Commemorative Rituals Research Articles

Wound: creativity, the military and a sculpture inspired by faces, minds, and landscapes scarred by the weapons of war

ABSTRACT In reference to Alice Cree’s observation that the words ‘creativity’ and ‘military’ do not seem to ‘fit together comfortably’, the first section of this autoethnographic article critically explores my personal experiences and motivations as an artist working in close proximity to military culture. This creative practice-military relationship is examined in a variety of contexts, including designing war memorials, exhibiting in military museums, and actively participating in military, commemorative rituals. The potential risks – being co-opted by military agendas – and benefits – having a platform to use my creative voice to express the consequences of martial violence – are discussed. Focusing on one of my artworks, Wound (2022), the second section demonstrates the capability of creative practice to interrogate consequences of military (and by implication, state) violence. Wound is a bronze sculpture cast from an original First World War British Brodie helmet and a German Mauser rifle cartridge. By means of moulding, casting, and modelling processes, I reconfigured the original sources of armour and ammunition as a narrative site to metaphorically explore the ‘wounding’ and ‘healing’ of landscapes and human faces and minds. Through the allegorical interpretation of this artwork and by recounting personal experiences related to its research and creation, I discuss my creative practice as a memory artist and explain my motivations for making artworks that explore human violence and warfare. The article surveys other examples of visual art and human violence in war from classical antiquity to the present, with particular emphasis on the First World War.

Valuing Trans Lives After Suicide: Rituals of Commemoration in Digital Social Media Culture

In 2014, a trans teenager named Leelah Alcorn posted a suicide letter to her public Tumblr account. Almost a decade later, in 2023, Eden Knight, another young trans woman, posted a suicide letter to her public Twitter account. Both suicide letters went viral and inspired memorial hashtags on the platforms where they initially circulated. In this article, I identify similarities between the cases, conceptualizing both as rituals of commemoration aimed toward restoring value to trans lives lost too soon. My analysis shows how ordinary users leverage the connective affordances embedded within popular social media platforms to sustain structured, value-laden acts of remembrance and mourning. In doing so, I elucidate four stages of the ritual process: (1) sharing suicide letters, (2) enshrining selfies, (3) modulating memories, and (4) casting blame. Ultimately, I argue that trans-led rituals of commemoration can function as justice-oriented tactics of resistance against engrained systems of oppression that perpetuate disproportionally high rates of early death within trans communities.

Concept, Typology and Functions of Anniversary Resolutions Adopted by the Polish Sejm and Senate [Pojęcie, typologia i funkcje uchwał rocznicowych Sejmu i Senatu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej

The commemoration of events and people is important to build the identity of the nation and political community. The celebration of historical anniversaries is an important element of commemorative rituals embedded in the politics of memory which influences the shape of collective memory. One of the politics mechanisms are the adoption of anniversary resolutions by the Sejm and Senate, the main topic of the article. The aim of the article is to present the main research findings concerning the essence and specific nature of anniversary resolutions adopted by the Polish Sejm and Senate. These include the definition, types and functions that can be attributed to the resolutions. In the above context, the theses and conclusions are based on selected 589 anniversary resolutions of the Polish Parliament adopted 1989–2019. They have been analysed under a research project funded by the National Science Centre.

Eastern Udmurt Sacred Places, Yesterday and Today

Abstract Most Udmurt living in the Bashkortostan Republic and in the Perm’ region of the Russian Federation are followers of a traditional ethnic religion. In their spiritual life, a huge place is occupied by sanctuaries and other places in which their ritual practices take place, such as the worship of deities, spirits and ancestors. We can identify different types of such places in this Udmurt regional group: the sanctuary dedicated to the cult of the clan protector deities, groves dedicated to the god Lud, places dedicated to personal and family cults, sacred places of agrarian sacrifices, territories where funerary and commemorative rituals take place, places dedicated to the propitiation of evil spirits. Depending on their social status, the sanctuaries are regional or general and can be related to a family, clan, village, or multiple villages. In this article, which relies on the authors’ ethnographic fieldwork and published sources, we analyse the present state of the sacred places. We show that the transformation of cultural patterns has led some types of sanctuary to cease functioning, while others have remained as relics and the places of agrarian sacrifices have undergone an active revitalisation.

Occasional Commemorative Rituals in Udmurt Culture

Abstract This article takes as its focus an examination of instances of occasional commemoration of the dead in Udmurt culture. Descriptions of such commemorations are based on sources drawn from published research literature as well as the author’s own field materials collected between 2007 and 2022. It should be noted that, to date, no specific research has been conducted on this issue, most probably due to its irregularity and, to some extent, its intimate nature. The material shows that cases of occasional commemoration within Udmurt culture cover a fairly wide range of social, ceremonial and magical aspects of life. Faith in the power and strength of ancestors has built up an entire system of relationships and behavioural strategies that vividly characterise a traditional worldview that is actualised in extraordinary life circumstances. It can be said that today examples of occasional commemorations are quite diverse, and are commonplace in the everyday and ceremonial life of the Udmurt.

Learning Islam through the Senses

Abstract This article discusses how the visual and embodied storytelling methods of the theater may be used in the formation of Islamic knowledge. Examining productions staged by young women in Oslo in the tradition of the Twelver Shia theater, taʿziyeh/shabih, during commemorative rituals, I ask: How did producers and actors perceive theater to generate knowledge? How were visual and embodied storytelling methods used in conveying religious knowledge? What kind of knowledge was generated? Inspired by theater theory and post-structuralist semiotics, the analysis shows that the theater had transformative qualities that could contribute to cultural transmission, education, and moral and spiritual development. Knowledge was produced through sensorial communication, thinking, and understanding, and was held to emerge from the spectators’ and actors’ aesthetic and affective experiences, in addition to their abilities to create emotional relations with holy protagonists and the divine. The learning outcome was therefore presented as open-ended and invited young spectators and actors to take responsibility and reflect on how to act and respond in our time.

Commemoration of the Dead in the Context of Alternative Spirituality: Collective and Solitary Rituals

The ritualised commemoration of the deceased belongs to the most common forms of communication with the dead. The meaning that people ascribe to a religious commemoration ritual is determined by a concrete religious doctrine, although it can be influenced by a broader cultural tradition. However, in the context of alternative spiritual currents, there can be many possible interpretations of communication with the dead, as there is no “official” doctrine supported by established institutions. In addition, alternative spirituality is marked by the emphasis on individuality, which results in the predominance of solitary practice. Yet, in various contexts, the tension between individuality and community can be manifested in different forms of ritualised behaviour, ranging from strictly private performances to prescribed group rituals. The paper addresses different levels of individual and collective practice in the context of alternative spirituality in Slovakia, a post-socialist country with a predominantly Christian, mostly Catholic, population. It makes use of the theoretical tools of Mary Douglas’ theory relating to the connection between cosmological beliefs and particular forms of social life. Rituals and ritualised behaviour are considered in the case of the triduum of All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day. The results of ethnographic research on spiritual circles operating in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, have shown that these holidays are perceived and practiced differently by people with different religious or spiritual affiliation. The individual interpretation and the degree of associated ritualised behaviour depend on personal background, as well as the social organisation of a circle to which a practitioner belongs.

Remembrance and ritual in English schools

AbstractThis article explores war remembrance and ritual in English schools. The Remembrance in Schools project (2013–2020) investigated remembrance practices in schools in England through questionnaires, interviews and observations. Schools are unique as sites of remembrance because children constitute the majority of participants in rituals. School‐based rituals of remembrance might potentially reproduce dominant discourses of war‐normalisation that conflate military values and nationalism with morally ‘good’ values and an imagined community of the nation. They also provide a contested, ambivalent space in which ambiguities of practice and thinking may encourage the emergence, in small ways, of counter‐narratives about war and its remembrance.

The mouse, the snake, and the devil’s collar: Soviet symbols in the memory of Old Believers of the Upper Kama region

The Soviet project of creating the “new man” included the construction of a collective memory which was not only a legitimate version of the past, but also a repository of cultural values, and the background or space for celebrating Communist rituals. The project itself was rather uniform, but had multiple local incarnations that were determined mostly by the ethnic and religious identity of the local population. The Old Believers’ communities of the Russian North shared with the rest of the country symbols of the past, sites of memory, and commemorative rituals. Still, local perceptions of the Communist regime and its symbols depended in this milieu on a variety of factors: first, the high literacy rate of the deeply religious Old Believers, as well as their erudite knowledge of Christian, and specifically Old Russian literature; second, the very critical attitude toward Soviet power; and third, local beliefs. This article analyzes the process of adaptation of the Communist project to Old Believers’ persistent religious and cultural traditions and seeks to explain how Communist symbols symbiotically coexisted with hostile local attitudes and why they even survived the collapse of the regime. Mutual adjustment of the imposed Communist project and the local symbolic language took many decades, yet finally, by the end of the Soviet era, when three or four generations had seen no other reality than that they were surrounded by, the strong rejection of this reality was smoothed out, everyday tensions mostly disappeared, and the earlier alienation itself became part of collective memory on both family and community levels. The article is based on interviews with Old Believers of the Upper Kama region (Verkhokamie), conducted by the author in 2011 and 2013.

Memory Politics of Mass Graves and Commemoration: Korea’s Cheju April 3rd Incident

This article enquires into questions of state violence, cultural trauma, commemoration, and memory politics with respect to the Cheju April 3rd Incident or “the 4.3” (1947-1954), which is regarded as the precursor of the Korean War. After the Special Law for Investigation of the Truth about the Cheju April 3 Incident was established in 2000 by the government, “the 4.3” was officially recognized as a case of state violence and civilian massacres. Due to long-term enforced silence and suppression of “the 4.3 memory,” however, the divergence between state memory and local individuated memory has created conflict over the identity of the victims of mass killing, the commemoration of the event, and the complex politics of postmemory. Drawing on Hirsch’s concept of “postmemory” (the type of inter-generational memory that mediates the past memory in its affective force), this paper explores the way in which this divergence is mediated in commemoration rituals of ancestor worship and reburial of dead bodies exhumed from mass graves. As material evidence of mass killing and its affective presence, the remains “animate” political action for moral judgement about responsibility for massacres. Placing the dead in a proper family tomb or public enshrinement hall shared with other mass dead in the 4.3 Peace Park becomes the most significant concerns of the bereaved families. It shows how state involvement in the management of remains and ancestral veneration custom continues to exert an influence on the surviving families of the dead as well as the victims of the 4.3. In opposition to the structural state intervention, there persisted a community action that continually repaired the loss of social relations and restored communal history through creating the children’s collective grave and family cemetery and inventing island-wide shamanic rituals in the public sphere. In this article, we witness the community of death and loss, which is newly formed through cultural trauma and restorative justice in the post-atrocity era.

Enduring violence and commemoration: Korea’s Cheju April 3 Incident

Post-atrocity survivors construct spaces of being through various levels of visibility and stages of construction. Those with inherited memories of their ancestors from mass atrocities share the ability to exert their postmemories that mediates the past memory in its affective force to restore their sociability with their relatives, neighbors, community, and nation. A central medium of postmemory typically comes in the form of commemorative ritual practices that contain a mixture of mourning and re-creation of family and community. Ritual engages informal sociocultural processes outside the purview of the state. Commemoration rituals reflect ordinary people’s attempts to seek moral renewal and social repair to promote social reconstruction and recovery of humanity. This essay considers feminist interventions of intimate memorial scales, enabling us to envision potential alternative historical trajectories in post-massacre commemorations, memorials, reburials, and as mnemonic locations for agonistic testimonies to emerge around a mid-century massacre in South Korea called the “Cheju April 3 Incident.” We take into consideration how the postmemory of the Cheju April 3 Incident is intergenerationally transmitted and ritually re-enacted through family ancestor worship, and the reburial of remains after the exhumation of mass graves. The lessons of postmemory practices are crucial to the foundation of humanity after atrocity.

New Challenges and Situation of an Ethnic Minority within a Local Community in the Light of Social Changes

Our memory is largely shaped by the way we look at the peoples currently living within the Carpathian Basin. Once a well-known tobacco-growing village in Historic Hungary, Torda (also known as Torontáltorda in Hungarian) is now a dispersed settlement with a Hungarian ethnic majority located in the Banat region of Vojvodina, Serbia. The shifting of national borders, the two World Wars, the events of the Yugoslav Wars and migratory movements have collectively changed and decimated the lives of Hungarians who had found themselves outside their motherland’s borders after the 1920s. In spite of the decline in population, the emigration of young people, and the everyday struggles resulting from hard living conditions, this village in the Central Banat district could attract further socio-ethnographic interest. In the micro-communities of rural settlements, education and religion play a key role in creating social value, maintaining Hungarian culture in the area and forming a national, local sense of identity within the community. Commemorative rituals, local traditions and national holidays often cross each others’ paths and blend together through education and religion, highlighting the reality and cultural values of the community, as well as the array of connections between community life and ethnic culture. This study discusses Torda’s present in the light of social change and the process of cultural mapping, touching on the importance of the local cultural association in the community’s life. This study also explores the events of the past few decades that have left a deep imprint on the micro-community’s life in a cultural, social and ethnic sense.

For Whom the Platter Tolls

Abstract This paper deals with memory in medieval Rus. Previous scholarship has focused on organised liturgical commemoration (memoria), which relied on complex canonised texts and sophisticated church rituals. This article concerns less formal types of medieval remembrance, like commemorative graffiti, colophons, and simple commemorative rituals. Such memorial devices can be called paraliturgical because they either facilitated liturgical commemoration or derived from liturgical texts and ceremonies, but technically were not part of the liturgy. Paraliturgical remembrance offered a peculiar version of the past. It combined short family memory, which went back to one or two generations, and the mythologised past, which was based on Scripture and inspirational legends, like that about Riurik. Paraliturgical memory was future orientated as it carried information required for salvation, including records of charity and donations. This type of memory also conveyed emotions, genealogical knowledge, and royal mythology. Paraliturgical remembrance crossed institutional and regional boundaries, creating communities of rememberers.

Symbolic Politics as a Tool in Social Protest

The article analyses the concept of symbolic politics and its potential for explaining the mechanisms and means of struggle used by social protest movements. A detailed discussion of the protest events that took place in Lithuania between 2021 and 2023 reveals how the symbolic capital of major national holidays and commemorations was exploited by the opposing political forces.Between 2021 and 2023, social discontent was rising in Lithuania and so was the number of mass protests in the country. The latter differed significantly from the previous ones not only in the geography and social composition of the participants (mostly not the residents of Vilnius but those of the province, representatives of the so-called lower social classes), but also in the problems and political demands they identified. The rhetoric used was more typical of the ‘culture wars’, with demands for systemic changes and calls for the resignation of some high-ranking officials or even institutions, such as the government of the Republic of Lithuania. The frequency of these protest events and the number of protesters have also been noticeably rising.The main reasons for the growing dissatisfaction of some citizens were the domestic and foreign policies implemented by the ruling coalition formed by the TS-LKD (Tėvynės sąjunga-Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai, Homeland Union-LithuanianChristian Democrats), the Lithuanian Liberal Movement (Lietuvos liberalų sąjūdis, LLS), the Freedom Party (Laisvės partija, LS) and the government it appointed at the end of 2020, as well as the legislative initiatives reflecting the so-called gender discourse. These protests were suppressed with the help of a negative image of the protesters in the mainstream media and (not always adequate to the situation) by demonstrating the measures taken by the force structures structures to control the civil unrest. However, early in 2022, protesters spontaneously discovered and exploited, sufficiently effectively, unconventional or openly counter-conventional symbolic political tools: they used major national holidays and commemorations and public events organised on those occasions, which became an arena for demonstrating openly their negative attitudes towards the political elite.With this in mind, the aim of this article is to take a closer look at the official commemorations of 13 January, 16 February, and 11 March, the three most important national dates in 2022, and the forms of civic dissatisfaction that were expressedduring them. The category of symbolic politics was used as a theoretical basis for the study and is presented in greater detail in the article. In addition to sources such as public speeches of politicians, broadcasts of these events, TV reports or discussions about them in official and social media, etc., anthropological participatory research was chosen as a significant method of analysis.Taking into account the specifics of the development of post-Soviet countries, the topic of the exploitation of cultural memory, especially related to the era of the national movement Sąjūdis (the time of the restoration of the state) in the accumulation of symbolic capital and in the solution of topical socio-political problems was of particular importance for the analysis of the interaction of symbolic politics and social protest. The mass protests of 2021–2023 illustrate how the Sąjūdis epoch and the political values and programming of Lithuania’s development put forward during that era are still being used to challenge, reject, and create a vision contrary to the currently established political discourse and its order, including the commemorative ritual. The ongoing struggle for the right to control the symbolic legacy of the Sąjūdis and the lack of ‘feedback’ in political communication are fuelling hostility and radicalisation on both sides of the conflict. The struggle for the appropriation of the memory and moral capital of the Sąjūdis (and of the first Republic of Lithuania, from which the Sąjūdis evolved legally and symbolically) has become extremely significant for each of them, because the appropriation of this resource also plays the role of the legitimation of a particular political group. Denying the political opponent the right to this symbolic resource simultaneously denies any legitimacy they may have and at the same time eliminates them symbolically from the field of political competition.

Social fields, journalism, and collective memory: Reporting on the Armenian genocide in legal, political, and commemorative field events

Conflictual processes unfolding in legal and political social fields as well as commemorative events differentially shape social memories, including memories about genocides, in line with their rules of the game and institutional logics. News media subsequently process mnemonic struggles—carried out in law, politics, and commemorations—submitting them to the rules and norms of journalism before their messages reach the public. This article explores these processes for struggles pertaining to memories of the Armenian genocide. It is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 259 English language newspaper articles published in the United States that report about a court case, a legislative process, and commemorative events. Our analysis identifies distinct patterns of representations. Differences are in line with the institutional logics of the legal and political fields and the epistemic potential of commemorative rituals, even as they interact with the logic of the journalistic field that mediates those accounts.

50 Years of Pride: Queer Spatial Joy as Radical Planning Praxis

Planning has historically been used as a tool to regulate queer people in urban space and parades have long been a vibrant, yet overlooked, practice for resisting such municipal regulation—although parades themselves require spatial planning practices. We analyze the 50-year history of the Los Angeles Pride parade through archival materials, asking to what extent and how the historical planning of LA Pride demonstrates a radical planning praxis, especially in relation to policing. We find that LA Pride was initially (a) a ritual of remembrance and (b) a political organizing device. In contrast to heteronormative readings of Pride as an opportunity to “come out” and transform the “straight state,” we argue that the early years of Pride demonstrated intersectional and insurgent planning wherein heterogeneous queer people claimed agency through collectively expressing joy as an act of resistance to municipal governance. Based on theories of Black joy and the feminist killjoy, we conceptualize this experience as a “spatialized queer joy.” This concept is particularly germane given ongoing debates regarding the relationship between queer and BIPOC urban life and policing. We suggest that spatialized queer joy complicates conventional readings of Pride and queer urban space, offering instead powerful tools for radical queer planning praxis.

The Forty Part Motetin New York City after 9/11

AbstractIn Janet Cardiff'sThe Forty Part Motet(2001,40Part), ‘a reworking of Thomas Tallis'sSpem in alium(c. 1570)’, the forty voice parts of the motet are played back via forty speakers. Visitors walk through and around the encompassing speakers arrayed in eight groups of five. Still in constant demand,40Partenjoys unparalleled success in the contemporary art scene. This article shows how40Partbecame associated with New York City's rituals of remembrance and healing after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy, and considers the politics of the installation's stagings as part of those commemorations. Here,40Parttook on a specifically comforting function that speaks to larger tendencies in twenty-first-century auditory culture, American cultural responses to trauma, and commemorative uses of music, which are built on white bourgeois sentimental attachments and the techno-social production of imagined spaces and times of privilege.

Images of Purgatory: Studies in Religious Imagination and Innovation (The Czech Lands, 1600–1800) by Tomáš Malý and Pavel Suchánek

Reviewed by: Images of Purgatory: Studies in Religious Imagination and Innovation (The Czech Lands, 1600–1800) by Tomáš Malý and Pavel Suchánek Marc R. Forster Images of Purgatory: Studies in Religious Imagination and Innovation (The Czech Lands, 1600–1800). By Tomáš Malý and Pavel Suchánek. Translated by Stuart Roberts. (Rome: Viella. 2021. Pp. xviii, 260. €36,00. ISBN: 9788833137421.) This detailed and densely argued study examines images depicting Purgatory in Catholic churches in the early modern Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia). The analysis of these images is placed in the context of the evolving theology of Purgatory, as well as the religious practices and popular beliefs that were linked to Purgatory. The authors show how Purgatory provides an excellent window into the nature and evolution of baroque piety in Early Modern Catholicism. The book is structured as a kind of top-down analysis of Purgatory. Chapter One discusses doctrine, Chapter Two the images, and Chapter Three pious practices around Purgatory. Chapter Four examines “popular culture,” that is unofficial beliefs and practices, sometimes called here “debatable” practices. This simple and somewhat old-fashioned structure does not do justice to the nuances of this study. The authors [End Page 205] are always interested in interactions between different media, social groups, and cultural traditions. Developments in the Czech lands are examined in the context of international Catholicism, with reference, for example, to pious literature from Germany, Spain, and France. The interactions between written texts and the images found in churches and chapels is also central to the study. The study is informed by wide reading in Czech, German, English, and French-language historiography and is methodologically sophisticated, particularly in its discussion of images. This study will open the eyes of historians who only know about the doctrine of Purgatory from Martin Luther’s critique of indulgences. Purgatory was confirmed at the Council of Trent, and gained importance in Catholic religious practice in the seventeenth century. Maly and Suchánek link much of the growing role of Purgatory to the Jesuits. From the beginning of the Society, the Jesuits promoted meditative practices that focused on imagination and emotion, most famously in the Spiritual Exercises. Purgatory, and images of Purgatory, were good for this kind of piety, with visions of tormented souls in Purgatory stoking the fears of punishment and appealing to the sympathy of the faithful. Pious practices around Purgatory were supported by, and in turn encouraged, other aspect of baroque piety. The authors highlight the growing importance of “privileged altars” (or indulgence altars), where people could pray for the release of family members and friends from Purgatory. The altars were often founded by confraternities and religious orders, important promoters of baroque religion. “The new altar allowed everyone, regardless of social status, to take an active part in commemorative rituals and was a reflection of the post-Tridentine concept of requiem culture with the principle of the exchange of merits between the living and the deceased” (p. 157). This “requiem culture” was also important in pilgrimage piety and processional practices, other important elements of Catholic culture in this era. The images of Purgatory drew on early modern ideas about the emotions. Emotions were understood to stimulate the “passions of the soul” and lead people to piety. Furthermore, the authors emphasize that “. . . in the case of Purgatory, negative emotions (fear, pain) and positive emotions (hope, the certainly of salvation–joy) were combined” (p. 88). The images presented in the book show the intensity of emotions as well as the “extraordinary multi-layered nature and diverse variety of the post-Tridentine iconography of Purgatory” (p. 81). This iconography reinforced Catholic doctrines of the Eucharist, the Passion, the cult of Mary, and the cult of St. Joseph, as the patron saint of the good death. Maly and Suchánek insist nevertheless, that the images of purgatory, while often didactic, also responded to the beliefs of the common people. For example, although fire was officially the only punishment found in Purgatory, the images also depict snakes, demons, dragons, and other creatures tormenting the souls in Purgatory. An important conclusion of Images of Purgatory is that the engagement with Purgatory changed perceptively over the period of this...

ЗАХОРОНЕНИЯ В ЛОДКАХ У ПАЛЕОСЕЛЬКУПОВ

The article presents the results of field and desk research of burials in boats left by the Narym (southern) Paleo-Selkup people (16th-17th centuries). It examines the burial structures, the form of the discovered boats, and details of burial and commemorative rituals. The study is based on the findings identified and studied by the author from mounds 13 and 13A of the Kustovsky burial ground, left by representatives of the locally-dialectal Shiyesgula group. Published data from paleoethnography and ethnography on similar rituals among other groups of Narym Paleo-Selkup people are used as comparative material. Burials were performed under small mounds in shallow pits, which were previously burned before the boats were placed in them as containers for the deceased in their entirety, without dismemberment. The boat bottoms were supported by beam supports, and the pits were covered with wooden planks. Carved boats of two types were used for burial: a pointed prow and a blunt-sterned dugout. The form of the prow corresponds to the ethnographically documented shamanic boat called“rontyk,” which is also a boat for guiding the dead to the aft erlife. The deceased were laid on their backs, with their heads in the stern and their feet downstream.”

Vanished Cultural Landscapes: Rituals of Remembrance for Submerged Bulgarian Villages

The article explores the processes of building memoryscapes: a material anchor is a starting point or an integral part of the narrative in order to facilitate communication. In some cases, these anchors are material remains, in others new religious, commemorative or ritual sites. The commemorations or pilgrimages need a visible, material object. Placemaking based on a lost place as performed by the first generation, i.e. resettlers, results in elaborated memoryscape within the second generation, i.e. their descendants.