Introduction

The chapters in this volume help elucidate the many ways in which remembrance of the dead serves to challenge established norms, construct new meaning, shape identities, and create, disrupt, and maintain relationships. 1 The contributors demonstrate how acts of remembrance offer opportunities to find meaning in the untimely loss of loved ones; to challenge cultural conventions by generating significance from absence in burial rituals; to refashion mourning rites in response to modern political demands; or to forge bonds between urban and rural mortuary communities. These chapters also illustrate another key aspect of remembrance rites: they “re-create and help reconstitute social relationships and notions of belonging to a specific ‘place’ or community.” 2