Sans Sepulture: Modalites Et Enjeux de la Privation de Funerailles de la Prehistoire a Nos Jours

Paradoxically, while the fragmentation, desecration or abandonment of remains is attested in many archaeological or historical contexts, the intentional absence of funerary rites has not yet been the subject of systematic or comparative studies in the social sciences. Therefore, little is known about what leads a society to intentionally deprive an individual of funeral treatment. Are the modalities of funeral deprivation always and everywhere the same? Or do they vary according to socio-historical context, being singularly linked to crisis situations? What are the different issues at stake in the deprivation of funeral treatment? More generally and analytically, on the basis of what concrete elements can we identify and qualify situations of deprivation of funeral rites? To answer this vast set of questions, this volume gathers twelve contributions from archaeologists, anthropologists and historians, the fruit of collective work carried out during study sessions that took place in 2021 and 2022 in Montpellier and Marseille. These sessions initiated a particularly rich and dense interdisciplinary and diachronic reflection on the diversity of motivations that lead to the intentional deprivation of funerals. Taken together, the twelve chapters also invite us to reflect on the intellectual path that allows us to attest the absence of funerary treatment, from archaeological, historical or ethnographic data, and on the intellectual and theoretical tools available to approach the question of the deprivation of funerals.

Table of Contents:
Préambule : Les morts sans funérailles, un pan de recherche encore inexploré – Élisabeth Anstett et Aurore Schmitt ; Des morts privés de funérailles : cadre général de réflexion – Bruno Boulestin ; Identifier des morts sans funérailles en contexte archéologique : des cas datés du Néolithique – Aurore Schmitt ; Le refus de sépultures paroissiales à Troyes aux XIVe-XVe siècles : la découverte d’un lieu d’inhumations de prisonniers – Cécile Paresys, Vincent Marchaisseau, Cédric Roms ; « Je te condamne toute vive a estre enfouye » : trois probables cas d’enfouissement vif à Orléans (XIIe et XIIIe siècle) – Laure Ziegler ; Des morts à évacuer : le cas des fœtus avortés et des nouveaux-nés handicapés (pays kabyè, Togo) – Marie Daugey ; Les refus de sépulture aux enfants non baptisés : un enjeu politique et religieux dans la France impériale – Vincent Gourdon et Nathalie Sage Pranchère ; La poubelle, le cimetière et l’état civil : Malaises et évolutions du droit français quant au traitement des embryons nés sans vie – Lisa Carayon ; Des morts privés de funérailles et des morts sans repos au Moyen Âge chez les Slaves orientaux – Enrique Santos Marinas ; Le meurtre du connétable d’Armagnac (12 juin 1418) : itinéraires parisiens d’un mort outragé au temps de la guerre civile – Myriam Gilet ; « On ne les enterrera point et ils seront comme du fumier sur la terre » (Jr 8, 2) : la privation de sépulture dans l’ancien Israël au Ier millénaire av. J.-C. – Piotr Kuberski ; Mourir en bord de mer : naufrages et inhumations des « corps noyez » sur les côtes du golfe du Lion au XVIIIe siècle – Léa Tavenne et Sébastien Berthaut-Clarac ; Une étude de cas ethnoarchéologique : le traitement des individus décédés de malemort dans les communautés animistes actuelles de l’île de Sumba (Indonésie) – Christian Jeunesse et Bruno Boulestin ; Des morts sans funérailles ni sépulture : premier bilan et perspectives – Aurore Schmitt et Élisabeth Anstett

About the Author :
Aurore Schmitt is an archaeologist and a bio-anthropologist (CNRS, UMR 5140 Archeologie des Societes Mediterraneennes, Montpellier). Her research is concerned with mortuary practices in the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Mediterranean area and specifically explores collective burials, non-funerary practices and cremation. Elisabeth Anstett is a social anthropologist, senior tenured researcher at CNRS and member of UMR 7268 Ades, an interdisciplinary research unit at the medical faculty of Aix-Marseille University. Her research focuses on dead bodies and human remains management, and care in mass violence or crisis contexts. She is co-editor of Human Remains and Violence, an interdisciplinary Open Access academic journal. Aurore Schmitt is an archaeologist and a bio-anthropologist (CNRS, UMR 5140 Archeologie des Societes Mediterraneennes, Montpellier). Her research is concerned with mortuary practices in the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Mediterranean area and specifically explores collective burials, non-funerary practices and cremation. Elisabeth Anstett is a social anthropologist, senior tenured researcher at CNRS and member of UMR 7268 Ades, an interdisciplinary research unit at the medical faculty of Aix-Marseille University. Her research focuses on dead bodies and human remains management, and care in mass violence or crisis contexts. She is co-editor of Human Remains and Violence, an interdisciplinary Open Access academic journal.