King of the Road: Exploring the Role of Cemetery Memorials within Contemporary British Gypsy-Traveller Society (original) (raw)

Abstract

The cemetery memorials of British Gypsy-Travellers have been portrayed by the majority of academic researchers as lacking in distinguishing characteristics, reflecting the widely held view that the dead are not the focus of social continuity within these communities. Our research demonstrates that explicit expressions of ethnicity are now common on British Gypsy-Traveller memorials, and frequently emphasise similarity and difference in reference to the grave markers of non-Gypsy-Travellers. This paper discusses the ways in which the form, decoration and position of memorials are used to negotiate different dimensions of identity within these communities, and considers the extent to which they can be seen to relate to lived experience or to imagined, idealised conceptions of the past. We suggest that academic understandings of the relationship between the living and the dead within British Gypsy-Traveller society need to be reconsidered as the commemoration of the dead can now be seen to play an important role in social reproduction within these communities.

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