ABSTRACT
As an introduction to such an inquiry, this chapter will start by presenting a few findings from an interview study of recent Swedish roadside memorialization in which the practice of placing material things associated with the deceased by the gravesite, the accident site or in the home may be seen as a way for the surviving relatives to generate a presence of the deceased, charging the memorial place with remembrance and giving it meaning.2 In the present study, such activities may be held to support the bereaved in their grief work, but the materialized practices also reveal contradictions between private and public space as well as between people’s different experiences and beliefs. These findings will be further explored in this chapter through an examination of the design, location and practices of the event previously referred to as ‘The altar of the dead’.
