2nd International Conference

Photography and Academic Research

Images in the Post-Truth Era

Photography in social research and writing - warsztaty

Workshop and master-class, organised by the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw and Stowarzyszenie “Pracownia Etnograficzna”, June 2015.

Abstract

“Cemeteries could be regarded as non-social spaces due to a believed negligible amount of daily social activity between the living, the dead and the space. At the same time, the spaces of the dead are regarded as spiritually charged, dangerous and even polluted. My paper suggests that the spaces of the dead, such as the cemeteries of Mexico City, are clear examples of dynamically active memory-making spaces in which the dead are daily revered, socialised and memorialised through a combination of secular and religious contemporary funerary practices, the daily interaction between the living, the dead, the ánima and material culture. The paper analyses the phenomenon, socio-cultural and political conditions of the objectification of the dead in the internal and external spaces of the cemetery. The paper includes the investigation of life histories of its workers, mourners and daily visitors in order to explore why various communities in Mexico City have embraced and revered the materialisation and objectification of the dead such as the following of the Santa Muerte. This paper then digs deeper into the array of meanings interwoven into the fabrics of social life and spiritual stability of the living, in which the widespread embrace of material culture plays a dynamic role in the contemporary social rituals dedicated to the dead in the cemeteries of a megalopolis.” p.107

Reyes-Cortez, M. 2012: Material culture, magic and the Santa Muerte in the cemeteries of a megalopolis. Visible Religions, in Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol.13, No.1, (March, Routledge), pp. 107-131.

Jornada de Antropología – Representación visual del daño y del sufrimiento social

8 May 2014, Madrid

Departamento de Antropología Social y Cultural de la UNED, en la Escuela Pías

‘Mi abuela no es un cadáver’

Recordando los Muertos en los cementerios de Álvaro Obregón, Ciudad de México.

En este artículo voy a considerar cómo la cultura material especialmente la fotografía, apoya la continuidad de las relaciones entre los vivos y los muertos. La investigación reveló cómo personas y actividades giraban en torno a los esfuerzos sostenidos por los dolientes, visitantes y trabajadores del cementerio para activamente mantener a los muertos como participantes en la vida de los vivos. En este artículo muestro cómo la cultura material puede proporcionar el vehículo a través del cual se pueden expresar las relaciones sociales con los muertos, y al mismo tiempo hablando con y expresar las características particulares de la persona muerta. Los mismos conjuntos de objetos y fotografías crean las condiciones para nuevas experiencias que están inevitablemente ligados al proceso de recordar a los muertos

Association of  Social Anthropologist of the UK and Commonwealth

ASA Decennial Conference

Anthropology and Enlightenment, 19-22 June, Edinburgh 2014

The Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal 10th International Conference, Sept 2011.

The Art of Anthropology Conference, Sept 2011.

Reyes-Cortez on Portraits of Remembrance

“When I die, I want to be buried with her. We met at school when she was 15 years old, 

and I love her now, as much as I did then, when we first met over 50 years ago.” 

The cemeteries of Mexico City

Upstairs @ the RAI, Friday 31 October, 2014, 5pm

Royal Anthropological Institute

Memorialising and Commemorating the Dead in Mexico City: A critical look at the Mexican Day of the Dead