Overview
New approach to studying material culture
Brings together both recent and historical cases
In-depth, international case studies with broad theoretical applications
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Toward an Anthropology of Absence
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Front Matter
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Temporalities of Absence
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Front Matter
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Ambiguous Materialities
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Front Matter
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Commentary
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
In studying material culture, anthropologists and archaeologists use meaningful physical objects from a culture to help understand the less tangible aspects of that culture, such as societal structure, rituals, and values. What happens when these objects are destroyed, by war, natural disaster, or other historical events? Through detailed explanations of eleven international case studies, the contributions reveal that the absence of objects can be just as telling as their presence, while the objects created to memorialize a loss also have important cultural implications.
Covering everything from organ donation, to funerary rituals, to prisoners of war, The Archaeology of Absence is written at an important intersection of archaeological and anthropological study. Divided into three sections, this volume uses the "presence" of absence to compare cultural perceptions of: material qualities and created memory, the mind/body connection, temporality, and death.
This rich text provides a strong theoretical framework for anthropologists and archaeologists studying material culture.
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: An Anthropology of Absence
Book Subtitle: Materializations of Transcendence and Loss
Editors: Mikkel Bille, Frida Hastrup, Tim Flohr Soerensen
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5529-6
Publisher: Springer New York, NY
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag New York 2010
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4419-5528-9Published: 09 April 2010
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4899-8336-7Published: 05 September 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4419-5529-6Published: 24 March 2010
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 221
Topics: Anthropology, Cultural Heritage