In touch with the deceased: animate objects and human ashes

ABSTRACT

Despite increasing secularization in the Netherlands, beliefs in an afterlife have not disappeared. Instead, new death rituals have emerged, among which is the practice of enclosing human ashes in objects such as paintings, candleholders, jewelry, and tattoos. Because human matter can now be incorporated into paint, glass, metal, and human skin, the dead become part of daily life and the living become carriers of the deceased. As a consequence, the boundaries between persons and things, and the living and the dead blur. In fact, people's practices with ash objects suggest that these objects are regarded as animate. Though people are not religiously affiliated, their practices suggest beliefs in an afterlife, which we will explore in this article.

Keywords:

• cremation
• material culture
• religion
• secularization
• relics
• tattoos