Description:
- A new ethnography of Ireland that adds new perspectives on boundaries, materiality, emotions and identity.
- Critically re-evaluates and embraces a wider application of some theoretical concepts in relation to liminality, inalienability, value and materiality.
- A study of contemporary Irish ways of dealing with death and the dead through focusing on and expanded concept of materiality to include how it evokes sensory memories and embodiment.
- Contributes to important topics that are key to understanding how individuals negotiate and mediate social and cultural norms in relation to death and remembrance.
Brief description:
Barbara Graham is an anthropologist with a special research interest in Ireland. She has extensive research experience in the field of material culture studies, death, emotions, aging and care.
Review Quotes:
"The book is a good read for those who are more knowledgeable and interested in the fields of the anthropology of materiality, and (the anthropology of) death. It gives a good overview of the main debates in these areas, with literature that is both new and older." - Reading Religion
"Graham has succeeded in conveying a rich, complex, dynamic, nuanced, and moving picture of the ways in which individuals and communities engage with death and loss, and how the dead retain a social presence in the lives of the living." - Christine Valentine, University of Bath
"Graham has gained unprecedented access to very personal and private situations in Ireland - such as wakes and house clearances after the death of a relative - and this makes for an interesting read, especially given her great narrative skills in describing the settings and scenarios of her ethnography." - Elisabetta Viggiani, Queen's University Belfast