Raising the dead: Walls of names as mnemonic devices to commemorate enslaved people

• Ana Lucia Araujo ^[1]
  1. [1] Howard University

     Howard University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Current anthropology: A world journal of the sciences of man, ISSN 0011-3204, Nº. Extra 22, 2020 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Atlantic Slavery and the Making of the Modern World), págs. 328-339
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The article examines walls of names commemorating the victims of Atlantic slavery and the slave trade in US heritage sites and museums. By exploring how, during the twentieth century, memorials of wars and genocides in Europe, Africa, and the Americas have featured walls of names to honor the dead, this article proposes a genealogy of the walls of names, by emphasizing the various contexts in which this device has been employed. Whereas naming has been a long-standing practice to honor the dead since antiquity, naming enslaved individuals in ship manifests or farm books was part of a process of dehumanization. Yet, during the last 30 years, emerging initiatives commemorating slavery incorporated walls of names to recognize the humanity of enslaved men, women, and children. By looking at a few case studies in the United States, the article seeks to understand how effectively this specific kind of memorial has been employed to recognize and pay homage to the victims of slavery.