Bodies Borne Home: The Kinship of the Dead in a World of Nation States

The history of commemoration and memory in the era of the modern nation-state has emphasized the significance of the collective and representative dead in establishing political or community identity. In this telling, national heroes, Tombs of the Unknown, and the enumerated victims of mass violence constitute the most important historical developments in how people conceived of the dead and their relationship to the living during the twentieth century. A similar emphasis has been put on the massive national and international networks of personnel and technology -- military, medical, and philanthropic -- in the telling of how bodies (and body parts) are moved around the world. Evidence from the studies of diaspora, displacement, and religion, however, indicate that during this time people have drawn on other, often older, networks to bring their dead closer to them or to “home.” These are based on kinship and native place ties, devotional affiliations and the expertise of ritual specialists, and charitable groups that are transnational in scope but not necessarily international in identity. Such actions do not always sit comfortably within national, ethnic, or even institutional boundaries. I will draw many of my examples from my own work and that of scholars in several disciplines in Chinese and Chinese diaspora studies, but add observations and comparisons on other parts of the world. My goal is to discuss the presence of the circulating and displaced dead as a historical force -- rather than emphasize their symbolic value.