DEATH, MEMORY, AND PLACE: AMERICAN ATTITUDES TOWARD MILITARY BURIALS OVERSEAS
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-10-19

This paper seeks to understand the attitudes toward death and military burial outside of national borders. During the 18th and 19th centuries, warfare took on a larger scale and scope across the world. With increases in efficiency and efficacy of battlefield technology, death rates also saw a substantial increase. In response, removal of the dead after the fact took on a more personal role for all nations. In many cases, military cemeteries arose within very close proximity to the battlefield that was the source of the casualties. Specifically, American attitudes toward military burials and commemoration overseas will be the focus of this study. Military cemeteries are usually under the jurisdiction of a specific agency. However in recent years, military cemeteries and burial complexes in the States have been added to the National Register of Historic Places, classifying them as heritage places deemed worthy of protection and conservation. A look into military cemeteries as heritage will form a framework from which American attitudes toward military burial overseas may be assessed and contrasted with sites and complexes of similar size or notoriety from mainland America. The hope is that this study will help shed light on the effect of place and memory in commemoration practices.


Author(s): Reynolds, Kyle (University of Birmingham; Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage)