Commemorative Rituals Research Articles

TRACING A CULTURAL MEMORY: COMMEMORATION OF 1857 IN THE DELHI DURBARS, 1877, 1903, AND 1911

ABSTRACTThe three imperial durbars held in Delhi for the coronation of British monarchs as the rulers of India were gatherings of royalty, administration, and the military, organized in the years 1877, 1903, and 1911. As impressively invented, improvised, and self-styled orientalist representations of the late Victorian tradition, these durbars were pageants of power, prestige, and authority, creations of their organizing viceroys: Robert Lytton (1877), George Curzon (1903), and Charles Hardinge (1911). But, as this article shows, they were also commemorative exhibitions of the triumphant memory of the event of 1857 (variously called the Indian Mutiny, Sepoy war, War of Independence), especially in Delhi which had to be emphasized regularly for perpetuating myths about British superiority and invincibility. Spread over a period of thirty-five years, these rituals of commemoration were performed through four illustrative choices. These were the selection of site, selection of mutiny veterans as participants, the construction of mutiny memorials, and contribution to the growth of mutiny pilgrimage tours. Drawing attention to the successive formation of 1857 as a seminal ‘cultural moment’ through its periodic commemoration, the present article brings to focus the enduring significance of the event for the British empire in India, which had to be re-visited time and again for purposes of legitimation and cultural appropriation.

Historical Research on Costume for Boy Court Dancers for Restoration of Yeongseongje

The study contains the results of historical research on costume for boy court dancers worn in restoration performance Yeongseongje that King Jeongjo intended to recover in National Gugak Center in 2015, in addition to related components. Yeongseongje refers to commemorative rites for Yeongseong, the God of Agriculture. Yeongseongje was abolished during the era of King Jungjong before being discussed again in the era of King Jeongjo. In an effort to restore Yeongseongje, King Jeongjo built Seongdanhyangui. Originally, music and dance were not used in Yeongseongje, and King Jeongjo used popular music (sogak) and had 16 boy dancers in the court dance. Since there are no records of the costume the boy dancers wore in court, the costume was designed based on historical materials. In order to select a costume for the boy dancers in court, six main concepts such as ‘performance’, ‘budget’, ‘ancestral ritual formalities’, ‘trends of the times’, ‘military music’ and ‘yuk-jeon’ were extracted. Based on these concepts, Cheolrik was selected as the most appropriate costume. The appropriateness of cheolrik as a costume for boy court dancers for Yeongseongje was confirmed based on the perception of cheolrik in the era of King Jeongjo, ‘Seonyurak’, where cheolrik was used in court dance, and an examination of ‘Goguryeo’ dance. In terms of the components of costume for boy court dancers for Yeongseongje, the Goguryeo dance costume was deemed to be more appropriate than the Seonyurak dance costume. For this reason, Goguryeo dance costume was partially altered and used. Heukrip, which is similar to those prepared by the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts, was used. As for cheolrik, navy silk with cloud patterns was used in consideration of the lighting and the dance routine. In terms of the shape of cheolrik, Ik-jeong Lee(1699-1782)’s cheolrik was consulted for the purpose of production. In addition, a grey durumagi(traditional Korean overcoat), Honggwangdae, Heukhye and pale blue-green Haengjeon were manufactured.

Choreographed Segregation: Irish Republican Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising in ‘Post-Conflict’ Belfast

This article considers the commemorative events for the 1916 Rising taking place over the course of the Easter weekend in Belfast an exercise in choreographed segregation. The paper highlights that, beginning on Easter Sunday morning and concluding late on Monday afternoon, six separate faction-specific commemorations take place in the west of the city. Rather than serving the purpose of uniting an ever expanding network of rival groups under a banner of this shared Irish republican commemoration, the manner by which the events are organised serves to harden the lines of intra-factional difference. Analysis of the use of commemorative space, with a specific focus on how it is both shared and divided over the course of the Easter weekend, reveals the designation of separate time slots for groups to gather and internal segregation within the same commemorative space in the city, Milltown cemetery. In addition the article highlights the competition over use and ownership of important and iconic republican symbolism. It is argued that the expansion of separate republican commemorations for the Easter Rising is linked to the improving political climate in ‘post-conflict’ Belfast. Segregation at the events is based on a need to ensure an absence of violent intra-factional conflict should two or more commemorative rituals collide. However, of equal importance is the crucial role the 1916 Easter commemorations play in maintaining marginalised republican factional identities, particularly those whose very existence is challenged as a result of the dominant position of the powerful republican group in the north, Sinn Féin. Findings presented in the article are supplemented with reference to data gathered through interviews conducted with members across the republican movement in the north. The overall outcome is a commemorative event that appears solidarity limiting, fragmented and deeply contested despite taking place in a relatively peaceful and consensual ‘post-conflict’ environment.

Memoria histórica y olvido en la enseñanza de la historia: los casos de Japón e Italia

En el presente artículo, se revisan algunas investigaciones y publicaciones relevantes donde se analizan aspectos vinculados con la inclusión de la memoria en la enseñanza de la historia (en los casos de Italia y, en mayor medida, Japón) y la conexión existente entre política y gestión de la memoria. Respecto a este último asunto, se evidencia la importancia de la política en relación a la selección y los olvidos en la memoria institucional y cómo los rituales conmemorativos o la construcción de una historia oficial implican un posicionamiento respecto a la memoria. Se observan posicionamientos políticos que determinan la selección de la memoria en la Historia oficial que, al mismo tiempo, es enseñada en los centros educativos.

Día de Muertos v současném Mexiku

Día de Muertos, the Mexican celebration of death, is considered to be a traditional Mexican celebration by most Mexicans. The majority of them believe that the specificity and magnificence of this feast are unprecedented. Día de Muertos is a product of the syncretism of the Mesoamerican traditions of worshipping the dead and the Catholic celebrations of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day. Besides this, it is considered to be traditional commemorative ritual; it is also considered to be a symbol of Mexican national identity, and the celebration is supported by Mexican nationalists. Over the past 30 years, the celebration has evolved dramatically and has been influenced by American holiday of Halloween, which is celebrated by more and more people thanks to the influence of modernisation. Despite the fact that the Día de Muertos celebration may seem to be uniform, its local versions differ slightly. The aim of this paper is to describe and to analyse the process of the contemporary changes in this celebration and to approximate its importance in Mexican society, particularly in Querétaro city and in the Xochimilco district in Mexico City. For my research, I used the ethnographic methods of participant observation and interviews.

Historical perspectives on democratic police reform: Institutional memory, narratives and ritual in the post-war Italian police, 1948–1963

ABSTRACTThe article analyses the occupational culture of the Italian Interior Ministry police after the Second World War, following the demise of Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship. In undertaking this, the article largely focuses on how the history, values and objectives of the post-war Italian police were narrated in professional literature and institutional correspondence and represented in celebrative and commemorative rituals, and the ways in which the recent experience of the dictatorship determined this. While the article presents a historical case, it also intends to stimulate more general reflection on the ways in which aspects of police occupational culture formed during dictatorships survive and/or evolve during and following periods of regime change and on how this can be studied. A research approach which focuses, for example, on the aesthetics and language of police ceremonies and/or the manner in which the institutional history of a police force is internally narrated could be enlightening for today's scholars and donors of police reform. The Italian case shows how police forces emerging from dictatorships may formally stress their democratic credentials, but can ‘normalise’ controversial behaviour under a previous dictatorship by conceptually separating professional functions from the broader ideological implications of such functions, whilst still being driven by cultural practices and strategies which they had learned under that regime.

A broken silence? Mass Observation, Armistice Day and ‘everyday life’ in Britain 1937–1941

Between 1937 and 1941 the social survey organization Mass Observation collected material on the ways that the British people experienced and thought about the commemorative practices that marked the anniversary of the Armistice of 1918. What they found was that while people were largely united in their observation of the rituals of remembrance, their thoughts and feelings about these practices were diverse. For some, the acts of commemoration were a fitting way to pay tribute to both the dead and the bereaved. For others, these acts were hypocritical in a nation preparing for war. This article draws on the Mass Observation material to trace some of the diverse ways that remembrance was embodied in everyday life, practised, experienced and understood by the British people as the nation moved once again from peace to war, arguing that studies of the practices of remembrance alone tell us little about how they have been understood by participants.

La investigación sobre las conmemoraciones rituales en Colombia (siglos XIX-XXI): balance historiográfico

El artículo presenta un estado de la cuestión de la producción investigativa contemporánea sobre las conmemoraciones rituales en Colombia desde el siglo XIX hasta el presente. Dada la estrecha relación que éstas conmemoraciones han mantenido con los proyectos de construcción y legitimación del Estado-nación durante los últimos dos siglos, algunos investigadores se refieren a ellos como “ceremonias cívicas” o “fiestas patrióticas”. El texto se divide en tres partes. En un primer momento, se ubica el problema de las conmemoraciones rituales como un objeto de estudio que hace parte de una preocupación más general de la historia y las ciencias sociales por las políticas de la memoria y los usos públicos de la historia. Posteriormente, se presenta un inventario y análisis sucinto de los trabajos correspondientes a este objeto de estudio para el caso colombiano. La última sección reúne las conclusiones del balance, sugiriendo posibles nuevos caminos teóricos y metodológicos para la investigación de las conmemoraciones rituales.

Royal death and living memorials: the funerals and commemoration of George V and George VI, 1936-52

The death, funerals and commemoration of George V and George VI have received relatively little attention. The elaborately staged funerals established new democratic spaces where people could affirm their loyalty and live broadcasts generated nationally shared experiences. New mass media were significant but the funerals also incorporated commemorative rituals established after the First World War including the two-minute silence and memorial appeals building on the war memorials movement. National philanthropic schemes or living memorials promoted young people's welfare inspired by both kings’ belief in the physical, moral and social benefits of outdoor recreation. Drawing extensively on unexplored sources, this article argues that royal death affirmed a shared Britishness, which strengthened the monarchy and enhanced social and national cohesion in the era of total war.

The agency of dead musicians

A long-standing theme in the sociology of the arts is the sacralisation of art in modern society, but an underexplored aspect of this process is how death shapes artistic creation and appreciation. This paper approaches this issue through an examination of the cult of the dead composer in classical music. After considering the cultural logic and effect of musical sainthood, I discuss how composers are venerated; commemorative rites, such as anniversary programming, provide a phenomenological connection between the living and the dead, while physical remains and relic-like objects carry messages from beyond the grave that can be usurped or amplified by political projects. By comparing the fetishisation of the dead diva with the composer cult, I explain why performers who continue to be admired posthumously still do not achieve the same exalted status as composers.

Building Ideological Bridges and Inventing Institutional Traditions : Festivities and Commemorative Rituals in the Fascist and Nazi Police

This article analyses the employment of rituals of celebration and commemoration to ideologically and culturally bind police forces to the fascist and Nazi dictatorships. It considers public festivities such as ‘police day’ (Festa della Polizia/Tag der deutschen Polizei) as instruments for demonstrating the professional and political integration of the police into the fascist/Nazi regimes, in the broader context of the staging by these regimes of highly aestheticized rituals to reinforce the national community. Police rituals, notably those involving the commemoration of ‘martyrs’, were also employed with the intention of bringing together policemen and fascists/Nazis, by claiming that they shared common values and formative experience. While the ideological success of these rituals is questioned, the article argues that police institutions often willingly participated in them to ensure their occupation of public space and high standing in the eyes of their political masters. The article illustrates the importance of bringing cultural approaches to the study of police history and underlines the need for a more thorough comparison between the police forces of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

WA15 To absent friends: a people's festival of storytelling and remembrance.

Communities play a key role in supporting members through difficult times, yet bereaved individuals often experience social isolation. Palliative care services should make efforts to develop community capacity to support bereaved people. Rituals of remembrance build solidarity. There are indications that many people would like to talk more openly about dead loved ones but are restricted by cultural norms. To create a time of year when remembering dead loved ones is socially accepted and supported within mainstream culture. To Absent Friends, a People's Festival of Storytelling and Remembrance was held across Scotland, 1-7 November 2014. Efforts were made to promote the festival, but not to control the form of people's participation. A wide variety of events took place including community-based activities and high profile participation, for example from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra quartet, and the Scottish Rugby Union. A public festival in celebration and remembrance of dead loved ones has resonance for many people in Scotland and should grow in future years.

Politically Sensitive Encounters: Ethnography, Access, and the Benefits of “Hanging Out”

Negotiating politically sensitive research environments requires both a careful consideration of the methods involved and a great deal of personal resolve. In drawing upon two distinct yet comparable fieldwork experiences, this paper champions the benefits of ethnographic methods in seeking to gain positionality and research legitimacy among those identified as future research participants. The authors explore and discuss their use of the ethnographic concept of “hanging out” in politically sensitive environments when seeking to negotiate access to potentially hard to reach participants living in challenging research environments. Through an illustrative examination of their experiences in researching commemorative rituals in Palestine and mental health in a Northern Irish prison, both authors reflect upon their use of “hanging out” when seeking to break down barriers and gain acceptance among their target research participants. Their involvement in a range of activities, not directly related to the overall aims of the research project, highlights a need for qualitative researchers to adopt a flexible research design, one that embraces serendipitous or chance encounters, when seeking to gain access to hard to reach research participants or when issues of researcher legitimacy are particularly pronounced, such as is the case in politically sensitive research environments.

The Politics of Remembering and Commemorating Atrocity in South Africa: The Bhisho Massacre and its Aftermath, 1992–2012

The Bhisho massacre occurred on 7 September 1992, when 28 African National Congress (ANC) supporters and one soldier were killed and over 200 demonstrators were injured by the Ciskei Defence Force (CDF) during a protest march. This took place roughly 18 months before South Africa's first democratic election in 1994. In this article I analyse the different narratives and contentions that crystallised around the massacre over a period of 20 years. I examine how the massacre is remembered and commemorated in various guises through oral and written reminiscences, monuments and commemorative rituals within the historical context of its Bantustan roots, the transitory pre-democracy period, and lastly its contemporary political paradigm as the ‘gateway’ to a re-imagined Bhisho, (re-)fashioned on covert silences and selective remembering, which are tantamount to myth-making. In the process, the story of the massacre evaporates and a new narrative replaces it, constructed according to the political trajectory of the hegemonic elite and the bureaucratic machinery responsible for producing it. But it is the ‘memory consumers’, the audiences of the representations in question, who can ultimately choose between co-option, disavowal and contestation.

Discourses of Empire and Nation in Early Twentieth-Century Bessarabia: Russian–Romanian Symbolic Competition and the 1912 Anniversary

SUMMARY: This article discusses the celebration of the centenary of Bessarabia’s annexation to the Russian Empire in May 1912 and its significance for the conflicting rival Russian and Romanian discourses over this region in the early twentieth century. The authors argue that this event marked a defining moment in the consolidation of Bessarabia’s status as a contested borderland and had a powerful influence on the mutual Russian and Romanian claims to the province’s “symbolic inclusion.” On the one hand, it represented the high point of the attempts of the imperial authorities and the Russian public sphere to construct a coherent image of the province and to forge a representation of Bessarabia as an organic part of the imperial polity. On the other hand, it stimulated a “symbolic competition” between the Russian and Romanian visions of Bessarabia and its population, adding further complexity to Russian–Romanian relations both in the political and symbolic spheres. The Bessarabian case is an excellent illustration of the shifting patterns of identity politics and political mobilization in the late Russian Empire. The 1912 anniversary led to a “hardening” of the imperial discourse while also emphasizing its uneasy cohabitation with the “nationalizing motives” and its internal contradictions. The 1912 ceremonies performed in the Russian Empire also had consequences for the Romanian national narrative, including the firm placing of Bessarabia on the map of the Romanian intellectual community and the increased presence of Bessarabian topics in the political debates of the day. The peripheral Bessarabian context acted as a mirror for the dilemmas of state-building and identity construction in both cases. On the Russian side, the older concepts of dynastic loyalty and Orthodox unity had to adapt to the nationalizing vocabulary of ethnicity and “populist” rhetoric; on the Romanian side, the broadly shared national consensus was questioned in terms of priorities and ultimate goals. These processes intersected in May 1912, when the Russian and Romanian “scenarios of belonging” were enacted on the occasion of the festive ceremonies in Bessarabia and the opposing “rituals of commemoration” in the Romanian Kingdom. В этой статье обсуждается празднование столетнего юбилея присоединения Бессарабии к Российской империи в мае 1912 г. и использование этого события российскими и румынскими общественно-политическими дискурсами, которые боролись за этот регион в начале ХХ века. Авторы доказывают, что юбилей 1912 года стал определяющим моментом в закреплении статуса Бессарабии как оспариваемой окраины ( contested borderland ) и во многом повлиял на российские и румынские притязания, связанные с символическим включением Бессарабии в пространство империи или нации. С одной стороны, юбилей знаменует собой высшую точку усилий властей империи и российского общественного мнения по конструированию цельного образа бессарабской окраины как неотъемлемой части политического пространства империи. С другой стороны, события 1912 г. придали новый импульс символическому противостоянию между российским и румынским видением Бессарабии и населения края, усложнив и без того непростые русско-румынские отношения в политическом и символическом поле. Бессарабский случай – прекрасный пример изменений, происходивших в области политики идентичностей и политической мобилизации в поздней Российской империи. Церемонии 1912 года привели к ужесточению имперского дискурса, но также выявили проблемы его сосуществования с националистическими тенденциями и его внутренние противоречия. Празднества, организованные в Российской империи в мае 1912 г., имели серьезные последствия и для румынского национального нарратива. Они выразились, прежде всего, в окончательной локализации Бессарабии на ментальной карте румынского интеллектуального сообщества и во все более ощутимом присутствии бессарабской тематики в тогдашних политических дискуссиях. Периферийный бессарабский контекст явился своеобразным зеркалом, отображавшим процессы государственного строительства и конструирования идентичностей. В российском случае, традиционные понятия династической лояльности и православного единства все больше приспосабливались к национализирующему языку этничности и к популистской риторике. В Румынии был поставлен под вопрос национальный консенсус, которому долгое время следовали политические элиты. Как приоритеты, так и окончательные цели румынского национального проекта подверглись сомнению и критике. Эти процессы пересеклись в мае 1912 г., когда российские и румынские сценарии пространственного воображения вступили в открытое противостояние по случаю праздничных церемоний в российской Бессарабии и ответных “ритуалов памяти” в Румынском королевстве.

ZENONAS NORKUS, ON BALTIC SLOVENIA AND ADRIATIC LITHUANIA

Several years ago, the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism prompted a considerable number of academic meetings and publication. By that time, most ex-communist states had already made their new identities clear and familiar to the world – or so it seemed. Transitology was slowly growing out of intellectual fashion, and the whole region affected by the post-communist transformation was more and more frequently regarded as stable and comparatively uninteresting. Amid this fading interest, conferences that aimed to re-examine of the post-communist transition were considered, even by the participants themselves, more of a ritual commemoration than a necessary attempt to solve pressing issues.

The Sounds of Pounding

Burial and commemorative rites form significant components of many routines and activities accompanying the disposal and remembrance of the dead in numerous past and present societies. Various artifacts seem to have had an important role in burial and commemorative rituals and may have been used to reflect social unity and strengthen group identity. Burial-related paraphernalia clearly gained special importance in the southern Levant with the onset of the Natufian culture (ca. 15,000–11,500 calBP), a culture exhibiting cardinal changes in subsistence economy, social behavior, and symbolism. One hallmark of this culture is the appearance of large boulder mortars, massive implements frequently associated with burials and burial grounds, long accepted as a manifestation of technological skill and petrological knowledge. We report the results of a new study of Natufian boulder mortars and their contexts and present novel relevant data. Our conclusions suggest that Natufian boulder mortars share specific traits that go beyond size as well as use contexts. We suggest that they reflect common practices pertaining to Natufian burial and commemorative ceremonies and can be held as indicators of a south Levantine tradition overriding a variety of territorial and group-specific social and symbolic traits.

Shaping Shiʿa Identities in Contemporary Indonesia between Local Tradition and Foreign Orthodoxy

This article reflects on the impact of transnational flows of students, pilgrims, and literature from Iran to Indonesia on the shaping of Shiʿa Islam in Indonesia since 1979, with a focus on the post-Suharto era (1998–2012) and the performance of ʿ Āshūrāʾ commemorative rituals. Since the early days of its Islamization, Southeast Asia has featured several literary and ritual practices rooted in a combination of Islamic and local traditions; most notable are those expressing patterns of pre-sectarian devotion towards the ahl al-bayt – drawing a parallel with Marshall Hodgson’s framework of ʿAlid piety (1955). Based on ethnographic and archival research, the author suggests that in the decades following the Iranian revolution some of these practices were abandoned in favour of a paradigm of devotion promoted by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The polarization of practices, and the relationship between organizations representative of these two approaches, is illustrated through an analysis of the performative means used to represent the tragedy of Karbala during ʿĀshūrāʾ events in Bandung, Bengkulu (West Sumatra), and Jakarta in 2011. In Bandung the play “Tragedi Karbala” was performed by a Sundanese theatrical group staging a local text; in Bengkulu the traditional Festival Tabot took place following a pattern determined by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture in the early 1970s but now under the sponsorship of the Iranian Embassy; the Jakarta event featured a taʿziya troupe brought from Iran by the Embassy’s cultural office.

And then came culture

Both a tribute and ritual of remembrance, “And then came culture” elaborates the intensely political critique that Trouillot commanded throughout his life. Whether writing about Haiti, the silences of history, neocolonialism, or the relations between state and nation, he fought hard against the academic generalities and benign consensus that hid the realities of racism and erasure. One of the words that most haunted him—its uses and abuses—was the word “culture.” I trace that compelling concern throughout his work, most especially in a piece called “Adieu, Culture: A New Duty Arises,” a necessary warning about and corrective to the limits of liberal discourse.

FROM ‘SIGN/אֹ֜ות ’ TO ‘MEMORIAL/‘ זִכָּרֹ ון֙ ’ IN EXODUS 13:1-16

From the perspective of cultural memory the cultic tradition of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread in Exodus 13:3-10 acted as a sign (‘אֹ֜ות ’) and a memorial or commemoration (‘ זִכָּרֹון ’) of the Exodus as an act of divine deliverance. The dialectic between ‘sign’ and ‘memorial/commemoration/reminder’ is framed by references to the consecration of the first-born male (13:1-2, 11-15) and the phylacteries (‘tefillin’) that functioned as a sign (‘אֹ֜ות ’) on the hand and symbols (‘טֹוטָֹּ ֹ֖ פת ’) on the forehead (13:16). Exodus 13 is not merely the duplication of material arguing for the observance of the Passover in the previous chapter (12:14-28) but it constitutes a combination of the cognitive act of remembering and the ritual act of comme-moration. It will be argued that the central role of memory and commemoration as complementary concepts in the observance of the Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread is expanded by adding the instruction of wearing a ‘sign’ on the hand and between the eyes. These signs can be considered as embodied metaphors respectively for power and action and for perception and observation; thus going beyond the mere ritual or cultic commemoration of the exodus. This interpretation will be tested by comparing Exodus 13 with other texts in the Hexateuch where a similar link between ‘sign’ and ‘memorial’ is found. The element of ‘sign’ adds to the notion of ritual commemoration the cognitive evocation of remembrance – a potent mechanism to enhance the identity shaping function of cultural memory (Ex 12:13; Num 17:3,5; Josh 4:6f).