Remembering and Forgetting: The Relationship Between Memory and the Abandonment of Graves in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Greek Cemeteries |
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Authors: | Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory |
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Institution: | (1) Department of History, The Ohio State University, 230 W. 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210, USA |
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Abstract: | This paper examines the concept of commemoration as an expression of social memory and its relationship to time and space
as manifested through the mortuary evidence from Modern Greek cemeteries. Of particular interest is the act of commemoration
itself: who remembers whom and the length of time that this type of memory endures. Based on evidence collected from a number
of different cemeteries in northern Kythera and the eastern Corinthia, I argue that memory at the nuclear family level determines
the length of time a grave is remembered as a physical location. Once this memory ceases to exist, the grave gradually enters
a process of neglect, which ultimately leads to its abandonment. Some abandoned graves are recycled for use by other families
who, in the absence of any recollection or memory of the grave, remove and destroy the old monuments (if they exist) and the
remains of the previous occupants. Particular burial spaces are, thus, reclaimed by new groups. |
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