The Politics of Sorrow by Daniel D. Martin

Author:Daniel D. Martin [Martin, Daniel D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781317020011
Google: FkOgCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-02-24T05:07:06+00:00

Burying Identity

The management and reproduction of the deceased’s identity is both a narrative accomplishment and a primary implement in the cultural tool kit for coping with grief. Because a deceased person can no longer actively participate in constructing his or her identity, it must be either stocked with physical and biographical materials already in the family’s possession or completely reconstructed. Thus known stories through which the deceased can be ritually “located” as a social object must be told, or formerly untold stories must be revealed. The result is a narrative reproduction or reconstruction of the deceased’s identity. While the body of the deceased may be the primary prop around which this narration occurs and identity is “pegged” (Goffman 1959: 253), personal objects belonging to the victim also serve as symbols of the victim’s self, family life, group affiliations, and shared memories. “Laura,” a middle-class, African-American mother and homemaker in her late 50s, lost her 25-year-old son as he was killed by an intruder in his apartment. Laura reported:

I think the hardest thing for me to do was to go to his house and pick out a suit that he had to be buried in. To me, that was hard because like I said, my son was a dresser. So, you know, I had to think like him for a moment ‘cause I know, you know, he’s a dresser. I mean his socks and underwear matched, you know, everything matched.

Sharon (White, middle-class, mid-30s), a college student at the time her sister was killed, now working as a physical therapist, similarly observed of her sister’s burial:

My grandmother was upset because she didn’t want [Sharon’s sister] to be buried without a wedding ring on. In her mind that was unconscionable, so she took off her wedding ring and put it on her [Sharon’s sister’s] finger right before they closed the casket and put her in the hearse. So my grandmother’s wedding ring is now forever gone from the family.

In Sharon’s quotation, material life is carried over into death, making the coffin a “symbolic environment”—much like one’s home—where clothes and everyday objects exist as symbols of the self (Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton 1981: 121). As Gibson (2008: 37) notes: “Possessions remain steadfast embodiments of physical, mental and existential identity … objects that hold a biography and carry a narrative of the self become particularly important.” Personal objects of the deceased, for family members like Laura, are elements of a narrative identity (Holstein and Gubrium 2000; Loseke 2007), allowing for the presentation of images, actions, and character through stories of the dead (Hausendorf 2002: 177). When prized objects are lost, as in the case for Sharon’s sister, they may be replaced with substitutes—virtual symbols serving the same narrative purpose. Beyond surrounding the dead with meaningful objects, everyday activities carried out for the deceased—such as grooming, dressing, and clothing—are also imbued with meaning:

Laura: I don’t ever want to lose what he looked like and uh, one of his [Laura’s son’s] friends … there was so much going

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.