The fate of the dead

International conference at the University of Strasbourg.

Too many in cemeteries, sometimes polluting, often too expensive, the deceased, who are increasing with the planetary population, will soon no longer be able to be treated on and below ground. Demographers, funeral companies, associations of the bereaved, militant supporters of cremation as well as humusation show the complexity of this cruel reality.

The ethical and psychological question of the future of the dead lies in the definitive disappearance of bodies, without remains. Yet the absence of bodies risks translating into an inflation of means to make them "reappear".

With voice reconstruction and animated holograms, the absence of the loved one, a sine qua non of mourning, will no longer be realized. What then will be the archaeologies of the future without access to the material remains of the dead?

Death has sculpted humanized landscapes: pyramids, temples, triumphal arches, or simply decorated caves; death has only been accepted on condition that it leaves traces to mark perennial natural settings. Human death has sculpted the planet. Collective cemeteries educate citizens, while private mausoleums form the foundations of civilizations. Can culture sustain itself without death and the dead?

A debate confronts materialistic convictions with purely spiritual expectations. The decomposition of the corpse is a difficult transition, so embalmed bodies and skeletons are preferred as carriers of memory. The choice of the virtual, however, could lead to new forms of remembrance. Will rationality lead us to abandon our mortal remains for artificial substitutes? Will the nomadic bipeds known as sapiens leave their planet with a USB key carrying their ancestors?

Colloquium organized by the Subjectivité, lien social et modernité (SuLiSoM) laboratory at the University of Strasbourg, in partnership with CIEM, Coimbra University and Paris 8.

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For more information:
https://sulisom-colloques.fr/event/le-devenir-des-morts/