The Life of the Afterlife in the Big Sky State is a
groundbreaking history of death in Montana. It offers a unique,
reflective, and sensitive perspective on the evolution of customs
and burial ...grounds. Beginning with Montana's first known burial
site, Ellen Baumler considers the archaeological records of early
interments in rock ledges, under cairns, in trees, and on open-air
scaffolds. Contact with Europeans at trading posts and missions
brought new burial practices. Later, crude "boot hills" and pioneer
graveyards evolved into orderly cemeteries. Planned cemeteries
became the hallmark of civilization and the measure of an educated
community. Baumler explores this history, yet untold about Montana.
She traces the pathway from primitive beginnings to park-like,
architecturally planned burial grounds where people could recreate,
educate their children, and honor the dead. The Life of the
Afterlife in the Big Sky State is not a comprehensive listing
of the many hundreds of cemeteries across Montana. Rather it
discusses cultural identity evidenced through burial practices,
changing methods of interments and why those came about, and the
evolution of cemeteries as the "last great necessity" in organized
communities. Through examples and anecdotes, the book examines how
we remember those who have passed on.
In Governing the Dead, Linh D. Vu explains how the Chinese Nationalist regime consolidated control by honoring its millions of war dead, allowing China to emerge rapidly from the wreckage of the ...first half of the twentieth century to become a powerful state, supported by strong nationalistic sentiment and institutional infrastructure. The fall of the empire, internecine conflicts, foreign invasion, and war- related disasters claimed twenty to thirty million Chinese lives. Vu draws on government records, newspapers, and petition letters from mourning families to analyze how the Nationalist regime's commemoration of the dead and compensation of the bereaved actually fortified its central authority. By enshrining the victims of violence as national ancestors, the Republic of China connected citizenship to the idea of the nation, promoting loyalty to the "imagined community." The regime constructed China's first public military cemetery and hundreds of martyrs' shrines, collectively mourned millions of fallen soldiers and civilians, and disbursed millions of yuan to tens of thousands of widows and orphans. The regime thus exerted control over the living by creating the state apparatus necessary to manage the dead. Although the Communist forces prevailed in 1949, the Nationalists had already laid the foundation for the modern nation-state through their governance of dead citizens. The Nationalist policies of glorifying and compensating the loyal dead in an age of catastrophic destruction left an important legacy: violence came to be celebrated rather than lamented.
The world’s population and the proportion of it living in cities and urban areas has exploded in recent decades. In the European Union, 62% of the population lives in urban areas and 80% in suburban ...areas, and these proportions are projected to increase further in the coming decades. It has long been researched and proven that ‘urban greenery’ can play a major role in mitigating the so-called urban heat island effect, and during the COVID-19 pandemic the role of daily recreation has come to the forefront. The combined memorial, recreational, and touristic use of cemeteries can help to ensure their economic management, and thus the long-term preservation of their value. In international tourism the model of managing cemeteries as tourist attractions already exists; however, this is not yet part of conventional practice. In addition to traditional cemetery tourism (e.g., visiting the graves of celebrities or enjoying artistic treasures and values), cemeteries are used as venues for events and sports activities. In Western Europe forest and park cemeteries have been established since the 19th century, and their large green areas and open spaces are a prerequisite for their use as public parks. Thus, the use of cemeteries as public parks is a common if quite specific practice. Our aim with this article is to identify the green space values of Budapest’s cemeteries, in addition to their well-known cultural and architectural significance, as well as to define the potential and means of their involvement in tourism-related activities. Another aim of our study is to raise awareness of green cemeteries within the tourism profession as potentially wider tourist attractions. We consider it important to draw the attention of decision-makers to the significance of the greenspace values when preserving or reusing closed cemeteries. Based on our work, other major cities in Hungary can identify and exploit the touristic and green space potential of their cemeteries.
PDF
