Paraphrasing

Question

I can't exactly get the meaning of this paragraph?
Would you please paraphrase it?

we witness death acting as a deep incentive to remember and the process of dying can give licence to intense phases of memory making with all of its attendant material complexity – from the disposal of the corpse to the repeated act of returning to the graveside with flowers.

YvWordsmith · Accepted Answer

I can't exactly get the meaning of it either. Did you hear it spoken, or see it in print?

Grapepark · Answer

It's a book by Elizabeth Hallam.Its name is: Death, memory and material culture
More context:
Memory practices and experiences shift over time as perceptions of the past are reworked in the context of the present and in anticipation of the future. Here we trace connections between the crises of death and the formation of memory, the relationships between loss and recovery, how memories operate to render present that which is absent and here we find concepts of death and memory intimately bound together. Indeed, we witness death acting as a deep incentive to remember and the process of dying can give licence to intense phases of memory making with all of its attendant material complexity – from the disposal of the corpse to the repeated act of returning to the graveside with flowers. Death, Memory and Material Culture The material presented in this book reveals the social and cultural dimensions of memory and memory making in a diversity of locations that might be interior or exterior to the body, stimulated and anchored in private or public domains. It is in relation to death, as event, idea and experience, that we situate this exploration of memory. It is at the time of death that embodied persons disappear from view; that their relationships with others come under threat; that the unfolding of their affairs and their influence may cease. Emotionally, socially and politically, therefore, much is at stake at the time of death; memories and memory making in this context can be highly charged and heavily loaded. Indeed, in contemporary contexts, the threat of death is very much bound up with the possibility of oblivion. Not only may individuals or groups believe that there is no independent existence after death; they also face the possibility of social erasure and the annihilation of identities that they have lived out. Memories of the dead, as we will show, are as much a bulwark against the terror of the forgettable self as an inescapable aftermath of lives which have come to an end.

YvWordsmith · Answer

shininggirlHere we trace connections between the crises of death and the formation of memory, the relationships between loss and recovery, how memories operate to render present that which is absent and here we find concepts of death and memory intimately bound together. Indeed, we witness death acting as a deep incentive to remember and the process of dying can give licence to intense phases of memory-making, with all of its attendant material complexity – from the disposal of the corpse to the repeated act of returning to the graveside with flowers.

I see. I think She's saying that death makes strong memories. She says The process of dying creates memories, aided by the rituals of burial and visiting the grave.
I must say it is hard to read; I can't tell if she's saying the dead are remembering or they're being remembered. After all, the act of dying takes place before the funeral.
If she's talking about survivors forming memories, she should have said the rituals of burial and grieving rather than the process of dying. It would also help if she put a hyphen in memory-making.

Grapepark · Answer

Thanks.
What does this part says? disposal of the corpse to the repeated act of returning.

Grapepark · Answer

memories and memory making in this context can be highly charged and heavily loaded

"Highly charged and heavily loaded". Does it mean it is hard?

YvWordsmith · Answer

'...from disposal of the corpse to returning to the grave...' is showing the process survivors/grievers go through after the death of a loved one: the body is either buried or cremated, then later they visit the gravesite to remember the dead.

'highly charged and heavily loaded' means it is very emotional and intense; even overwhelming.

Grapepark · Answer

Whats the meaning of the bold part?
In their appeal to continuity, memory acts such as the demarcation of
spaces dedicated to the dead and the use of visual images to invoke
persons deceased, carry the historical weight of hundreds of years.

YvWordsmith · Answer

shininggirlthe demarcation of spaces dedicated to the dead

this means setting aside grounds to bury the dead; in other words, establishing graveyards.

Again, the author's phrasing is difficult. I'm not sure what she means by 'memory acts such as'. I'm guessing she means 'memorializing rituals, such as establishing graveyards...'

Paraphrasing

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