Done by Inheritance: A Phenomenological Approach to Affect and Material Culture

Death and inheritance may unleash a wide range of affects and emotions, with bitter mean-spiritedness at one end of the spectrum and wellsprings of goodwill and love on the other. Chapter 7 deals with the cultural processes of how bequeathed objects become sensitive, charged with affective value. Against a background of empirical material, the author investigates the possibilities of combining a phenomenological approach with affect theories. Examples from Swedish peasant society are used in comparison with reports and texts about present-day patterns of the breaking up of an estate. Central to the discussion are the Heideggerian concepts of worlding and gathering, together with Arendt’s notion of the space of appearance. The way the senses are ‘educated’ – as a result of socialisation and the day-to-day sedimentation of experiences – is highlighted as an important complement to affect research.