The choir invisible

Reflections on the living and the dead

Bibliographic Data

ID12096782
AuthorsAnne-Marie Cantwell (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, corresponding author)
Year1990
Volume14
Issue6
Pages613-628
Publication date1990-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDeath Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0748-1187 • E-ISSN: 1091-7683
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07481189008252398
OpenAlexW1994147658
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited17

This article is a comparative study of the ways in which, at different times and in different places, the material remains of dead human beings, be they bones or mummies, have been transformed by the living into relics. As such, these relics then were used to create cohesion, legitimacy, and identity for the living. Conversely, these very relics also may be destroyed or humiliated to shatter the very legitimacy they once created. Further, I argue that it is more likely that dead human bodies will be chosen to represent living bodies politic in times of political instability. Examples have been taken from the medieval and early Renaissance royal families of Europe, revolutionary governments of the 19th and 20th centuries, and from the archaic states of Egypt and the Andes. The dead are men who have ceased to function. They no longer produce or consume

Art · Choir · Sociology · Visual arts · Communication · Psychology · Theatre and Performance Studies

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