The Cemetery as a Battlefield. A Case Study upon the Hajongard Cemetery from Cluj-Napoca
Within the majority of Romanian communities the cemetery is considered a space of undisputable sacredness, being socially represented in almost exclusive idyllic colors as a place governed by the rule of social equality. There is a strong tendency to imagine that after death all people share the same terrestrial space and the same symbolic space – eternal life – regardless of the social status during their lifetime. The intention of our study is to dismantle this stereotypical idea. The paper discusses the data obtained from a research upon the Hajongard cemetery from Cluj-Napoca, where we have undertaken repeated observations and informal interviews. We are to present the cemetery as a socio-cultural non-homogenous space in which the social struggle from the daily life is duplicated in various forms.
Keywords: cemetery, Hajongard, social inequality, battlefield
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