The materiality of death

This paper investigates three cases of preservation and exhibition of human relics in Greek museums and demonstrates the ways in which they actively commemorate the maritime past in contemporary Greece. These exhibits, widely perceived as ‘national heirlooms’, all date from the period of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1830 AD): the embalmed heart of Admiral Andreas Miaoulis, exhibited in the Historical Archive-Museum of Hydra; the embalmed heart of Admiral Konstantinos Kanaris, exhibited in the National Historical Museum in Athens and the bones of the female Admiral Laskarina Bouboulina, exhibited in the Museum of Spetses. The display and the discourses associated with these relics are examined within the context of the significance of material culture for the preservation of national memory in general and maritime identity in particular. It is shown that the ‘power’ of these exhibits derives from the monumentalisation of otherwise complex life stories into bounded and concrete symbols of the past, which is analogous to an effort to counterpoise the immanence of death by the materiality of human remains. The materiality of these relics provides a locus for unique convergence of religious symbolism, maritime identity and national ideology. However, this paper attempts to go beyond an examination of such exhibits as symbols and treats them as objects in themselves, arguing that their purported sanctity and their profanity as material objects generate ambivalence which lies at the heart of nationalist and religious discourses

Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Art · Art history · Exhibition · Ideology · Literature · National identity · Nationalism · Politics · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

• Thinking through the Body

  Yannis Hamilakis, Mark Pluciennik et al.•Thinking Through the Body•2002

  Incluir item

• How Societies Remember

  Open Access•Paul Connerton•How societies remember•1989

  Incluir item

• Sacred commodities

  Open Access•Patrick Geary, Patrick J Geary•Social Life of Things•1986

  Incluir item

• Celebrations of Death

  Open Access•Peter Metcalf, Richard Huntington•Celebrations of Death•1991

  Incluir item

• Nations and Nationalism

  Howard Wollman, Philip Spencer•Nations and Nationalism•2019

  Incluir item

• Destination Culture

  Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett•Destination Culture•1999

  Incluir item

• Personhood, Agency, and Mortuary Ritual

  Open Access•D Gillespie, Susan D Gillespie•Journal of Anthropological…•2001

  Incluir item

• Is `Property' Necessary? On Owning the Human Body and its Parts

  Open Access•Alexandra George•Res Publica. Revista de Historia…•2004

  Incluir item

• Repatriation Reader

  Open Access•Dorothy Lippert•Museum Anthropology•2002

  Incluir item

• The repatriation of human remains - problem or opportunity

  Open Access•L Smith•Antiquity•2004

  Incluir item

• Repatriation Reader

  Nancy Shoemaker, Devon A Mihesuah•Western Historical Quarterly•2001

  Incluir item

• Re-presentar the religious

  L Kong•Social & Cultural Geography•2005

  Incluir item

• Authenticity, Anthropology, and the Sacred

  C Lindholm•Anthropological Quarterly•2002

  Incluir item

• Modernity, Self-Identity and the Sequestration of Death

  Open Access•P A Mellor, Chris Shilling•Sociology•1993

  Incluir item

• Archaeology of the Body

  R A Joyce•Annual Review of Anthropology•2005

  Incluir item

• Sacralising the Past

  Open Access•Yannis Hamilakis, Eleana Yalouri•Archaeological Dialogues•1999

  Incluir item