Memorials in the Aftermath of Armed Conflict, 2019
The construction of memorials is a well-established cultural practice, widely recognised and expe... more The construction of memorials is a well-established cultural practice, widely recognised and expected. We hear about them; how they are planned, designed, debated, altered, and sometimes removed. They are celebrated, inaugurated, and critiqued; and they become the focal point for anniversaries and forms of memorialisation through which accounts of events are staged. Memorials have become a part of our cultural toolkit. It is taken for granted that major events need memorials, and it has also become commonplace to see such memorials being recast and reinterpreted to suit changing social conditions and needs including the vagaries of ideologies. On our TV screens, we have witnessed the removal of statues of leading communist figures, first from countries within the former communist bloc of Eastern Europe and then throughout the former Soviet Union. More recently, the removal of the Rhodes statue from the University of Cape Town in 2015 not only became internationally debated through t...
This article considers the power of things to affect how the past is remembered in the aftermath ... more This article considers the power of things to affect how the past is remembered in the aftermath of mass violence, through the case of the ‘destroyed villages’ (villages détruits) of the battlefield of Verdun, theatre in 1916 of one of the most destructive battles of World War I. As well as causing mass military death, the battle also led to the ‘death’ of nine small villages, declared to have ‘died for France’ and incorporated into the post-war commemorative landscape of the battlefield. The article illustrates the 21st-century discourse and practices that surround the remains of these villages, from emplaced ruins to photographs and other documents. A century after the ‘death’ of the villages, people who identify as descendants of the original inhabitants gather at the sites and through these objects evoke their ancestors and the pre-war settlement, momentarily reconstituting a space that they can ‘inhabit’ physically, imaginatively and affectively. However, bids to restore a ‘vil...
Abstract: This paper examines the official representations associated with the Carnevale (Carniva... more Abstract: This paper examines the official representations associated with the Carnevale (Carnival) of Bassano, a town in North-East Italy, in the last 150 years. In particular, the gradual definition of Carnevale as a ‘local tradition’ is traced, in relation to the self-definition of social groups in the town, and to the latter’s relation to the nation/state. Some theoretical points on the nature of ‘traditions’ as social constructs are also made.
RESUME : Les " Temoins Muets " sont des objets de la Grande Guerre ainsi qualifies dans... more RESUME : Les " Temoins Muets " sont des objets de la Grande Guerre ainsi qualifies dans le catalogue d'une remarquable collection accessible au public a Romagne-sous-Montfaucon (Meuse). Au vingt-et-unieme siecle, alors que les derniers survivants de la Grande Guerre et leurs descendants immediats disparaissent, les objets materiels associes au conflit semblent eveiller un renouveau d'interet de la part du grand public, se traduisant par la creation de musees, de fouilles archeologiques etc... Sur la base d'observations faites au cours de recherches ethnographiques et archeologiques sur l'ancien front occidental (Meuse, France et Belgique), je montre que ces objets sont aujourd'hui valorises principalement de deux facons. D'un cote, ils sont vus comme des documents historiques et archeologiques permettant une reconstruction depassionnee du conflit a partir de preuves materielles, dans la mesure ou il n'appartient plus lui-meme a la memoire vivant...
N. Argenti and K. Schramm (eds.) Remembering Violence: Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission, Berghahn Books, pp. 165-189, 2010
Memorials in the Aftermath of Armed Conflict, 2019
The construction of memorials is a well-established cultural practice, widely recognised and expe... more The construction of memorials is a well-established cultural practice, widely recognised and expected. We hear about them; how they are planned, designed, debated, altered, and sometimes removed. They are celebrated, inaugurated, and critiqued; and they become the focal point for anniversaries and forms of memorialisation through which accounts of events are staged. Memorials have become a part of our cultural toolkit. It is taken for granted that major events need memorials, and it has also become commonplace to see such memorials being recast and reinterpreted to suit changing social conditions and needs including the vagaries of ideologies. On our TV screens, we have witnessed the removal of statues of leading communist figures, first from countries within the former communist bloc of Eastern Europe and then throughout the former Soviet Union. More recently, the removal of the Rhodes statue from the University of Cape Town in 2015 not only became internationally debated through t...
This article considers the power of things to affect how the past is remembered in the aftermath ... more This article considers the power of things to affect how the past is remembered in the aftermath of mass violence, through the case of the ‘destroyed villages’ (villages détruits) of the battlefield of Verdun, theatre in 1916 of one of the most destructive battles of World War I. As well as causing mass military death, the battle also led to the ‘death’ of nine small villages, declared to have ‘died for France’ and incorporated into the post-war commemorative landscape of the battlefield. The article illustrates the 21st-century discourse and practices that surround the remains of these villages, from emplaced ruins to photographs and other documents. A century after the ‘death’ of the villages, people who identify as descendants of the original inhabitants gather at the sites and through these objects evoke their ancestors and the pre-war settlement, momentarily reconstituting a space that they can ‘inhabit’ physically, imaginatively and affectively. However, bids to restore a ‘vil...
Abstract: This paper examines the official representations associated with the Carnevale (Carniva... more Abstract: This paper examines the official representations associated with the Carnevale (Carnival) of Bassano, a town in North-East Italy, in the last 150 years. In particular, the gradual definition of Carnevale as a ‘local tradition’ is traced, in relation to the self-definition of social groups in the town, and to the latter’s relation to the nation/state. Some theoretical points on the nature of ‘traditions’ as social constructs are also made.
RESUME : Les " Temoins Muets " sont des objets de la Grande Guerre ainsi qualifies dans... more RESUME : Les " Temoins Muets " sont des objets de la Grande Guerre ainsi qualifies dans le catalogue d'une remarquable collection accessible au public a Romagne-sous-Montfaucon (Meuse). Au vingt-et-unieme siecle, alors que les derniers survivants de la Grande Guerre et leurs descendants immediats disparaissent, les objets materiels associes au conflit semblent eveiller un renouveau d'interet de la part du grand public, se traduisant par la creation de musees, de fouilles archeologiques etc... Sur la base d'observations faites au cours de recherches ethnographiques et archeologiques sur l'ancien front occidental (Meuse, France et Belgique), je montre que ces objets sont aujourd'hui valorises principalement de deux facons. D'un cote, ils sont vus comme des documents historiques et archeologiques permettant une reconstruction depassionnee du conflit a partir de preuves materielles, dans la mesure ou il n'appartient plus lui-meme a la memoire vivant...
N. Argenti and K. Schramm (eds.) Remembering Violence: Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission, Berghahn Books, pp. 165-189, 2010
Memorials in the Aftermath of Armed Conflict From History to Heritage , 2019
Takes a completely original approach to studying memorials as complex and changeable cultural her... more Takes a completely original approach to studying memorials as complex and changeable cultural heritage sites Includes new studies of iconic sites (e.g. Dresden), lesser-known ones (e.g. the Isted Lion), and also considers sites that are being silenced (e.g. the Dudik Memorial Complex), and through that it expands the bases for comparative analysis and debates considerably and in a thoughtful manner Draws on in-depth case studies to provides both specific empirical evidence and analytic reflections that identify common trends and processes
Uploads
Papers by Paola Filippucci