Researching grief through ancient funerary art: an opportunity to build upon the physical evidence

Tombstone placed over the grave of two brothers. The boy to the left is sitting on a grave monument. From Smyrna     Credit: Image courtesy of University of Gothenburg 

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140310111708.htm

     Recent research by Sandra Karlsson, a doctoral student at the University of Gothenburg, indicates that the emotions we experience upon the death of a loved one haven't really changed much since ancient times.  Perhaps some would argue Karlsson's efforts to identify the emotions surrounding death in ancient funerary art are problematic, given our emotional response to art is subjective and highly variable, even when it comes to a shared experience like death.  However, I think this is a potentially promising line of research provided care is taken to be mindful of our own feelings as we undertake the investigation.

   In his book The Empathic Civilization, Jeremy Rifkin argues humans have in recent centuries chosen one of two disembodied approaches to life, faith or reason.  Though each goes about it differently, both of these alternative modes downplay or denigrate the human bodily experience; one approach favours the soul or some other means of ultimately escaping the body, while the other takes the "I think, therefore I am" approach that views the body as merely a necessary vehicle for transporting the rational mind.  Either way, emotions and physicality take a back seat at best and are considered a burden to be endured and eventually freed from at worst.  Rifkin argues that our truths (which include and transcend mere facts) arise from an embodied relational experience that unites the emotional and rational. Therefore, we would be wise not to be so dismissive of the totality of the bodily experience, a totality that includes both reason and emotion:

To sum up, if reality is experience and experience is always in relationship to the other, then the more extensive the relationships, the deeper we penetrate the various layers of reality and the closer we come to understanding the meaning of existence.

Truths, then, are explanations of how everything relates together.  Truths are not objective or subjective, but rather are understandings that exist in the interstitial realm where the "I" and "thou" come together to create a common experiential ground.  This is "reality making".  (p. 155)

 When we look at something like funerary art solely for the demographic or other physical evidence it can provide and ignore the feelings that inspired it, we miss a substantial portion of the reality that created the art and the other practices surrounding death.  This isn't to to say we can afford to ignore the demographic or physical data.  Without it we're condemned to engage in little more than uninformative speculation that creates confusion about the human story instead of understanding. 

    However, research like that conducted by Sandra Karlsson reminds us that there is more to the reality that led to the creation of funerary art and other artifacts than just demographics, materials, classifications of artistic styles, and all the rest.  Human relationships and the embodied experience that entails created the reality encompassing these burials. The surviving material evidence is what remains of this reality for us to investigate. This material evidence produces facts that point to a deeper truth that often crosses the boundary of the ineffable. We need look no further than our own feelings upon experiencing the death of a loved one to understand this.

Sources:
University of Gothenburg. "Emotional expressions in ancient funerary art served as therapy for the bereaved." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 March 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140310111708.htm>.

Rifkin, Jeremy.  The Empathic Civilization: The Race To Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis. 
New York: Penguin Group, 2009