Klass Dennis, Goss Robert
Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Death Stud. 2003 Nov;27(9):787-811. doi: 10.1080/713842361.
The article is a contribution to a cross-cultural theory of grief. It examines the relationship between individual/family continuing bonds with the dead and cultural narratives that legitimize political power. The dead are collective representations (Dirkheim) that mediate the larger culture to individuals and to smaller communities and that reinforce social solidarity and identity. The political question is which collective--family, community, church, party, nation--owns the dead and controls the rituals by which bonds with the dead are maintained or relinquished? The article discusses one historical condition: times of rapid change in power arrangements. Bonds with the dead have a power in individual, family, or tribal life that can threaten the narrative that legitimizes the new political power holders. Ancestor rituals that support identity as a family or tribal member are surpressed and replaced by allegiance to collective representations of the new political order. Two historical examples are given: China under Chairman Mao and the Wahhabi reform in Arabic Islam.
本文是对悲伤的跨文化理论的一项贡献。它考察了个人/家庭与逝者的持续联系与使政治权力合法化的文化叙事之间的关系。逝者是集体表征（涂尔干），它们将更大的文化传递给个人和更小的社群，并强化社会团结和身份认同。政治问题在于哪个集体——家庭、社群、教会、政党、国家——拥有逝者，并控制着用以维系或断绝与逝者联系的仪式？本文讨论了一种历史状况：权力安排迅速变化的时期。与逝者的联系在个人、家庭或部落生活中具有一种力量，这种力量可能会威胁到使新的政治权力持有者合法化的叙事。支持作为家庭或部落成员身份认同的祖先仪式会受到压制，并被对新政治秩序的集体表征的忠诚所取代。文中给出了两个历史例子：毛泽东主政下的中国和阿拉伯伊斯兰教中的瓦哈比改革。
