Abstract
This chapter investigates what it means to own and live in a manor when its use can be dictated to following generations many years after the death of the testator. The key trope for understanding this intergenerational dependence is that of “mortmain,” a juridical and cultural arrangement with an ancient European history. Former generations act far beyond the juridical inheritance arrangements, and through the manor and its emplaced family tradition and expectations, they influence present as well as future inhabitants. Developing the frame on symbolic as well as material aspects of kinship, place and class reproduction, this chapter suggests “material immortality” as a trope for understanding the effects of mortmain in rural upper-class culture—the prospect to live on beyond ones’ own death.
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Notes
- 1.
Contact was first made via e-mail, and second through a phone call to confirm interest and make an appointment. Written and oral information about the project and its ethical concerns—foremost the principles of consent, possibility to withdraw and confidentiality—was given via e-mail and again at the actual meeting. There is a gender imbalance in the selected population for the study: 8 of the 22 interviewees, but only 2 of the 14 owners, are women. Although the selection is in no statistical sense representative of the wider population, it is certainly a recognizable characteristic that most heads of these manors are male.
- 2.
I have analyzed 3 years of the bestselling magazine Gods & Gårdar (2014–16, 36 issues) and selected specific issues of Antik & Auktion and Lantliv dealing with manor living. I have also analyzed popular TV documentaries such as British Aristocrats (SVT, 2012) and Slottsliv (3 seasons, TV8), but for this specific chapter this is mainly used as background research. It is worth noting that quotes used from these sources do not overlap with the informants of my study.
- 3.
Properties other than estates could also become, or be included in, a fideicommissum (Regeringens proposition, 1999).
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Holmberg, T. (2019). Mortmain: Manor Culture and Material Immortality. In: Holmberg, T., Jonsson, A., Palm, F. (eds) Death Matters. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11485-5_3
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