Mirrors of Passing

Sophie Seebach holds a doctorate from Aarhus University. Her recent publications include pieces in the edited collection Mortuary Rites, Memory, and Authority/Agency: The Anthropology of Death in the Early Twenty-First Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and, with Lotte Meinert and Rane Willerslev, in the journal Africa.

“In Mirrors of Passing, Seebach and Willerslev have successfully revealed novel ways of approaching death from the perspectives of time, materiality and the social role of the dead. While, as they admit, no final concluding statement about the relationships between death, materiality and time appear possible, this edited collection does not require one. The value of this text comes not from any one particular statement, but from the range of perspectives it offers and what these perspectives can themselves offer those persons wishing to understand death beyond the assumptions about it that are hidden in modern life. This volume is highly relevant for anyone interested in cultural anthropology, social anthropology, museum studies, religious studies or sociological studies of death.” • JASO“This volume is especially relevant for scholars and students concerned with the ethical role of museums as caretakers of our religious material and physical (human) remains as well as for those interested in broader questions of how death, time, and materiality impact human conceptions of spirit and place. Its value for scholars of religious studies lies in its non-Western focus, as it provides—in one volume—a significant contribution to the scholarship on death and conceptions of the afterlife from contemporary indigenous cultures around the world.” • Reading Religion“Ambitious and engaging, the essays in this volume demonstrate how diverse conceptions of time, in relation to death, are present across history, geography, and media. Beginning with the first chapter’s enchanting examination of a James Joyce story, and continuing through the various ethnographies, the contributors have provided us with new ways of engaging with some familiar themes.” • Barbara Graham, author of Death, Materiality, and Mediation: An Ethnography of Remembrance in Ireland

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction: Mirrors of PassingSophie Seebach and Rane WillerslevPART I: DEATH'S TIMEChapter 1. The Time of the Dead: Anthropology, Literature, and the Virtual PastStuart McLeanChapter 2. Orpheus in Love, Death, and TimeMarina Prusac-LindhagenChapter 3. Death before Time: Mythical Time in Ancient Egyptian Mortuary ReligionRune NyordChapter 4. When Bad Places Turn Worse: The Necropolitics of Death Sites in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South AfricaPer Detlef FrederiksenChapter 5. Narratives of Ebola: Temporal and Material Changes of Social RiverscapesTheresa AmmanPART II: MATERIALITIES OF DEATHChapter 6. "Saving the Dead": Fighting for Life in the Siberian NorthRane Willerslev and Jeanette LykkegårdChapter 7. Death, Rebirth, Objects, and Time in North American Traditional Inuit Societies: an OverviewMatthew J. Walsh and Sean O’NeillChapter 8. Transforming and Creating Multiple Worlds: Strange Attractors in the Mongolian landscapeMalthe LehrmannChapter 9. The Dead among the Living: Materiality and Time in Rethinking Death and Otherness in Lowland South AmericaClarissa Martins Lima and Felipe Vander VeldenPART III: LIFE AFTER DEATHChapter 10. Making Presence: Time Work and Narratives in Bereaved Parents' Online Grief WorkDorthe Refslund Christensen and Kjetil SandvikChapter 11. The Multiple Identities of Aslak Hætta and Mons Somby: The Case of the Sámi SkullsSusan MatlandChapter 12. Media, Ritual, and Immortality: The Case of a Masculine HeroJohanna SumialaChapter 13. The Temporality and Materiality of Life and Death in a Sepik VillageChristiane FalckPART IV: EXHIBITING DEATH, MATERIALITY, AND TIMEChapter 14. The Wonderful Exhibition That Almost WasAlexandra SchuesslerIndex