Obrazki z pogrzebu. Wizualność i żałoba we współczesnej Ghanie

• Authors: Anna Niedźwiedź
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Images and various visual representations accompany funeral celebrations and a process of mourning in various cultures: in the past as well as today. This article focusses on ways in which burials and funerals are celebrated in contemporary Ghana and discusses various relations functioning between mourning and visuality. Based on ethnographic data collected during fieldwork in Brong-Ahafo region (central Ghana) the author analyses visuals used as well as produced during funerals: photographs and videos made during celebrations, images printed in funeral booklets, invitation letters and obituaries. Additionally a visual presentation of a dead body during the laying-in-state-ceremony is discussed as a symbolic image of a dead person. Funeral images popular in contemporary Ghana seem to be designed as if opposing the concept of death as the end of life. Pictures ‒ abundantly produced and distributed on the course of long-lasting funeral celebrations ‒ represent a dead person as an embodiment of success, vitality and wealth.

Keywords

EN

Ghana; funerals and burials; visual representation; photography and video; visual anthropology

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Prace Etnograficzne
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 349–362

Dates

published

2014

online

2014-12-02

Contributors

author

Anna Niedźwiedź

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.4467/22999558.PE.14.023.3552