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Sixth Conference of the
European Society for Oceanists (ESfO)
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Pacific Challenges: Questioning concepts, rethinking conflicts
Marseille (France), 6-8 July 2005
Paper abstracts
Show a list of all papers
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01: Colonial grievances info | papers
02: Reshaping Indigenous worlds info | papers
03: Dynamics of Pacific Religiosity info | papers
04: Mapping Oceania info | papers
05: Rethinking political conflicts, beyond ethnicity info | papers
06: Cultural festivals info | papers
07: Enchantments of technology info | papers
08: Ownership in effect info | papers
09: Spiritual material info | papers
10: Endangered Languages info | papers
11: Transculturation info | papers
12: New Caledonia in Oceania info | papers
13: Keynotes info | papers
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| id: | 9 | | Title: | Spiritual material: objects and change in mortuary ritual | | Number of papers: | 15 | | Organizers: | Venbrux, Eric
(University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
Lemonnier, Pierre
(CNRS-CREDO, Marseille, France) | | Abstract: | In this session we explore the link between the spiritual and the material in mortuary ritual in the Pacific region. Inspired by the French anthropologist Robert Hertz, who in his 1907 essay on secondary funerals demonstrated a correspondence between the decay of the corpse and the fate of the soul, we focus on artifacts other than the human body. We return to the basic tenet of his theory that “to make a material object or living being pass from this world to the next, to free or create the soul, it must be destroyed. (...) As the visible object vanishes it is reconstructed in the beyond, transformed to a greater or lesser degree.” There are cases in which the deceased’s intimate possessions are destroyed, but also instances in which objects of the dead are kept as relics or heirlooms. Why? In line with Hertz’ argument we might make a distinction here between flesh-type and bone-type of objects. The latter seem to mediate the relationship between the living and the dead. They remain intact like the corpse’s dry bones. The other objects, being destroyed, resemble the vanishing flesh, seemingly considered one with the imagery of the physical body or inseparable from the deceased in one way or another. The connection between the spiritual and the material will be further examined by looking at change in mortuary ritual: do changes in people’s notions of an other-worldly spiritual existence coincide with changes in the material aspects of mortuary ritual? And finally, why is it that people tend to adhere most strongly to their mortuary rituals, while paradoxically at an early stage introduced goods often become items of mortuary exchange? |
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