Döden i souvenirbutiken

Kvarlevor som kult och kuriosa

Abstract

Museums, heritage production and Christian relics all deal with and are built on death in various aspects. Transferring an everyday object into the museum sphere can be regarded as an intentional death, a rebirth to a new identity and a new context. Relics are the byproducts of death, given a new life as subject to religious veneration. When inscribed in yet another context of heritage, musealisation and tourism, they can once again be regarded as dead and resurrected to a new life and identity. When saintly bones journey from human life through death, sacredness, political power and tourism, to something for sale in the souvenir shop, is it layer upon layer of death – or an endless chain of resurrections and new lives?