Materialities of Passing: Explorations in Transformation, Transition and Transience (Studies in Death, Materiality and the Origin of Time)

'Passing' is a common euphemism for the death of a person, as he or she is said to 'pass away' or 'pass on'. This open-ended saying has at its heart a notion of transformation from one state to another, which in turn grants the possibility of grasping or approximating the passage of time and the materiality of death and decay. This book begins with the idea that since all material things - whether animals, human beings, objects or buildings - undergo some form of passing, then the specific transformation in these passages and the materiality actively given to it can offer us a grasp of otherwise precarious temporalities. It examines how human beings strive to relate to the temporal dimension of death and decay, by giving new shape and direction to being and by examining its natural transformations. Focusing on the materiality of passing, and thereby the relationship between embodiment, temporality and death,__Materialities of Passing__offers rich case studies from Europe, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and the Russian Far East for exploring the material, spatial and directional aspects of the very interface between life and death. As such, it will appeal to scholars of anthropology, death studies, archaeology, philosophy and cultural studies. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Figures 8 Notes on Contributors 10 Preface 14 Acknowledgements 16 Introducing Materialities of Passing 18 Part I: Transformation: Passing as Movement Between Categories 42 1 Temporalities of Transience and the Mortuary Landscape: The Example of Natural Burial 44 2 Material Dys-appearance: Decaying Futures and Contested Temporal Passage 66 3 Passage and Passing: Movement, Boundary and Presence in Neolithic Mortuary Architecture 82 4 Still in the Picture: Photographs at Graves and Social Time 102 Part II: Transition: Detachment and Continuing Bonds 128 5 Understanding Self-Care: Passing and Healing in Contemporary Serbia 130 6 Doubting the Dead: Approximations of Passing in a Papua New Guinean Community 148 7 Untimely Death and Spirit Mobility in a Southern African Border Zone 164 8 Post-Mortem Photography and Two Visual Representations 184 Part III: Transience: Passing on, Passing Through 202 9 The Third Burial: Passing between Worlds and Points of Transformation among the Siberian Chukchi 204 10 Ambiguous Mobility in the Viking Age Ship Burial from Oseberg 224 11 Assembling the ‘Spark of Life’ 238 12 Anterior Origins: Merleau-Ponty and the Archaeology of the Body 256 Index 268 'Passing' is a common euphemism for the death of a person, as he or she is said to 'pass away' or 'pass on'. This open-ended saying has at its heart a notion of transformation from one state to another, which in turn grants the possibility of grasping or approximating the passage of time and the materiality of death and decay. This book begins with the idea that since all material things - whether animals, human beings, objects or buildings - undergo some form of passing, then the specific transformation in these passages and the materiality actively given to it can offer us a grasp of otherwise precarious temporalities. It examines how human beings strive to relate to the temporal dimension of death and decay, by giving new shape and direction to being and by examining its natural transformations. Focusing on the materiality of passing, and thereby the relationship between embodiment, temporality and death, Materialities of Passing offers rich case studies from Europe, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and the Russian Far East for exploring the material, spatial and directional aspects of the very interface between life and death. As such, it will appeal to scholars of anthropology, death studies, archaeology, philosophy and cultural studies. Edited By Peter Bjerregaard, Anders Emil Rasmussen, Tim Flohr Sørensen. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.