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An Archaeology of Remembering: Death, Bereavement and the First World War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Sarah Tarlow
Sarah Tarlow
Affiliation:
Department of ArchaeologyUniversity of WalesLampeter Dyfed SA48 7ED
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Archaeological approaches to death and commemoration which privilege the negotiation of power relationships can underestimate the importance of personal and emotional responses to bereavement and mortality. Remembrance of the dead of the First World War is often understood in terms of the promotion of nationalist ideologies, but emotional factors such as grief and shock were also involved in the shaping of commemorative responses. In this article, responses to the First World War at national, local, and individual levels are considered. I suggest that people select monuments, places and ways of remembering for their power to express intense and personal feelings.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , April 1997 , pp. 105 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1997

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