Wearing Many Hats: Mourning and Grief in Pre-modern Finnish Burial Caps

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Finnish burial clothing between the 17th and 19th centuries exists in two forms: (1) re-purposed items used in life and reused as burial clothes, and (2) re-made items assembled from second-hand materials specifically for burial. While some items are consistently re-purposed or re-made, others - such as the caps considered here - can be either re-purposed or re-made.

Comparing re-made versus re-purposed caps’ materials, crafting methods, and performance characteristics provides a window into the mourning process. Materials range from wool and bast to valuable silks; crafting methods include careful stitching and hasty assembly. In unique cases, there is no cap at all. As such, the finished products vary widely.

This dichotomy explores the difference between private and public grief at the loss of a loved one, ways local beliefs, religious practices, and community expectations guide the mourning process, and what “providing for the dead” means on symbolic and practical levels.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow