A Letter from the Editor

Abstract

[First paragraph of article follows] This issue of The Unfamiliar includes contributions on a wide range of topics related to the place of death in human social life. Alongside explorations of life-cycle rituals in Georgia; commemorative prac- tices and discourses surrounding a Russian monument for the deceased and a virtual ‘death mask’ image circulated by Turkish protesters, the issue also includes reflections on political violence in Iran; Euro- pean Renaissance ossuaries; and a poem that provides a more creative take on the subject. A common thread running through these pieces is the well-studied anthropological theme of death as an - often ritu- alized - event of ‘transition’ from one stage to another, rather than a decisive ‘end’. It produces persistent material reminders - such as bones, graves, monuments, and belongings of the deceased - that serve as loci for existing social ties to be maintained or new ones to be reconstituted.