with a discussion of the Greek ritual lament, and seeks continuities between the ...
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This chapter explores how Greek tragedy evokes Thrēnos and other forms of ritual funerary song. The chapter begins with a discussion of the Greek ritual lament, and seeks continuities between the various forms such as women's lament, Thrēnos, funerary epigram. It also discusses the role that funerary legislation played in changing the nature of funeral song, and the effect that this would have had on a fifth‐century audience's understanding of ritual lament. The chapter discusses three plays which place particular emphasis on the conventions of lament: Aeschylus' Persians, Sophocles' Electra, and Euripides' Alcestis. Each of these plays uses lament to represent ethical ideas to do with moderation and social convention, highlighting the politicized role that lamentation had accrued by this period.Less
This chapter explores how Greek tragedy evokes Thrēnos and other forms of ritual funerary song. The chapter begins with a discussion of the Greek ritual lament, and seeks continuities between the various forms such as women's lament, Thrēnos, funerary epigram. It also discusses the role that funerary legislation played in changing the nature of funeral song, and the effect that this would have had on a fifth‐century audience's understanding of ritual lament. The chapter discusses three plays which place particular emphasis on the conventions of lament: Aeschylus' Persians, Sophocles' Electra, and Euripides' Alcestis. Each of these plays uses lament to represent ethical ideas to do with moderation and social convention, highlighting the politicized role that lamentation had accrued by this period.
Jacqueline S. Thursby
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813123806
- eISBN:
- 9780813134949
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813123806.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
When Evelyn Waugh wrote The Loved One (1948) as a satire of the elaborate preparations and memorialization of the dead taking place in his time, he had no way of knowing how technical and ...
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When Evelyn Waugh wrote The Loved One (1948) as a satire of the elaborate preparations and memorialization of the dead taking place in his time, he had no way of knowing how technical and extraordinarily creative human funerary practices would become in the ensuing decades. This book explores how modern American funerals and their accompanying rituals have evolved into affairs that help the living with the healing process. The book suggests that there is irony in the festivities surrounding death. The typical American response to death often develops into a celebration that reestablishes links or strengthens ties between family members and friends. The increasingly important funerary banquet, for example, honors an often well-lived life in order to help survivors accept the change that death brings and to provide healing fellowship. At such celebrations and other forms of the traditional wake, participants often use humor to add another dimension to expressing both the personality of the deceased and their ties to a particular ethnic heritage. In research and interviews, the book discovers the paramount importance of food as part of the funeral ritual. During times of loss, individuals want to be consoled, and this is often accomplished through the preparation and consumption of nourishing, comforting foods. This book examines rituals for loved ones separated by death, frivolities surrounding death, funeral foods and feasts, post-funeral rites, and personalized memorials and grave markers. The book concludes that though Americans come from many different cultural traditions, they deal with death in a largely similar way. They emphasize unity and embrace rites that soothe the distress of death as a way to heal and move forward.Less
When Evelyn Waugh wrote The Loved One (1948) as a satire of the elaborate preparations and memorialization of the dead taking place in his time, he had no way of knowing how technical and extraordinarily creative human funerary practices would become in the ensuing decades. This book explores how modern American funerals and their accompanying rituals have evolved into affairs that help the living with the healing process. The book suggests that there is irony in the festivities surrounding death. The typical American response to death often develops into a celebration that reestablishes links or strengthens ties between family members and friends. The increasingly important funerary banquet, for example, honors an often well-lived life in order to help survivors accept the change that death brings and to provide healing fellowship. At such celebrations and other forms of the traditional wake, participants often use humor to add another dimension to expressing both the personality of the deceased and their ties to a particular ethnic heritage. In research and interviews, the book discovers the paramount importance of food as part of the funeral ritual. During times of loss, individuals want to be consoled, and this is often accomplished through the preparation and consumption of nourishing, comforting foods. This book examines rituals for loved ones separated by death, frivolities surrounding death, funeral foods and feasts, post-funeral rites, and personalized memorials and grave markers. The book concludes that though Americans come from many different cultural traditions, they deal with death in a largely similar way. They emphasize unity and embrace rites that soothe the distress of death as a way to heal and move forward.
Kathleen Garces‐Foley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195335224
- eISBN:
- 9780199868810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335224.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In the classroom we can light incense, listen to dirges, watch videos of funerals, and pass around a cremation urn, but these encounters with the intersection of death and religion are taken out of ...
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In the classroom we can light incense, listen to dirges, watch videos of funerals, and pass around a cremation urn, but these encounters with the intersection of death and religion are taken out of their social context. By moving students beyond the classroom, we force them to step beyond the comfort of academic distance and encounter religion and death on their own terms. This chapter describes the pedagogical benefits of site visits and how they can enhance the study of death from a “lived religion” perspective. It also explores ethical issues arising from site visits and suggests practical ways to maximize the success of the site visit, from planning the trip to student preparation through the follow-up analysis. Lastly, it offers specific suggestions for visits to the most common sites used in death courses, namely cemeteries and funeral homes.Less
In the classroom we can light incense, listen to dirges, watch videos of funerals, and pass around a cremation urn, but these encounters with the intersection of death and religion are taken out of their social context. By moving students beyond the classroom, we force them to step beyond the comfort of academic distance and encounter religion and death on their own terms. This chapter describes the pedagogical benefits of site visits and how they can enhance the study of death from a “lived religion” perspective. It also explores ethical issues arising from site visits and suggests practical ways to maximize the success of the site visit, from planning the trip to student preparation through the follow-up analysis. Lastly, it offers specific suggestions for visits to the most common sites used in death courses, namely cemeteries and funeral homes.
Janet Huskinson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199232536
- eISBN:
- 9780191716003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199232536.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores the relationship between pantomime dance and funerary iconography in Roman society. The similarities between the art form of pantomime and sarcophagus art are identified in ...
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This chapter explores the relationship between pantomime dance and funerary iconography in Roman society. The similarities between the art form of pantomime and sarcophagus art are identified in their shared activities of: interpreting well‐known subject‐matter from mythology to their viewers, inspiring reflection on the human condition through a visual display, and engaging with the human body in a fundamental way. The discussion opens with a critique of an approach which explores the relationship between the two by looking at individual pantomime motifs on Roman sarcophagi. Instead the author follows an alternative approach and considers pantomime and sarcophagus imagery in terms of their subjects, their presentation and their actors. The chapter concludes with a section that looks at the viewers of pantomime and sarcophagus imagery.Less
This chapter explores the relationship between pantomime dance and funerary iconography in Roman society. The similarities between the art form of pantomime and sarcophagus art are identified in their shared activities of: interpreting well‐known subject‐matter from mythology to their viewers, inspiring reflection on the human condition through a visual display, and engaging with the human body in a fundamental way. The discussion opens with a critique of an approach which explores the relationship between the two by looking at individual pantomime motifs on Roman sarcophagi. Instead the author follows an alternative approach and considers pantomime and sarcophagus imagery in terms of their subjects, their presentation and their actors. The chapter concludes with a section that looks at the viewers of pantomime and sarcophagus imagery.
Georg Petzl
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265062
- eISBN:
- 9780191754173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265062.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Part I of this chapter reviews its subject historically, showing how inscriptions allow us to see the development of the Greek dialects, the effects on Greek of contact with other languages, ...
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Part I of this chapter reviews its subject historically, showing how inscriptions allow us to see the development of the Greek dialects, the effects on Greek of contact with other languages, especially Latin, and the ways in which styles of utterance and uses of language changed through time. Part II, a brief systematic review, illustrates three modes of language: poetry, with illustrations from funerary epigrams much influenced by Homer and the dramatists; prose, with its range of variations by genre and by degree of rhetorical influence, but also very directly in the form of precise citations of words and phrases used in assemblies; and Kunstprosa, the blend of prose and poetry, illustrated by the style and vocabulary of the inscription of Antiochos I of Commagene on his monument at Nemrud Dagh in South East Turkey.Less
Part I of this chapter reviews its subject historically, showing how inscriptions allow us to see the development of the Greek dialects, the effects on Greek of contact with other languages, especially Latin, and the ways in which styles of utterance and uses of language changed through time. Part II, a brief systematic review, illustrates three modes of language: poetry, with illustrations from funerary epigrams much influenced by Homer and the dramatists; prose, with its range of variations by genre and by degree of rhetorical influence, but also very directly in the form of precise citations of words and phrases used in assemblies; and Kunstprosa, the blend of prose and poetry, illustrated by the style and vocabulary of the inscription of Antiochos I of Commagene on his monument at Nemrud Dagh in South East Turkey.
Richard Finn Op
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199283606
- eISBN:
- 9780191712692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283606.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter looks at almsgiving by monks and lay Christians. It demonstrates the power to attract alms for redistribution won by those who in self-dispossession gave away their wealth to the poor on ...
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This chapter looks at almsgiving by monks and lay Christians. It demonstrates the power to attract alms for redistribution won by those who in self-dispossession gave away their wealth to the poor on adopting the ascetic life of a monk. It shows how monks in particular came to compete with bishops for honour through almsgiving, but also examines the different ways in which lay men and women were encouraged to give alms: at martyrs' shrines, at agapes, at funerals, through the Church, and in direct contact with the poor. In many cases, Christian almsgiving was distinctive in form and meaning from that practiced by pagans.Less
This chapter looks at almsgiving by monks and lay Christians. It demonstrates the power to attract alms for redistribution won by those who in self-dispossession gave away their wealth to the poor on adopting the ascetic life of a monk. It shows how monks in particular came to compete with bishops for honour through almsgiving, but also examines the different ways in which lay men and women were encouraged to give alms: at martyrs' shrines, at agapes, at funerals, through the Church, and in direct contact with the poor. In many cases, Christian almsgiving was distinctive in form and meaning from that practiced by pagans.
Véronique Dasen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199582570
- eISBN:
- 9780191595271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582570.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Scattered and debated iconographical documents relate to the imagines maiorum, those wax portraits of office-holding ancestors which were kept in the homes of the elite. A number of plaster masks of ...
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Scattered and debated iconographical documents relate to the imagines maiorum, those wax portraits of office-holding ancestors which were kept in the homes of the elite. A number of plaster masks of children, often very young, have been found in tombs of the imperial period in Rome and in the provinces. These artefacts come from non-elite families and raise a number of questions relating to commemorative practices as well as to the status of children in lower social orders. Why and in what circumstances were these plaster moulds realized? On a living or a dead child? Was a wax or plaster portrait produced from these moulds? These unusual and little known funerary portraits allow us to revisit the need of memorials and the importance of mimesis in Roman society, and throw an unexpected light on the reworking of aristocratic imagery in freedmen's families.Less
Scattered and debated iconographical documents relate to the imagines maiorum, those wax portraits of office-holding ancestors which were kept in the homes of the elite. A number of plaster masks of children, often very young, have been found in tombs of the imperial period in Rome and in the provinces. These artefacts come from non-elite families and raise a number of questions relating to commemorative practices as well as to the status of children in lower social orders. Why and in what circumstances were these plaster moulds realized? On a living or a dead child? Was a wax or plaster portrait produced from these moulds? These unusual and little known funerary portraits allow us to revisit the need of memorials and the importance of mimesis in Roman society, and throw an unexpected light on the reworking of aristocratic imagery in freedmen's families.
Patrick R. Crowley
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226648293
- eISBN:
- 9780226648323
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226648323.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine
How could something as insubstantial as a ghost be made visible through the material grit of stone and paint? Using the figure of the ghost, this book offers a new understanding of the status of the ...
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How could something as insubstantial as a ghost be made visible through the material grit of stone and paint? Using the figure of the ghost, this book offers a new understanding of the status of the image in Roman art and visual culture. Tracing the shifting practices and debates in antiquity about the nature of vision and representation, it shows how images of ghosts make visible structures of beholding and strategies of depiction. Yet the figure of the ghost simultaneously contributes to a broader conceptual history that accounts for how modalities of belief emerged and developed in antiquity. Neither illustrations of ancient beliefs in ghosts nor depictions of the afterlife more generally, these images ultimately show us something about the visual event of seeing itself.Less
How could something as insubstantial as a ghost be made visible through the material grit of stone and paint? Using the figure of the ghost, this book offers a new understanding of the status of the image in Roman art and visual culture. Tracing the shifting practices and debates in antiquity about the nature of vision and representation, it shows how images of ghosts make visible structures of beholding and strategies of depiction. Yet the figure of the ghost simultaneously contributes to a broader conceptual history that accounts for how modalities of belief emerged and developed in antiquity. Neither illustrations of ancient beliefs in ghosts nor depictions of the afterlife more generally, these images ultimately show us something about the visual event of seeing itself.
Robert DeCaroli
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195168389
- eISBN:
- 9780199835133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195168380.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Most people who have studied Buddhism to any degree are familiar with the tale of the Buddha's enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. However, Bodh Gaya was also the foremost location at which to perform ...
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Most people who have studied Buddhism to any degree are familiar with the tale of the Buddha's enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. However, Bodh Gaya was also the foremost location at which to perform funerary rites and was therefore one of the most haunted places in India. I demonstrate in this chapter that the Buddha's famous encounter with Mara (the deity who presides over desire and fear) serves as the template for all successive confrontations between supernatural beings and members of the monastic community. In this manner the Buddha himself established the precedents by which a monk or nun may subdue troublesome local spirits and, in so doing, helps to establish a social role for the ostensibly insular monastic community.Less
Most people who have studied Buddhism to any degree are familiar with the tale of the Buddha's enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. However, Bodh Gaya was also the foremost location at which to perform funerary rites and was therefore one of the most haunted places in India. I demonstrate in this chapter that the Buddha's famous encounter with Mara (the deity who presides over desire and fear) serves as the template for all successive confrontations between supernatural beings and members of the monastic community. In this manner the Buddha himself established the precedents by which a monk or nun may subdue troublesome local spirits and, in so doing, helps to establish a social role for the ostensibly insular monastic community.
Karen B. Westerfield Tucker
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195126983
- eISBN:
- 9780199834754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019512698X.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Compared with marriage rites, Methodist burial rites and performances of funerals changed relatively slowly over two centuries. Such conservatism, however, masks the shifts in pastoral and ...
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Compared with marriage rites, Methodist burial rites and performances of funerals changed relatively slowly over two centuries. Such conservatism, however, masks the shifts in pastoral and theological understandings of bereavement, dying, death, resurrection, and eschatology that took place during that time among Methodists and within the wider society. These adjustments can be measured by the contents of funeral sermons, topics addressed in hymnals, changes in funerary customs for both the living and the dead, and alterations in the ritual text.Less
Compared with marriage rites, Methodist burial rites and performances of funerals changed relatively slowly over two centuries. Such conservatism, however, masks the shifts in pastoral and theological understandings of bereavement, dying, death, resurrection, and eschatology that took place during that time among Methodists and within the wider society. These adjustments can be measured by the contents of funeral sermons, topics addressed in hymnals, changes in funerary customs for both the living and the dead, and alterations in the ritual text.
Rick Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526118868
- eISBN:
- 9781526144645
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526118868.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
The book studies Neolithic burial in Britain by focussing primarily on evidence from caves. It interprets human remains from 48 Neolithic caves and compares them to what we know of Neolithic ...
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The book studies Neolithic burial in Britain by focussing primarily on evidence from caves. It interprets human remains from 48 Neolithic caves and compares them to what we know of Neolithic collective burial elsewhere in Britain and Europe. It provides a contextual archaeology of these cave burials, treating them as important evidence for the study of Neolithic mortuary practice generally. It begins with a thoroughly contextualized review of the evidence from the karst regions of Europe. It then goes on to provide an up to date and critical review of the archaeology of Neolithic funerary practice. This review uses the ethnographically documented concept of the ‘intermediary period’ in multi-stage burials to integrate archaeological evidence, cave sedimentology and taphonomy. Neolithic caves, environments and the dead bodies within them would also have been perceived as active subjects with similar kinds of agency to the living. The book demonstrates that cave burial was one of the earliest elements of the British Neolithic. It also shows that Early Neolithic cave burial practice was very varied, with many similarities to other Neolithic burial rites. However, by the Middle Neolithic, cave burial had changed and a funerary practice which was specific to caves had developed.Less
The book studies Neolithic burial in Britain by focussing primarily on evidence from caves. It interprets human remains from 48 Neolithic caves and compares them to what we know of Neolithic collective burial elsewhere in Britain and Europe. It provides a contextual archaeology of these cave burials, treating them as important evidence for the study of Neolithic mortuary practice generally. It begins with a thoroughly contextualized review of the evidence from the karst regions of Europe. It then goes on to provide an up to date and critical review of the archaeology of Neolithic funerary practice. This review uses the ethnographically documented concept of the ‘intermediary period’ in multi-stage burials to integrate archaeological evidence, cave sedimentology and taphonomy. Neolithic caves, environments and the dead bodies within them would also have been perceived as active subjects with similar kinds of agency to the living. The book demonstrates that cave burial was one of the earliest elements of the British Neolithic. It also shows that Early Neolithic cave burial practice was very varied, with many similarities to other Neolithic burial rites. However, by the Middle Neolithic, cave burial had changed and a funerary practice which was specific to caves had developed.
Judith Herrin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153216
- eISBN:
- 9781400845217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153216.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
This chapter discusses the place of icons in worship, their character, and the way they came to symbolize the holy and mediate between earth and heaven. In particular, as icons became a vivid focus ...
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This chapter discusses the place of icons in worship, their character, and the way they came to symbolize the holy and mediate between earth and heaven. In particular, as icons became a vivid focus of devotion, they began to embody human relations with God the Creator and Ruler of the entire Christian world. It is argued that women played a notable part in this developing cult of icons. The chapter concentrates on some features of Late Antique Mediterranean culture, shared by Jews and Gentiles, pagan and Christian alike. These provided a common social experience within which the artistic evolution of the Christian church took place. In particular, the first part of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of funerary art, for this represents one of the most striking ways whereby Christians transmitted pagan rituals and artistic forms to their new faith. The second part examines some of the reasons for the preservation of these forms, once assimilated to a Christian mode, when they came under attack in the East. It asks how much that response informs us about the role of women in the cult of icons.Less
This chapter discusses the place of icons in worship, their character, and the way they came to symbolize the holy and mediate between earth and heaven. In particular, as icons became a vivid focus of devotion, they began to embody human relations with God the Creator and Ruler of the entire Christian world. It is argued that women played a notable part in this developing cult of icons. The chapter concentrates on some features of Late Antique Mediterranean culture, shared by Jews and Gentiles, pagan and Christian alike. These provided a common social experience within which the artistic evolution of the Christian church took place. In particular, the first part of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of funerary art, for this represents one of the most striking ways whereby Christians transmitted pagan rituals and artistic forms to their new faith. The second part examines some of the reasons for the preservation of these forms, once assimilated to a Christian mode, when they came under attack in the East. It asks how much that response informs us about the role of women in the cult of icons.
Nigel Saul
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199215980
- eISBN:
- 9780191710001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215980.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter argues that the production of funerary sculpture should be regarded as one of the most important stone-related industries in medieval England. For the most part, the production of ...
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This chapter argues that the production of funerary sculpture should be regarded as one of the most important stone-related industries in medieval England. For the most part, the production of sculpted monuments appears to have been undertaken at quarries, although in some parts of England before the 14th century travelling sculptors may have been active. In the 15th century a vigorous industry in the production of alabaster monuments was based at Chellaston, near Derby. The evidence suggests that only the engraving of brasses was based in towns, perhaps because of the engravers' dependence on imported latten.Less
This chapter argues that the production of funerary sculpture should be regarded as one of the most important stone-related industries in medieval England. For the most part, the production of sculpted monuments appears to have been undertaken at quarries, although in some parts of England before the 14th century travelling sculptors may have been active. In the 15th century a vigorous industry in the production of alabaster monuments was based at Chellaston, near Derby. The evidence suggests that only the engraving of brasses was based in towns, perhaps because of the engravers' dependence on imported latten.
Jonathan Edmondson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199268412
- eISBN:
- 9780191708589
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268412.003.07
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter investigates funerary commemorations in Lusitania, a province of ancient Rome, by analysing all funerary inscriptions from seven different towns or regions. Examining factors such as ...
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This chapter investigates funerary commemorations in Lusitania, a province of ancient Rome, by analysing all funerary inscriptions from seven different towns or regions. Examining factors such as gender, age, and onomastic conventions, it argues for a direct relationship between Rome's political presence and the shape of social relations in the province, while at the same time tracing the presence of indigenous cultural attitudes, such as the particularly high valuation of women, which diverged from Roman norms. In Lusitania, as in Egypt, it seems that families might have assumed a Roman form to some degree while at the same time maintaining attitudes and behaviours rooted in the pre-Roman context. Aside from the role of gender and age in funerary commemorations, joint burials and joint acts of commemoration are also discussed along with onomastics and kinship and the predominance of the nuclear family.Less
This chapter investigates funerary commemorations in Lusitania, a province of ancient Rome, by analysing all funerary inscriptions from seven different towns or regions. Examining factors such as gender, age, and onomastic conventions, it argues for a direct relationship between Rome's political presence and the shape of social relations in the province, while at the same time tracing the presence of indigenous cultural attitudes, such as the particularly high valuation of women, which diverged from Roman norms. In Lusitania, as in Egypt, it seems that families might have assumed a Roman form to some degree while at the same time maintaining attitudes and behaviours rooted in the pre-Roman context. Aside from the role of gender and age in funerary commemorations, joint burials and joint acts of commemoration are also discussed along with onomastics and kinship and the predominance of the nuclear family.
Gawdat Gabra
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789774248924
- eISBN:
- 9781617970443
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774248924.003.0022
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines the Christian funerary stelae or tombstones excavated at the Fayoum Oasis in Egypt. Various regional conditions influenced the development of Christian funerary stelae in Egypt ...
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This chapter examines the Christian funerary stelae or tombstones excavated at the Fayoum Oasis in Egypt. Various regional conditions influenced the development of Christian funerary stelae in Egypt and they fall within the larger category of so-called Coptic art influenced at first by Greco-Roman funerary decorations. The decorative programs of the stelae from burial grounds in the Fayoum were varied, but generally fall into three types. These are the mother-with-child stelae, the aedicula type or orans type, and the stelae with elaborate crosses.Less
This chapter examines the Christian funerary stelae or tombstones excavated at the Fayoum Oasis in Egypt. Various regional conditions influenced the development of Christian funerary stelae in Egypt and they fall within the larger category of so-called Coptic art influenced at first by Greco-Roman funerary decorations. The decorative programs of the stelae from burial grounds in the Fayoum were varied, but generally fall into three types. These are the mother-with-child stelae, the aedicula type or orans type, and the stelae with elaborate crosses.
Jacqueline I. Stone and Mariko Namba Walter (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832049
- eISBN:
- 9780824869250
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832049.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
For more than a thousand years, Buddhism has dominated Japanese death rituals and concepts of the afterlife. This book, running chronologically from the tenth century to the present, brings to light ...
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For more than a thousand years, Buddhism has dominated Japanese death rituals and concepts of the afterlife. This book, running chronologically from the tenth century to the present, brings to light both continuity and change in death practices over time. It also explores the interrelated issues of how Buddhist death rites have addressed individual concerns about the afterlife while also filling social and institutional needs and how Buddhist death-related practices have assimilated and refigured elements from other traditions, bringing together disparate, even conflicting, ideas about the dead, their postmortem fate, and what constitutes normative Buddhist practice. The idea that death, ritually managed, can mediate an escape from deluded rebirth is treated in the first two chapters. Even while stressing themes of impermanence and non-attachment, Buddhist death rites worked to encourage the maintenance of emotional bonds with the deceased and, in so doing, helped structure the social world of the living. This theme is explored in the next four chapters. The final three chapters deal with contemporary funerary and mortuary practices and the controversies surrounding them. The book constitutes a major step toward understanding how Buddhism in Japan has forged and retained its hold on death-related thought and practice, providing one of the most detailed and comprehensive accounts of the topic to date.Less
For more than a thousand years, Buddhism has dominated Japanese death rituals and concepts of the afterlife. This book, running chronologically from the tenth century to the present, brings to light both continuity and change in death practices over time. It also explores the interrelated issues of how Buddhist death rites have addressed individual concerns about the afterlife while also filling social and institutional needs and how Buddhist death-related practices have assimilated and refigured elements from other traditions, bringing together disparate, even conflicting, ideas about the dead, their postmortem fate, and what constitutes normative Buddhist practice. The idea that death, ritually managed, can mediate an escape from deluded rebirth is treated in the first two chapters. Even while stressing themes of impermanence and non-attachment, Buddhist death rites worked to encourage the maintenance of emotional bonds with the deceased and, in so doing, helped structure the social world of the living. This theme is explored in the next four chapters. The final three chapters deal with contemporary funerary and mortuary practices and the controversies surrounding them. The book constitutes a major step toward understanding how Buddhism in Japan has forged and retained its hold on death-related thought and practice, providing one of the most detailed and comprehensive accounts of the topic to date.
Allison L. C. Emmerson
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198852759
- eISBN:
- 9780191887123
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198852759.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical, European History: BCE to 500CE
A Roman city was a bounded space. Defined by borders both physical and conceptual, the city stood apart as a concentration of life and activity that was divided from its rural surroundings not only ...
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A Roman city was a bounded space. Defined by borders both physical and conceptual, the city stood apart as a concentration of life and activity that was divided from its rural surroundings not only physically, but also legally, economically, and ritually. Death was a key area of control, and tombs were relegated outside city walls from the Republican period through Late Antiquity. Given this separation, an unexpected phenomenon marked the Augustan and early Imperial periods: Roman cities developed suburbs, built-up areas beyond their boundaries, where the living and the dead came together in environments that could become densely urban. Life and Death in the Roman Suburb examines these districts, drawing on the archaeological remains of cities across Italy to understand their character and to illuminate the factors that led to their rise and decline, with a particular focus on the tombs of the dead. Work on Roman cities still tends to pass over funerary material, while research on death has concentrated on issues seen as separate from urbanism. This book aims to reconnect those threads, considering tombs within their suburban landscapes of shops, houses, workshops, garbage dumps, extramural sanctuaries, and major entertainment buildings to trace the many roles they played within living cities. It argues that tombs were not passive memorials, but active spaces that both facilitated and furthered the social and economic life of the city, where relationships between the living and the dead were an enduring aspect of urban life.Less
A Roman city was a bounded space. Defined by borders both physical and conceptual, the city stood apart as a concentration of life and activity that was divided from its rural surroundings not only physically, but also legally, economically, and ritually. Death was a key area of control, and tombs were relegated outside city walls from the Republican period through Late Antiquity. Given this separation, an unexpected phenomenon marked the Augustan and early Imperial periods: Roman cities developed suburbs, built-up areas beyond their boundaries, where the living and the dead came together in environments that could become densely urban. Life and Death in the Roman Suburb examines these districts, drawing on the archaeological remains of cities across Italy to understand their character and to illuminate the factors that led to their rise and decline, with a particular focus on the tombs of the dead. Work on Roman cities still tends to pass over funerary material, while research on death has concentrated on issues seen as separate from urbanism. This book aims to reconnect those threads, considering tombs within their suburban landscapes of shops, houses, workshops, garbage dumps, extramural sanctuaries, and major entertainment buildings to trace the many roles they played within living cities. It argues that tombs were not passive memorials, but active spaces that both facilitated and furthered the social and economic life of the city, where relationships between the living and the dead were an enduring aspect of urban life.
Jeehee Hong
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824855376
- eISBN:
- 9780824868680
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824855376.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
In eleventh century China, dazzling theatrical spectacles were performed not only for the living, but also the dead. Beyond urbanizing theaters and temple stages, developments in theatrical ...
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In eleventh century China, dazzling theatrical spectacles were performed not only for the living, but also the dead. Beyond urbanizing theaters and temple stages, developments in theatrical performances also materialized as conspicuous representations and entered underground tomb spaces. The occupants of these tombs exclusively belong to a kind of local elites who were affluent yet socially underprivileged, such as merchants or well-off farmers. Theater of the Dead is the first in-depth study of a rich corpus of funerary art representing theatrical performances that reveal their attitudes toward death and the netherworld. An overarching sense of intense theatricality revealed through close analyses of selected cases conveys a densely socialized vision of the netherworld. Referred to as “a social turn,” this phenomenon not only registers the visual and cultural tastes of the underrepresented group of people whose lives and deaths are largely unrecorded in historical texts, but also points to their growing interest in conceptualizing the sphere of the dead within the existing social framework. The book shows these particular elites’ position in the changing boundaries among social groups, and also provides a new frame for understanding the increasingly flexible boundaries between disparate rituals and religious practices in middle-period China.Less
In eleventh century China, dazzling theatrical spectacles were performed not only for the living, but also the dead. Beyond urbanizing theaters and temple stages, developments in theatrical performances also materialized as conspicuous representations and entered underground tomb spaces. The occupants of these tombs exclusively belong to a kind of local elites who were affluent yet socially underprivileged, such as merchants or well-off farmers. Theater of the Dead is the first in-depth study of a rich corpus of funerary art representing theatrical performances that reveal their attitudes toward death and the netherworld. An overarching sense of intense theatricality revealed through close analyses of selected cases conveys a densely socialized vision of the netherworld. Referred to as “a social turn,” this phenomenon not only registers the visual and cultural tastes of the underrepresented group of people whose lives and deaths are largely unrecorded in historical texts, but also points to their growing interest in conceptualizing the sphere of the dead within the existing social framework. The book shows these particular elites’ position in the changing boundaries among social groups, and also provides a new frame for understanding the increasingly flexible boundaries between disparate rituals and religious practices in middle-period China.
Koenraad Donker van Heel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789774164774
- eISBN:
- 9781617971259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774164774.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
Water was essential in these funerary cults. In the Old Kingdom (2575–2134 BCE) people passing the tombs in the necropolis were called upon by the deceased themselves: “You, who are still living on ...
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Water was essential in these funerary cults. In the Old Kingdom (2575–2134 BCE) people passing the tombs in the necropolis were called upon by the deceased themselves: “You, who are still living on earth and are passing this grave, pour some water for me!” The choachyte (‘water-pourer’) Djekhy son of Tesmontu was part of an ancient Egyptian tradition. The importance of water in Egypt was well known. A low Nile meant starvation. When Djekhy brought his libations—and no doubt beer, bread, and other foodstuffs as well—to the dead in the Theban necropolis this tradition had already spanned thousands of years.Less
Water was essential in these funerary cults. In the Old Kingdom (2575–2134 BCE) people passing the tombs in the necropolis were called upon by the deceased themselves: “You, who are still living on earth and are passing this grave, pour some water for me!” The choachyte (‘water-pourer’) Djekhy son of Tesmontu was part of an ancient Egyptian tradition. The importance of water in Egypt was well known. A low Nile meant starvation. When Djekhy brought his libations—and no doubt beer, bread, and other foodstuffs as well—to the dead in the Theban necropolis this tradition had already spanned thousands of years.
Jacqueline S. Thursby
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813123806
- eISBN:
- 9780813134949
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813123806.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter speculates on the future developments of funerary rites and rituals and the commemoration of the dead in the U.S. It mentions a company called Alcor that provides a service to the ...
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This chapter speculates on the future developments of funerary rites and rituals and the commemoration of the dead in the U.S. It mentions a company called Alcor that provides a service to the deceased called cryonic preservation which aim to reverse death by reviving molecular activity in the deceased body. It also highlights the growing popularity of cremation in the U.S. as a way of disposing of human remains.Less
This chapter speculates on the future developments of funerary rites and rituals and the commemoration of the dead in the U.S. It mentions a company called Alcor that provides a service to the deceased called cryonic preservation which aim to reverse death by reviving molecular activity in the deceased body. It also highlights the growing popularity of cremation in the U.S. as a way of disposing of human remains.
