Funerals and dead bodies
Item set
Title
Funerals and dead bodies
Description
The topic of funerals and dead bodies is complex and wide-ranging. From their political symbolism and importance for religious memorialisation, to ideas such as what constitutes a proper burial, how particular corpses could be targeted and instrumentalist by the secret police and the importance of death rituals and beliefs, the subject touches on many intertwined themes. Even though photographs of family members or religious leaders taken after their death may seem unsettling, their intention could be to make a political statement or to indicate a change in the hierarchy of the religious community. As with any symbol, the dead body becomes effective in moments of system transformations, when the history that created the symbol is modified, drawing attention to the place of tradition in a specific society. Images of the dead bodies of children also constituted a propaganda tool used by the secret police against various religious minorities, such as Inochentists, in an effort to portray them and their rituals as dangerous and immoral.
Creator
Iuliana Cindrea
Publisher
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme No . 677355
Bibliographic Citation
Iuliana Cindrea, "Funerals and dead bodies"
Date Created
2019
Items
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Surveillance photos of Greek Catholic bishop Ioan Dragomir Romania
These three pages of photo collages represent three instances in which Greek Catholic Bishop Ioan Dragomir was captured by secret police surveillance shortly after his release from prison in 1966. They all come from Dragomir’s individual file that extends to ten volumes. The first two collages are of photographs taken in stake out operations by Securitate officers from Maramureș county at the request of the central offices of the secret police. The officers had been instructed to map the network of persons Bishop Dragomir had contact with in his daily activities. These images consist of two -
Commemoration of the dead by a family in Bessarabia
The photograph shows a family from Bessarabia in a cemetery of Chilia Nouă celebrating Paștele Blajinilor (in Romanian) or Radonitsa (in Russian), the day when the Orthodox Christian families commemorate their deceased relatives. Almsgiving has a central place in the commemoration of the dead in Orthodox Christian tradition. It is believed that by offering to each other bread, cookies, fruits, tableware items and drinks, the believers redeem the sins of their deceased relatives, and satiate the dead’s thirst and hunger. This is why the grave in the image is covered with various items that we -
Photo of a funeral of two Old Calendarist believers Romania
This photograph was taken in 1934 or 1935 in the village of Toporăști in the county of Vaslui. It depicts the funeral of two victims of the Romanian Gendarmerie following an attack on their church in an attempt to arrest the community's priest. The first image shows a few Old Calendarist believers surrounding the coffins of two people, a man and a woman. They seem to have two icons placed on their chests and we can see that three of the children present in the photo have their hands on the coffins, implying that this is their parents' funeral. There is a short note on the right edge of the p