Preparing children’s burials in Post-Medieval Finland: Emotions awaken by sensory experiences

Summary

The sensory experiences create emotions that are culturally constructed and constituted. In order to understand how individuals were mourned, it is important to examine the ritual of preparing the dead for burial. The ritual is packed with sensory experiences, for instance the smell of death and sight of the coffin. Through examining Post-Medieval Finnish funerary material (textiles, accessories, coffins), this paper will sense by sense demonstrate the experiences of those individuals that took care of preparing the funerary attire, coffin and dead children for funerals, and what sort of emotions these processes arouse. For instance sensory experiences related to the fabrics will be evaluated: how did they feel on the skin, how did they smell etc.? At the time of high child mortality, several coping mechanism for the loss of children were created, and these have affected to both the sensory experiences of relatives and the emotions awaken.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Sensory Engagement in Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 467