Safeguarding the House of the Dead

Configurations of Risk and Protection in the Urban Cemetery

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4827641
AutoresC Klaufus (0000-0003-0812-0800, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen45
Número6
Páginas1056-1063
Fecha de publicación2021-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0309-1317 • E-ISSN: 1468-2427
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-2427.12890
OpenAlexW3041779351
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas21

In Lima's pueblos jóvenes-the vast informal settlements that surround the city-migrants who settled there also founded graveyards. Cemeteries are a natural socio-spatial extension of the settlements and houses that urbanites constructed with their own hands. Lima's peripheral cemeteries are permeable spaces which are often regarded as zones of risk and insecurity. Visitors, vendors and taxi drivers fear theft or assault. Grave looting and trafficking of burial land are common occurrences. Moreover, as a breeding ground for mosquitos, cemeteries are potential hotbeds of lethal diseases. Adding to such 'measurable' risks are the intangible risks and risk aversion connected with spiritual activities. This essay grapples with the conceptualizations of insecurity and risk in areas where the houses of the living and the dead converge, taking Lima's municipal district of Villa María del Triunfo and its Virgen de Lourdes cemetery as a case study. This intervention hence proposes a spatially inclusive conceptualization of security which embraces deathscapes as part of the inhabited urban space. Furthermore, based on the diverse 'threats' and 'risks' encountered in the cemetery space, I propose an intersectional approach sensitive to tangible and intangible insecurities and to the responses to avert these. With this approach I aim to unravel the various dimensions of (im)materiality in the security debate

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Business · Conceptualization · Criminology · Geography · Human settlement · Looting · Materiality (auditing · Safeguarding · Settlement (finance · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Global Security and Public Health