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![San Hanni [Honey] Sri Isan, Si Saket Province, 2005.](profile/Erik-Cohen/publication/240307498/figure/fig3/AS:402962699571202@1473085202148/San-Hanni-Honey-Sri-Isan-Si-Saket-Province-2005.png)
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![Figure 5. San Hanni [Honey] Sri Isan, Si Saket Province, 2005.](profile/Erik-Cohen/publication/240307498/figure/fig3/AS:402962699571202@1473085202148/San-Hanni-Honey-Sri-Isan-Si-Saket-Province-2005_Q320.jpg)
![Figure 6. Billboard, San Hanni [Honey] Sri Isan, Si Saket Province, 2010.](profile/Erik-Cohen/publication/240307498/figure/fig4/AS:402962699571203@1473085202179/Billboard-San-Hanni-Honey-Sri-Isan-Si-Saket-Province-2010_Q320.jpg)
In Thailand spirit houses are often established at places of fatal accidents, but these are generally anonymous. Personalized roadside memorials for accident victims are rare. This article analyses three roadside memorials, located on main roads in northeastern Thailand, in a comparative framework. Like in the contemporary West, such memorials comm...
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... Publikacje naukowe na temat przydrożnych pomników śmierci dotyczą różnej skali przestrzennej i przedmiotowej. Bardzo rzadko traktują o Afryce (Mchunu 2020), Ameryce Południowej (Steinert i Carvallo 2019) i Azji (Cohen 2012). Przeważają prace prowadzone w: Wstęp Bujaka (2011) prezentującego różne formy krzyża w krajobrazie Polski. ...
... Kształt małych świątyń mają także współczesne upamiętnienia przydrożne w Tajlandii (Cohen 2012). Od chilijskich różni je brak symbolu krzyża. ...
The aim of the monograph „Memorial crosses along roads in Poland” is to indicate the origin, structure, function, and the meaning of erecting roadside memorials along public roads in Poland. The reasons for raising the question of memorial crosses are the following: firstly – filling in the cognitive gap in the Polish literature on the subject, secondly – the exceptional case study of Poland in terms of two parameters (the number of people killed on the roads and the number of memorial crosses), thirdly – the wish to obtain the results by applying methods most commonly used in the world literature (fieldwork, individual interview), in order to provide a comparison of research results and to join the international debate on the issue of memorial sites erected along roads. In Poland, the originality of the book shows in all its aspects and, on the international scale, it involves a representative poll and defining the religious meanings attributed to the cross located at the site of a road accident.
The book involves data gathered during running the project „Memorial crosses along Polish roads” (2017-2020), sponsored by National Science Centre, Poland according to decision number DEC-2016/21/B/HS1/00823. Some data has already been published. However, there are new passages and interpretations. The Author develops the potential of Henri Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis in exploring roadside memorials. There are sections on international phenomenon of roadside memorialization and the roadscape of the city of Gdynia (fieldwork in the years 2010-2021) in the book. It is assumed that the conclusions from the study will be an important contribution to the development of geography and interdisciplinary research on deathscapes. Some of the results can be applied by the bodies governing public roads in Poland, when constructing the policy regarding the legislatively unregulated phenomenon of death commemorations along roads [Summary, pages 250-51].
Celem opracowania jest identyfikacja form i źródła upamiętnień wypadków śmiertelnych przy drogach publicznych w Polsce oraz wyjaśnienie funkcji i znaczenia tych upamiętnień. W pierwszym rozdziale wykazano, że krzyże powypadkowe należą do współczesnego globalnego zjawiska spontanicznych pomników traumatycznej śmierci oraz są częścią wielowiekowej tradycji stawiania krzyży w znaczących miejscach. W kolejnym zawarto wyniki i wnioski, najpierw z jednorazowej inwentaryzacji upamiętnień przydrożnych przy drogach krajowych, a następnie z sezonowych i wieloletnich obserwacji wybranych krzyży powypadkowych. W ostatnim rozdziale omówiono wywiady z osobami, które wystawiły krzyż po wypadku śmiertelnym oraz ogólnopolską reprezentatywną ankietę na temat krzyży powypadkowych. Problematyka książki wpisuje się w humanistyczną tradycję badań geografii społecznej. Przystaje również do chrześcijańskiej teologii codzienności oraz tak zwanej trzeciej socjologii. Monografia może być pomocna dla podmiotów zajmujących się osobami po stracie bliskich w wypadku drogowym oraz dla organów zarządzających drogami publicznymi w kraju przy konstruowaniu i egzekwowaniu polityki transportowej.
... Surprisingly, this object is still given care, as evidenced by decorations made from live and artificial flowers. In many parts of the world, there are roadside memorials commemorating tragic traffic accidents (Clark & Cheshire, 2004;Cohen, 2012;Everett, 2002;Mchunu, 2020;Przybylska 2021). Such a custom is also present in Greece and Iran. ...
This paper is an attempt at evaluating roadside shrines and crosses as significant elements of the cultural heritage of Poland and Europe. Evaluation was carried out in the context of the role these objects play in the rural landscape. We examined roadside shrines and crosses that are a testimony of piety of the local community. Roadside sacral architecture was studied within the area of a representative rural commune in South-Eastern Poland. Point evaluation was used to assess the role of shrines and crosses in three most important aspects: spatial, social-cultural, and natural. We evaluated the artistic and historical values of these objects, their significance in contemporary rural landscape structure, as well as material evidence of piety left at these objects by the local people.
... The practice of erecting memorials is becoming increasingly popular in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, in both Americas and Europe, as reported in the literature (e.g. Cohen, 2012;Dickinson & Hoffmann, 2010;Everett, 2002;Owen, 2011;Petersson, 2010;Przybylska, 2015;Welsh, 2017;Zimmerman, 2010). Roadside memorials are a culturally determined form of expressing grief (Nešporová & Stahl, 2014) maintained as long as the memorial builders need them as 'a place of remembrance, ritual and communication' (Klaassens et al., 2009, p. 198). ...
Roadside memorials are made up of objects, usually flowers, candles and crosses, placed at the roadside to mark the sites of fatal accidents. The paper introduces the potential of Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis and geography of rhythms in exploring roadside memorials. The aim of the paper is to investigate rituals and rhythms at roadside memorials in Poland. Data were collected during two-year field observations of 12 roadside memorials and from 10 semi-structured interviews. Polish roadside memorials are part of widespread rituals which either generate material changes to roadside memorials, like cleaning up works, leaving candles and flowers at memorials or which do not generate such changes, like saying prayers or reminiscing about the deceased. The specifics of roadside memorialisation in Poland are expressed in prayers being said and no personal belongings being left at the sites. We found that the coexistence of individual and social rhythms at roadside memorials was deeply rooted in Catholic liturgy and commonly accepted cemetery rituals in Poland.
... Fresh flowers, candles, religious symbols, and photos of the deceased have been placed at the sites of such accidents. This commemoration of road accident fatalities has led to the appearance of numerous academic publications on memorials, which have been referred to in various ways-as roadside death memorials (Reid and Reid 2001), sudden death memorials (Stahl 2013) or, more commonly, roadside memorials (Zimmerman 2010;Hartig and Dunn 1998;Clark and Franzmann 2006;Breen 2006;Petersson 2009;Owen 2011;Tay 2009;Cohen 2012). Crosses placed at the sites of fatal road accidents are part of the memorialisation phenomenon. ...
... This paper contributes to the latter scholarship. (Brien 2014;Byrd 2016;Clark 2008;Clark and Cheshire 2004;Clark and Franzmann 2006;Cohen 2012;Henzel 1991;Kulczyńska and Marciniak 2018;Przybylska 2016;Reid and Reid 2001) ...
... Roadside memorials have become a part of informal religion (Clark and Franzmann 2006;Cohen 2012) linked with death and mourning traditions. The modern practice of roadside crosses sprang due to the fact that the cross is often found in cemeteries, either as a marker in its own right or carved into the grave marker (Dickinson and Hoffmann 2010). ...
The paper contributes to the discourse on roadside memorialisation in the countries of Christian heritage in Europe, Australia, and North America. The aim of the paper is to assess the social perception of the motivation of people constructing roadside crosses at the places of fatal car accidents along public roads in Poland. Is it religious, cultural or both religious and cultural? The uniqueness of this survey lies in its representativeness of the population of one country and the religiosity variable incorporated into a public opinion poll. The study proves that there exists a relationship between one’s declaration of faith and the perception of memorial crosses. Believers more often than atheists opt for both a religious and a cultural meaning of roadside crosses. Atheists and agnostics more often than believers associate roadside crosses only with a cultural meaning—the custom of marking places of death with crosses.
... A number of research on roadside memorials has increased recently (a few authors publishing in the 1990s and over 20 in the XXI century). As for the spatial scope of the research by continents, the majority of authors conducted their studies on roadside memorials in North America (Bednar 2013;Clark and Cheshire 2004;Dickinson and Hoffmann 2010;Everett 2002;Henzel 1991;Owen 2011;Reid and Reid 2001;Tay et al. 2011;Zimmerman 1995), followed by Europe (Diasio 2011;Klaassens et al. 2009;Maddrell 2013;Nešporová and Stahl 2014;Petersson 2009;Przybylska 2015), Australia (Breen 2006;Brien 2014;Clark and Cheshire 2004;Clark and Franzmann 2006;Hartig and Dunn 1998;Welsh 2017) and Asia (Cohen 2012). In Europe, the studies on the topic were conducted in Sweden, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Romania, the Czech Republic and Poland. ...
... As many as 38 out of 40 commemoration sites contain a cross (95%). This very high rate corresponds to memorial crosses rate in Romania (98%) (Nešporová and Stahl 2014) and differs from results in other countries (Cohen 2012;Dickinson and Hoffmann 2010;Klaassens et al. 2009;Welsh 2017). Two roadside memorials without a cross are vertical gravestones with votive candles and flowers. ...
... A number of research on roadside memorials has increased recently (a few authors publishing in the 1990s and over 20 in the XXI century). As for the spatial scope of the research by continents, the majority of authors conducted their studies on roadside memorials in North America (Bednar 2013;Clark and Cheshire 2004;Dickinson and Hoffmann 2010;Everett 2002;Henzel 1991;Owen 2011;Reid and Reid 2001;Tay et al. 2011;Zimmerman 1995), followed by Europe (Diasio 2011;Klaassens et al. 2009;Maddrell 2013;Nešporová and Stahl 2014;Petersson 2009;Przybylska 2015), Australia (Breen 2006;Brien 2014;Clark and Cheshire 2004;Clark and Franzmann 2006;Hartig and Dunn 1998;Welsh 2017) and Asia (Cohen 2012). In Europe, the studies on the topic were conducted in Sweden, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Romania, the Czech Republic and Poland. ...
... As many as 38 out of 40 commemoration sites contain a cross (95%). This very high rate corresponds to memorial crosses rate in Romania (98%) (Nešporová and Stahl 2014) and differs from results in other countries (Cohen 2012;Dickinson and Hoffmann 2010;Klaassens et al. 2009;Welsh 2017). Two roadside memorials without a cross are vertical gravestones with votive candles and flowers. ...
An important aspect of the study of cultural space is the analysis of ways and forms of commemoration and memorialization of road accident victims. The placement of traditional cemetery monuments in it, installed at the place of people’s death, transfers the symbolism of death from strictly defined places of cemeteries into public space and turns it into sceneries of death or landscapes of death. It is no coincidence that many of the motorists and professional drivers who use such highways say that it is like driving in a cemetery. This article is the first in Russia to analyze this modern phenomenon based on the material obtained from a survey of part of three federal highways (A 151, R 241, R 178). It is shown that in Russia roadside monuments are not limited to the Christian cross, and their locations are much more diverse than in Europe and North America. In general, there are two trends – to place roadside monuments as close to the highway as possible (on the roadside, slope, behind the bump or on it) and in or near the green zone (in the forest or forest plantation) and a transitional one – to place them in the roadside lane. In the first case, the choice of the location is conditioned by the desire to approach the place of death of a loved one as close as possible, the second case demonstrates the desire to protect the memorial sign, to place it in accordance with the tradition of cemetery, primarily rural cemetery, where trees on the graves played an important role. Our analysis shows that different types of roadside monuments have different effects on the formation of the cultural landscape along the highways. Memorials are the most striking examples of ‘cemetery culture’, they mostly reformat the roadside space into landscapes or sceneries of death. In turn, gazebos, flowerpots with live or artificial flowers that do not have traditional plaques and photographs of the dead, i.e. do not reproduce the cemetery tradition, do this to the minimum extent. Crosses, steles and obelisks as the most typical cemetery structures occupy, to a certain extent, an intermediate position between memorials and flowerpots and gazebos.
The paper fills in a gap in the literature on roadside memorials in Poland. The aims of this article are to find a typical form of a roadside memorial in the Gdańsk agglomeration (northern Poland) and to explore the role (function and meaning) of roadside memorials. They were achieved with the help of field studies and a survey conducted in 2017. The first part of the article provides a description of investigated remembrance sites, while the other one - the opinions of students of the University of Gdańsk. A typical roadside memorial is a metal, rusty Latin cross, parallel to the road, decorated with artificial roses and accompanied with one burnt out votive candle. Nearly all the students are of the opinion that Poles put up memorial crosses in order to commemorate their family members who died in tragic road accidents. Nearly one third of the respondents believe that memorial crosses serve the purpose of warning other drivers about a dangerous fragment of the road. The survey points to a slightly larger percentage of the religious than the cultural argumentation as regards the choice of the cross instead of other objects to mark accident sites in Poland.
Philip Stone (2012) has proposed a paradigmatic approach to thana (death) tourism in contemporary secular Western, “death-denying” societies, departing from Giddens’ (1991) argument on the weakening of “ontological security” in the contemporary world. Stone proposed that sites of dark tourism constitute what could be seen as a functional substitute for religious institutions which in the past enabled individuals to come to terms with their mortality (Stone 2012; Stone & Sharpley 2008). Dark tourism is thus conceived as a non-religious mediating institution between the living and the dead, offering an opportunity of thanatopic contemplation in face of inevitable (and meaningless) death. Stone quotes Lennon and Foley’s (2000) assertion that dark tourism is “primarily a Western phenomenon” (Stone 2006). This resounds with my own conviction in the past that “tourism” is primarily a Western phenomenon. However, such Eurocentric attitudes have been recently dispelled by a revised conceptual approach, which argues that tourism is a global phenomenon, though manifested in diverse ways in various parts of the world (Cohen 2015). We should ask, therefore, do dark tourism phenomena exist in non-Western emergent world regions, though based on different ontological assumptions about death, than those of the secular West? Stone’s paradigmatic approach could thus be broadened into a comparative conceptual framework, in which Western thanatourism would be just one particular case. This procedure resembles one I have recently applied to the comparative study of roadside memorials, a phenomenon first studied in the contemporary West, but found in different disguises in many societies outside the West (Cohen 2012).
