The dead as property marker: A legal geography of the cemetery

The marked burial of the dead functions as a proprietary claim to land, and the law has legitimized this relationship since ancient times. Contributing to the literature in legal geography and settler-colonialism, this research provides a much-needed examination of the property relationship between the dead and the land. Through a genealogical analysis of cemetery law in the jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada, this study highlights the many practices and materialities that gave rise to the continued and glorified presence of the dead settler. While Canadian society has become increasingly secularized, cemetery law reveals the privileged status of Christian understandings of sacredness. Through the ‘proper’ burial, the grievable life is revealed, and this undoubtedly reflects the image of the powerful.