Death and the dead

The main objective of this axis is to approach populations in all their aspects (biological, cultural, social) from the study of funerary and mortuary practices. This is done through a joint analysis of the VAB (fossils, bones, corpses, whether complete or fragmented) and the available cultural, historical, archaeological, and environmental data. We can then contribute to the construction of a global diachronic thanatological narrative, which is based on the identity data of the individual/population and those concerning its health and living conditions.


This narrative integrates, first and foremost, a questioning of behaviors towards death and the dead (in their historical, cultural and social dimensions), and is distinguished by the importance it gives to the notion of the chain of operations. This approach to Death and the dead through the materiality of the treatment of the remains makes it possible to establish a link between the perspectives of archaeology, those of the human and social sciences, and those of forensic anthropology. It also opens up deontological and ethical questions, in particular through a reflection on the "chain of responsibility" towards the VAB, which makes it possible to maintain links with the other teams of the UMR.


The thanatological account addresses both ordinary and crisis mortality contexts, and aims to highlight the different funerary models and norms that govern the treatment of the dead body according to place and time. It also questions the transformations of funerary models over time, and notably the upheavals introduced by mortality crises (epidemics, wars, catastrophes).


These themes and research projects are part of a privileged collaboration with the institute of Mediterranean Archaeology "ARKAIA". Members of the team have been involved since its creation and develop research projects, teaching and field activities on an international scale, which allow for the sharing and transfer of knowledge and multidisciplinary skills.


These collaborations are expected to develop even more strongly and to become more permanent during the next five-year contract, within the framework of the structuring research projects of the Institute and through the teaching that it provides via its international master's degree (opening in September 2024)

Projets

"TRANSFUNERAIRE" : approche comparative des rituels collectifs de réinhumation en Europe et en Amérique-Latine aux XXe-XXIe siècles

Ce programme de recherche, dirigé par E. Anstett, et financé par une bourse ANR, porte sur la transformation des pratiques funéraires en contextes post-violences de masse. Il prend appui sur une collaboration avec une dizaine d’anthropologues sociaux et médico-légaux européens et latino- américains et interroge l’impact des procédures d’exhumation et des analyse médico-légales sur le traitement funéraire des dépouilles et des restes humains.

Without funerals or burials

This multidisciplinary research program, directed by A. Schmitt (CNRS, UMR 5140 ASM), funded by the LabEx Archimede of the University of Montpellier, and with which E. Anstett, proposes to reference and order the practices that leave certain deceased persons without a funeral or burial (https://archeomort.hypotheses.org/). It is conceived as a prefigurative program for more extensive research, and will result in a collective publication to be published in 2023 by ArcheoPress and OpenAccess.

History and Anthropology of Death

Funded by the AMU interdisciplinary mission, this program is co-piloted by the historian A. Carol (AMU, Telemme) and E. Anstett (CNRS, ADES). Backed by a research seminar organized around a series of thematic study days, this program proposes to engage in interdisciplinary reflection on the mortuary fact, by questioning more particularly its ordinary or extraordinary modalities, its most recent evolutions (notably in a context of crisis), and its various issues (https://necrolog.hypotheses.org/a-propos-du-seminaire-histoire-et-anthropologie-de-la-mort-amu).