Death, Memory and Material Culture ELIZABETH HALLAM AND JENNY HOCKEY Berg Death, Memory and Material Culture MATERIALIZING CULTURE ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Series editors: Paul Gilroy, Michael Herzfeld and Danny Miller Barbara Bender, Stonehenge: Making Space Gen Doy, Materializing Art History Laura Rival (ed.), The Social Life of Trees: Anthropological Perspectives on Tree Symbolism Victor Buchli, An Archaeology of Socialism Marius Kwint, Christopher Breward and Jeremy Aynsley (eds), Material Memories: Design and Evocation Penny van Esterik, Materializing Thailand Michael Bull, Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life Anne Massey, Hollywood Beyond the Screen: Design and Material Culture Judy Attfield, Wild Things Daniel Miller (ed.), Car Cultures Elizabeth Edwards, Raw Histories: Photographs, Anthropology and Museums David E. Sutton, Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory Eleana Yalouri, The Acropolis: Global Fame, Local Claim Death, Memory and Material Culture ELIZABETH HALLAM AND JENNY HOCKEY Oxford • New York First published in 2001 by Berg Editorial offices: 150 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JJ, UK 838 Broadway, Third Floor, New York, NY 10003-4812, USA © Elizabeth Hallam and Jenny Hockey 2001 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Berg. Berg is the imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1 85973 374 3 (Cloth) 1 85973 379 4 (Paper) Typeset by JS Typesetting, Wellingborough, Northants. Printed in the United Kingdom by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire. For Josie Hallam 7 February 1942–3 July 2000 This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements ix Illustrations xi 1 Introduction: Remembering as Cultural Process 1 2 Figuring Memory: Metaphors, Bodies and Material Objects 23 3 Time, Death and Memory 47 4 Spaces of Death and Memory 77 5 Memories Materializing: Restless Deaths 101 6 Visualizing death: Making Memories from Body to Image 129 7 Death Writing: Material Inscription and Memories 155 8 Ritualizing Death: Embodied Memories 179 9 Memories and Endings 203 Bibliography 217 Index 229 vii This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements his book has been researched and written with the generous support Tof many people. The British Academy and the Faculty of Arts and Divinity at the University of Aberdeen granted research funds in the early stages of the research. Many thanks go to staff at the Science Museum, London, especially Georgina Hooper, Alice Nicholls and Mark Abbott. Staff at Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen are always very helpful and Neil Curtis has been very generous with his time and in guiding me through the ethnographic collection. Peter Johnston’s support has made it possible for me to conduct research in the Anatomy Museum at the University of Aberdeen. Ann Louise Luthi’s advice and the access she has granted to collections has been extremely welcome and rewarding. Archivists at Canterbury Cathedral Archive and Library have kindly assisted my search for materials and Andrew Butcher has continued to provide ideas, years after my doctoral studies. Thanks are also extended to members of the Aberdeen University Anthropology Seminar and the Manchester University History and Anthropology Seminar for their comments and suggestions. The staff in Cultural History at Aberdeen have been very supportive and encouraging – many thanks to Ben Marsden and Phil Withington for their help. For reasons known to my family and friends, the completion of this book has been both very difficult and personally significant. I wish to thank my family – especially Jackie, Frank and Myra for their kindness. Ian Maclachlan, well beyond his invaluable intellectual insight, has made it all bearable. My mother, who died in July 2000, has been a constant source of inspiration. It seems to me that she was always keenly aware of her own past, as well as the pleasures and difficulties of living with her memories. This book has been written both with and without my mother and it is to her that it belongs – Josie Hallam – mother, sister and friend. Elizabeth Hallam ix x Acknowledgements Jenny Hockey would like to thank friends and colleagues for their help- ful comments on a paper entitled ‘Motionless Memories: death, material culture and social space’ presented at the Death, Dying and Disposal Conference, Glasgow Caledonian University, September 1998; and Katherine Earle at Berg for the initial inspiration and continued support she has provided for this study. Jenny also warmly acknowledges her debt to Elizabeth Hallam who brings a unique historical and aesthetic perspective to anthropology and whose enthusiasm for this project has profoundly enriched her thinking. Jenny Hockey List of Figures Cover: Detail from ‘Woman’s face super imposed on clock’: Anonymous; Silver Print c. 1890. Photograph from: S. Burns (1990) Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America, Altadenz: Twelvetrees Press. 3.1 Monument to Sir Moyle Finch (1551–1614) and Elizabeth Countess of Winchilsea (1556–1634). The V & A Picture Library. 53 3.2 The tomb of Archbishop Henry Chichele (d. 1443) in Canterbury Cathedral, Kent. Canterbury Cathedral Archive and Library. 55 3.3 ‘Memento mori. Remember to die’ (c. 1640). Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC (STC 17816.5). 57 3.4 Detail from ‘The map of mortalitie’ (1604). Huntington Library, California (RB 18319). 58 3.5(a) Memento mori: miniaturised wooden model of a female head – half living, half dead (16.5cm). Front view. Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library. 62 3.5(b) Memento mori: miniaturised wooden model of a female head – half living, half dead (16.5cm). Back view. Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library. 62 3.6 Wax model of a female head, half living, half dead, eighteenth century. Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library. 66 3.7 Wax model of human anatomy, c. 1890. Anatomy Museum, University of Aberdeen. Photograph: Norman Little. 67 3.8 A young woman wearing a veil and black clothing. Mezzotint by H. Quilley after a painting by C. Hancock, xi xii Illustrations 1836. Lettering: The mother’s grave. Wellcome Institute Library, London. 70 3.9 A woman sitting next to a skull in a cemetery. Engraving by R. L. Wright. Wellcome Institute Library, London. 71 3.10 Pocket watch. Silver model of a human skull which opens up to show a watch inside. Science Museum/ Science and Society Picture Library. 73 3.11 Nineteenth century etching of the memento mori watch given by Mary Queen of Scots (1542–87) to Mary Seaton. Etching by Charles John Smith. Wellcome Institute Library, London. 73 3.12 ‘Woman’s face superimposed on clock’ : Anonymous; Silver Print; c. 1890. Photograph from: S. Burns (1990) Sleeping Beauty: Memorial photography in America, Altadena: Twelvetrees Press. 74 4.1 Children’s graves in a Norwich cemetery, 1999. Photograph: Dr Nigel Norris. 88 4.2 ‘Young girl on couch with her doll’ post-mortem photograph: Anonymous; Silver Print; c. 1895. Photograph from: S. Burns (1990) Sleeping Beauty: Memorial photography in America, Altadena: Twelvetrees Press. 89 4.3 Display of memories in a living-room. Photograph: Jenny Hockey. 98 5.1 Damaged face of a watch. Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen. 123 5.2 Cabinet displaying the damaged watch alongside clocks and other instruments of measurement. Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen. 125 6.1 Three small heart pendants. Photograph: Alice Fowler for A. L. Luthi (1998) Sentimental Jewellery: Antique jewels of love and sorrow, Princes Risborough: Shire Publications. 137 6.2 Hair bracelets. Photograph: Alice Fowler for A. L. Luthi (1998) Sentimental Jewellery: Antique jewels of love and sorrow, Princes Risborough: Shire Publications. 138 6.3 Mourning ring. Photograph: Alice Fowler for A. L. Luthi (1998) Sentimental Jewellery: Antique jewels of love and sorrow, Princes Risborough: Shire Publications. 139 Illustrations xiii 6.4 Examples of hairwork pictures offered for sale by Mark Cambell in his Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair-Work, published in America in 1875. 140 6.5 Portrait photograph of a woman who died, aged twenty, in London c. 1880. Private Collection. Photograph: Nina Sparr. 142 6.6 Hair, arranged and framed. Private Collection. Photograph: Elizabeth Hallam 143 6.7 Sleeping Beauty with ‘Floating Roses’; Anonymous, Silver Print, c. 1910. Photograph from: S. Burns (1990) Sleeping Beauty: Memorial photography in America, Altadena: Twelvetrees Press. 145 6.8 Adults’ graves in a Nottinghamshire cemetery, summer 2000. Photograph: Elizabeth Hallam. 148 6.9 Children’s graves in a Nottinghamshire cemetery, summer 2000. Photograph: Elizabeth Hallam. 149 6.10 Child’s grave in a Nottinghamshire cemetery, December 2000. Photograph: Elizabeth Hallam. 150 6.11 Young woman’s grave in a Nottinghamshire cemetery, December 2000. Photograph: Elizabeth Hallam. 151 7.1 Engraving showing a deathbed scene where a will is being written, c. seventeenth-century. Wellcome Institute Library, London. 163 7.2 Memorial inscription on living forms. Tree and memory plaque, Hull University grounds. Photograph: Hull University. 174 7.3 Wreath card with a written message left at the graveside after the funeral. Cemetery