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baileybd3

The modern cemetery: a design for life. - 4 views

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    In discussing the importance of public health anxieties within the birth of modern forms of governmentality, Foucault frequently mentions, but does not develop, the questions that arose about the appropriate disposal of the dead. In this paper, I explore the spatial rationalities of the modern cemetery in England in the mid-nineteenth century. As an illustrative example, I provide a detailed analysis of John Claudius Loudon's proposals for cemeteries. Loudon, a horticultural writer and designer who campaigned vigorously for cemetery reform, became crucial in the reconfiguration of the cemetery. I use Loudon's ideas as a dispositif, a material space that also provides a method of analysis for illuminating the operation of various inter-related governmental spatialisations and techniques. Specifically, I illustrate how the cemetery captures the diversification and widening of dispositional techniques of institutions and, at the same time, integrates hygienic imperatives, aesthetic-moral registers and an array of educational-civic functions. I argue that the cemetery, in real and ideal terms, manifests and intensifies a variety of rural and urban spaces and, paradoxically, generates a model milieu for the living.
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    In discussing the importance of public health anxieties within the birth of modern forms of governmentality, Foucault frequently mentions, but does not develop, the questions that arose about the appropriate disposal of the dead. In this paper, I explore the spatial rationalities of the modern cemetery in England in the mid-nineteenth century. As an illustrative example, I provide a detailed analysis of John Claudius Loudon's proposals for cemeteries. Loudon, a horticultural writer and designer who campaigned vigorously for cemetery reform, became crucial in the reconfiguration of the cemetery. I use Loudon's ideas as a dispositif, a material space that also provides a method of analysis for illuminating the operation of various inter-related governmental spatialisations and techniques. Specifically, I illustrate how the cemetery captures the diversification and widening of dispositional techniques of institutions and, at the same time, integrates hygienic imperatives, aesthetic-moral registers and an array of educational-civic functions. I argue that the cemetery, in real and ideal terms, manifests and intensifies a variety of rural and urban spaces and, paradoxically, generates a model milieu for the living.
baileybd3

The Thousand-Year Graveyard - 0 views

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    On a hot afternoon in July 2012, Giuseppe Vercellotti was digging up bones near the wall of an abandoned medieval church here, thinking about getting a cold drink, when he heard his students call his name. Faces glistening with sweat, they told him that they had found something strange buried half a meter down. Vercellotti took a look and saw a layer of lime, used in ancient times to squelch the stench of rotting corpses. When he tapped the hard layer with his trowel, it sounded hollow. "We immediately thought it was a mass grave," says Vercellotti, a biological anthropologist at Ohio State University, Columbus, who co-leads a field school here. "We instructors were all excited and hopeful."
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    On a hot afternoon in July 2012, Giuseppe Vercellotti was digging up bones near the wall of an abandoned medieval church here, thinking about getting a cold drink, when he heard his students call his name. Faces glistening with sweat, they told him that they had found something strange buried half a meter down. Vercellotti took a look and saw a layer of lime, used in ancient times to squelch the stench of rotting corpses. When he tapped the hard layer with his trowel, it sounded hollow. "We immediately thought it was a mass grave," says Vercellotti, a biological anthropologist at Ohio State University, Columbus, who co-leads a field school here. "We instructors were all excited and hopeful."
amoore2017

Arguments on Facebook - 0 views

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    This study investigates how group awareness support and argumentation scripts influence learning in social networking sites like Facebook, which may be conducive to informal learning, but often lacks argumentative quality. Supporting participants' group awareness about the visibility of the arguments they construct and about prospective future debate with peers in order to promote argument quality may be particularly suited for learning in Social Networking Sites. Additional argumentation scripts may directly foster argumentative knowledge construction. In a 2 × 2 study (N = 81), we isolated and investigated the effects of group awareness support and argumentation scripts during individual preparation in a Facebook app on domain and argumentative knowledge. Our results reveal that group awareness support of upcoming argumentative processes can be counterproductive for learning in Social Networking Sites. Argumentation scripts in Facebook may remedy possible negative effects of such awareness. Process analysis showed that group awareness support promotes individual argument elaboration but reduces broad analysis of the domain.
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    This study investigates how group awareness support and argumentation scripts influence learning in social networking sites like Facebook, which may be conducive to informal learning, but often lacks argumentative quality. Supporting participants' group awareness about the visibility of the arguments they construct and about prospective future debate with peers in order to promote argument quality may be particularly suited for learning in Social Networking Sites. Additional argumentation scripts may directly foster argumentative knowledge construction. In a 2 × 2 study (N = 81), we isolated and investigated the effects of group awareness support and argumentation scripts during individual preparation in a Facebook app on domain and argumentative knowledge. Our results reveal that group awareness support of upcoming argumentative processes can be counterproductive for learning in Social Networking Sites. Argumentation scripts in Facebook may remedy possible negative effects of such awareness. Process analysis showed that group awareness support promotes individual argument elaboration but reduces broad analysis of the domain.
amoore2017

Harnessing online peer education - 0 views

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    Novel methods, such as Internet-based interventions, are needed to combat the spread of HIV. While past initiatives have used the Internet to promote HIV prevention, the growing popularity, decreasing digital divide, and multi-functionality of social networking sites, such as Facebook, make this an ideal time to develop innovative ways to use online social networking sites to scale HIV prevention interventions among high-risk groups. The UCLA Harnessing Online Peer Education study is a longitudinal experimental study to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of using social media for peer-led HIV prevention, specifically among African American and Latino Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). No curriculum currently exists to train peer leaders in delivering culturally aware HIV prevention messages using social media. Training was created that adapted the Community Popular Opinion Leader (C-POL) model, for use on social networking sites. Peer leaders are recruited who represent the target population and have experience with both social media and community outreach. The curriculum contains the following elements: discussion and role playing exercises to integrate basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS, awareness of sociocultural HIV/AIDS issues in the age of technology, and communication methods for training peer leaders in effective, interactive social media-based HIV prevention. Ethical issues related to Facebook and health interventions are integrated throughout the sessions. Training outcomes have been developed for long-term assessment of retention and efficacy. This is the first C-POL curriculum that has been adapted for use on social networking websites. Although this curriculum has been used to target African-American and Latino MSM, it has been created to allow generalization to other high-risk groups.
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    Novel methods, such as Internet-based interventions, are needed to combat the spread of HIV. While past initiatives have used the Internet to promote HIV prevention, the growing popularity, decreasing digital divide, and multi-functionality of social networking sites, such as Facebook, make this an ideal time to develop innovative ways to use online social networking sites to scale HIV prevention interventions among high-risk groups. The UCLA Harnessing Online Peer Education study is a longitudinal experimental study to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of using social media for peer-led HIV prevention, specifically among African American and Latino Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). No curriculum currently exists to train peer leaders in delivering culturally aware HIV prevention messages using social media. Training was created that adapted the Community Popular Opinion Leader (C-POL) model, for use on social networking sites. Peer leaders are recruited who represent the target population and have experience with both social media and community outreach. The curriculum contains the following elements: discussion and role playing exercises to integrate basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS, awareness of sociocultural HIV/AIDS issues in the age of technology, and communication methods for training peer leaders in effective, interactive social media-based HIV prevention. Ethical issues related to Facebook and health interventions are integrated throughout the sessions. Training outcomes have been developed for long-term assessment of retention and efficacy. This is the first C-POL curriculum that has been adapted for use on social networking websites. Although this curriculum has been used to target African-American and Latino MSM, it has been created to allow generalization to other high-risk groups.
amoore2017

political and civic engagement in political campaign - 0 views

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    A national mail survey of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 (n = 876) was conducted immediately before the U.S. presidential election (October 2012) to investigate socialization agents that may correlate with political and civic engagement. The relative importance of potential correlates of engagement including demographics, parents, peers, schools, religion, traditional media, social networks, and digital communication were evaluated. Regression analysis revealed that civically engaged youth identify with a religion, participate in civic education activities at school and extracurricular activities, take action (e.g., boycotting or buycotting), develop attitudes about citizenship, and engage in online/social media political activities. Politically engaged youth come from higher income households, discuss news and politics, take action, and are very prone to engage in online/social media political activities. While a wider range of activities appear to be related to civic engagement, those who are politically engaged appear to have a strong interest in online media usage. Implications are discussed.
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    A national mail survey of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 (n = 876) was conducted immediately before the U.S. presidential election (October 2012) to investigate socialization agents that may correlate with political and civic engagement. The relative importance of potential correlates of engagement including demographics, parents, peers, schools, religion, traditional media, social networks, and digital communication were evaluated. Regression analysis revealed that civically engaged youth identify with a religion, participate in civic education activities at school and extracurricular activities, take action (e.g., boycotting or buycotting), develop attitudes about citizenship, and engage in online/social media political activities. Politically engaged youth come from higher income households, discuss news and politics, take action, and are very prone to engage in online/social media political activities. While a wider range of activities appear to be related to civic engagement, those who are politically engaged appear to have a strong interest in online media usage. Implications are discussed.
baileybd3

Sustaining the contemporary cemetery: Implementing policy alongside conflicting perspec... - 2 views

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    Cemeteries garner considerable academic attention as anthropologists, landscapers, archaeologists, sociologists, geographers and historians examine their layout, purpose and use. Emerging from these studies is a body of literature that considers cemetery and burial ground design, memorialisation, mourning behaviour and 'dark tourism'. Beyond interdisciplinary journals such as Mortality and edited multi-disciplinary books however, the insight generated in this literature can be fragmented through publication in discipline specific periodicals. As a result cemeteries are often analysed and presented as places that contain, for example, design or tourism and heritage or emotion and mourning. Framed by concerns over the sustainability of cemeteries nationwide, this paper considers the contemporary English cemetery as a simultaneous space of emotion, commerce and community. Using data from an ethnographic case study of a cemetery in East London, it illustrates the contestation that can result from these concurrent contrasting interpretations. The paper concludes that care needs to be taken when implementing initiatives and policy to balance the varying demands and expectations of a cemetery's purpose and use.
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    Cemeteries garner considerable academic attention as anthropologists, landscapers, archaeologists, sociologists, geographers and historians examine their layout, purpose and use. Emerging from these studies is a body of literature that considers cemetery and burial ground design, memorialisation, mourning behaviour and 'dark tourism'. Beyond interdisciplinary journals such as Mortality and edited multi-disciplinary books however, the insight generated in this literature can be fragmented through publication in discipline specific periodicals. As a result cemeteries are often analysed and presented as places that contain, for example, design or tourism and heritage or emotion and mourning. Framed by concerns over the sustainability of cemeteries nationwide, this paper considers the contemporary English cemetery as a simultaneous space of emotion, commerce and community. Using data from an ethnographic case study of a cemetery in East London, it illustrates the contestation that can result from these concurrent contrasting interpretations. The paper concludes that care needs to be taken when implementing initiatives and policy to balance the varying demands and expectations of a cemetery's purpose and use.
baileybd3

Up from the Grave: A Sociohistorical Reconstruction of an African American Community fr... - 3 views

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    Sociohistorical reconstructions of African American communities in the Midwest are often dependent on diaries and letters that provide a wealth of detail but may not represent the collective pattern. Cemetery and burial records data are used to reconstruct a sociodemographic profile of a small 19th- and 20th-century African American community in the rural Midwest. Surnames of African Americans (and their ancestors) were disproportionately British, suggesting association with or ownership by those of British heritage. Although the mean age of the Black community was significantly younger than that of the White community, childhood mortality was no greater. Rather, Blacks generally did not live as long as Whites in adulthood. However, racial crossover was present. The Black community was disproportionately male, suggesting a frontier phenomenon and instability, and disproportionately experienced violent mortality. Seasonal death patterns among Blacks typified a younger population. Finally, familial measures suggest the Black community was tentative and tenuous
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    Sociohistorical reconstructions of African American communities in the Midwest are often dependent on diaries and letters that provide a wealth of detail but may not represent the collective pattern. Cemetery and burial records data are used to reconstruct a sociodemographic profile of a small 19th- and 20th-century African American community in the rural Midwest. Surnames of African Americans (and their ancestors) were disproportionately British, suggesting association with or ownership by those of British heritage. Although the mean age of the Black community was significantly younger than that of the White community, childhood mortality was no greater. Rather, Blacks generally did not live as long as Whites in adulthood. However, racial crossover was present. The Black community was disproportionately male, suggesting a frontier phenomenon and instability, and disproportionately experienced violent mortality. Seasonal death patterns among Blacks typified a younger population. Finally, familial measures suggest the Black community was tentative and tenuous
baileybd3

Are We All Equal at Death?: Death Competence in Municipal Cemetery Management - 0 views

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    Managers of local government cemeteries should balance social and cultural expectations with fiscal responsibility and when they do so they demonstrate death competence in cemetery management. This study reviews the cultural and social equity aspects of the consumption of cemetery services and develops tools to take into account social equity and cultural concerns for public sector cemetery managers. Cemetery demand and pricing models are developed and applied to the case of Austin, Texas. These models enhance the estimation of demand by taking into account cultural factors and contextualize pricing in terms of social equity concerns.
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    Managers of local government cemeteries should balance social and cultural expectations with fiscal responsibility and when they do so they demonstrate death competence in cemetery management. This study reviews the cultural and social equity aspects of the consumption of cemetery services and develops tools to take into account social equity and cultural concerns for public sector cemetery managers. Cemetery demand and pricing models are developed and applied to the case of Austin, Texas. These models enhance the estimation of demand by taking into account cultural factors and contextualize pricing in terms of social equity concerns.
Jason Coats

THE TIPPING POINT How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Mal… - 2 views

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    This is a facsimile edition of our second reading
baileycj2

The Locust Grove African- American Cemetery Restoration Project: A Case Study of Serv... - 0 views

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    This article chronicles a movement to restore Shippensburg, Pennsylvania's Locust Grove Cemetery, a historic African-American burial ground. The cemetery faced persistent troubles exacerbated by changing demographics in the surrounding neighborhood, its caretakers' limited resources, and the community's history of racial discrimination. Beginning in 2003, Shippensburg University applied history students assisted with research, grant writing, and interpretative materials. By 2005, a community coalition formed that built on the students' efforts, ultimately mobilizing the resources needed to finish the restoration. This case study illustrates the complex dynamics of a community preservation campaign and ways Public History programs can support such efforts.
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    This article chronicles a movement to restore Shippensburg, Pennsylvania's Locust Grove Cemetery, a historic African-American burial ground. The cemetery faced persistent troubles exacerbated by changing demographics in the surrounding neighborhood, its caretakers' limited resources, and the community's history of racial discrimination. Beginning in 2003, Shippensburg University applied history students assisted with research, grant writing, and interpretative materials. By 2005, a community coalition formed that built on the students' efforts, ultimately mobilizing the resources needed to finish the restoration. This case study illustrates the complex dynamics of a community preservation campaign and ways Public History programs can support such efforts.
prithak11

Setting stone decay in a cultural context: conservation at the African Cemetery No. 2, ... - 0 views

  • Cemetery conservation should be more than the diagnosis, documentation and treatment of decaying materials; it should also meet the demands and needs of the citizenry that care for and value the material and cultural heritage of the site.
  • Preservation of cemeteries is not only important for preserving cultural heritage, but also for protection against unwanted social and cultural changes or, conversely, for its role as a catalyst for identity, economic or political strength.
  • In other words, conservation practice must become participatory conservation, through inclusion of the community. Conservation is a complex process which goes beyond a practitioner treating the various symptoms of stone decay; it requires sensitivity to the specific social, cultural, political and economic contexts of the entire site.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The ultimate purpose of conservation is not only to increase the heritage value of this site, but to also contribute to the struggle for economic benefit, political power and identity in this community.
  • Conservation is intrinsically bound up with the continual process of valuing heritage, as the practice of stabilizing or treating any stone used in an artifact actively interprets, values, may even legitimize, the object itself
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    Management of stone artifacts requires understanding the driving forces for change, whether natural or anthropogenic, in order to implement effective conservation strategies. Physical, chemical and biological processes of stone decay must be understood in order to remediate the damage they cause. It is not merely the stone itself which is to be conserved, however, but also the cultural, social, religious or artistic ideas that it represents; these values are changeable and must be defined in the context of contemporary heritage processes. Cemetery stone in Kentucky, USA, provides an example of the importance of a holistic approach to stone conservation, which integrates scientific knowledge of decay processes with conservation theory and the needs of stakeholders.
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    Management of stone artifacts requires understanding the driving forces for change, whether natural or anthropogenic, in order to implement effective conservation strategies. Physical, chemical and biological processes of stone decay must be understood in order to remediate the damage they cause. It is not merely the stone itself which is to be conserved, however, but also the cultural, social, religious or artistic ideas that it represents; these values are changeable and must be defined in the context of contemporary heritage processes. Cemetery stone in Kentucky, USA, provides an example of the importance of a holistic approach to stone conservation, which integrates scientific knowledge of decay processes with conservation theory and the needs of stakeholders.
baileycj2

Burying and Remembering the Dead - 2 views

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    In cemeteries, we do not remember our dead privately or quietly, as for example, in prayers. Instead, we do so publicly and visibly, so that what we do (or do not do) can be noticed by the public. But how do we remember and commemorate our dead at public cemeteries? Based on mixed-methods analyses of the markers for the dead at cemeteries in a religiously relatively homogeneous (namely, Catholic) region, three recent socio-cultural evolutions are identified and analyzed: (1) the construction of idiosyncratic markers and the accompanying emergence of individualized identities, (2) the emphasis on embodied modes of remembrance, and (3) the increasing visibility of voluntary social commitments and strong ties. Overall, the findings presented here point to the growing diversification of our ways of publicly remembering and commemorating the dead.
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    In cemeteries, we do not remember our dead privately or quietly, as for example, in prayers. Instead, we do so publicly and visibly, so that what we do (or do not do) can be noticed by the public. But how do we remember and commemorate our dead at public cemeteries? Based on mixed-methods analyses of the markers for the dead at cemeteries in a religiously relatively homogeneous (namely, Catholic) region, three recent socio-cultural evolutions are identified and analyzed: (1) the construction of idiosyncratic markers and the accompanying emergence of individualized identities, (2) the emphasis on embodied modes of remembrance, and (3) the increasing visibility of voluntary social commitments and strong ties. Overall, the findings presented here point to the growing diversification of our ways of publicly remembering and commemorating the dead.
baileycj2

Don't Cut the Grass - 2 views

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    The reported absence of distinguishing features upon British Gypsy-Traveller memorials has been used to support the widely accepted, and influential, argument that dead people are not the focus of social continuity within Gypsy-Traveller society. However, based upon cemetery surveys and interviews with members of the Gypsy-Traveller community in Sheffield, England, this paper demonstrates that explicit displays of ethnicity are now common upon memorials, and describes their characteristics. The reasons behind this apparent shift in mortuary practices are discussed in relation to wider socio-political factors. Based upon these findings, we argue for a reconsideration of the relationship between living and dead people within British Gypsy-Traveller society, and a recognition of the importance of commemoration in the negotiation of identity and social reproduction within these communities.
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    The reported absence of distinguishing features upon British Gypsy-Traveller memorials has been used to support the widely accepted, and influential, argument that dead people are not the focus of social continuity within Gypsy-Traveller society. However, based upon cemetery surveys and interviews with members of the Gypsy-Traveller community in Sheffield, England, this paper demonstrates that explicit displays of ethnicity are now common upon memorials, and describes their characteristics. The reasons behind this apparent shift in mortuary practices are discussed in relation to wider socio-political factors. Based upon these findings, we argue for a reconsideration of the relationship between living and dead people within British Gypsy-Traveller society, and a recognition of the importance of commemoration in the negotiation of identity and social reproduction within these communities.
baileycj2

Remembering and Forgetting: The Relationship Between Memory and the Abandonment of Grav... - 3 views

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    his paper examines the concept of commemoration as an expression of social memory and its relationship to time and space as manifested through the mortuary evidence from Modern Greek cemeteries. Of particular interest is the act of commemoration itself: who remembers whom and the length of time that this type of memory endures. Based on evidence collected from a number of different cemeteries in northern Kythera and the eastern Corinthia, I argue that memory at the nuclear family level determines the length of time a grave is remembered as a physical location. Once this memory ceases to exist, the grave gradually enters a process of neglect, which ultimately leads to its abandonment. Some abandoned graves are recycled for use by other families who, in the absence of any recollection or memory of the grave, remove and destroy the old monuments (if they exist) and the remains of the previous occupants. Particular burial spaces are, thus, reclaimed by new groups.
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    his paper examines the concept of commemoration as an expression of social memory and its relationship to time and space as manifested through the mortuary evidence from Modern Greek cemeteries. Of particular interest is the act of commemoration itself: who remembers whom and the length of time that this type of memory endures. Based on evidence collected from a number of different cemeteries in northern Kythera and the eastern Corinthia, I argue that memory at the nuclear family level determines the length of time a grave is remembered as a physical location. Once this memory ceases to exist, the grave gradually enters a process of neglect, which ultimately leads to its abandonment. Some abandoned graves are recycled for use by other families who, in the absence of any recollection or memory of the grave, remove and destroy the old monuments (if they exist) and the remains of the previous occupants. Particular burial spaces are, thus, reclaimed by new groups.
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