THE GRAVE PORTRAITS AND ANCESTRALIZATION OF THE DEAD
THE GRAVE PORTRAITS AND ANCESTRALIZATION OF THE DEAD

Summary/Abstract: The study examines the phenomenon of ancestralization through the grave photo portraits. The aim is to show that although photography in Russian Beringia has its origin in the Soviet practice, the locals have been able to invent their own modes of photography use and incorporate them into the set of specifically local social and religious practices, including the feeding of the spirits and the phenomenon of “return”. The study shows that while photography can under certain conditions preserve memory of the individual person, the collective memory remains heavily dependent on the traditional mechanism. Consequently, photography in Russian Beringia neither effaces, nor deeply transforms the existing practices of commemoration; nevertheless, it enables us to explore the terrains, in which the existing religious phenomena have not been studied before.

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