Bell Talks “Front Porches of the Dead” W&L Anthropology Professor Alison Bell discusses grave sites on "With Good Reason Radio."

By Erica Turman
November 7, 2018

Alison Bell, associate professor of anthropology at Washington and Lee University, gave an interview with Sarah McConnell the host of “With Good Reason Radio.” The title of the show is “Front Porches of the Dead.”

Bell studies burial practices and says that in the 1980s there was a shift in the way people expressed themselves in cemeteries. In her discussion, she says “One thing that’s happening is that the living are treating grave sites as if they are the front porches of the dead, as if the dead are still ‘at home’ somehow, behind a door, not visible, but cognizant, and vital in a way.”

Listen to the full segment here.