Death and Liminality: Concepts, Rituals and Iconography

Conference at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen

29^th and 30^th of October 2010; venue: Court room

Over the last three years a multi-disciplinary research group of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen hosted a series of lectures around the subject of death, with particular emphasis on questions of liminality. The lectures were organised under the motto AD LIMINA MORTIS and focused on three fields within the general research question: concepts, rituals and iconography. The presentations included a broad range of examples. From Christian iconography of death to the liminal practices of the suicide bombers of 9/11; from J.S. Bach’s notion of death as ‘sleep’ to Greek conceptions of the ‘soul’; from the ethnography of contemporary Middle Indian secondary funerals to the archaeological investigation of Egyptian ideas and practices of death. With this conference we wish to conclude this series of lectures. We hope that we can shed some new light on the notions, iconography and rituals of liminality in the process of this ultimate transformation.

Programme

Contact:

Dr P. Berger (p.berger rug.nl)

Dr Justin Kroesen(j.e.a.kroesen rug.nl)