ABSTRACT This paper examines the idea of “corpse paths”, routes taken by funeral parties bearing deceased persons to their place of burial. These routes often extended across country, linking settlements which did not have licenced places of burial to those which did. They emerged as folklore motifs in various local traditions from at least the early modern period until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when they went out of use due to increased enclosure and regulation of the landscape, and the development of the metalled road network. Although ephemeral, corpse paths as an abstract idea, as well as specific routes, appear in a variety of sources, including oral traditions, church records and historic maps. This paper examines the extent and quality of this evidence. It goes on to argue that, if accepted as folklore motifs, corpse paths provide a connection between conventional archaeological readings of “vernacular” landscapes, and ways in which those landscapes are seen, traversed and exploited in the present day. This includes the contexts of tourism, popular culture and the digital worlds. By making this connection, we gain a richer understanding of those landscapes in both the past and the present.

中文翻译：

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景观中的民俗：尸体路径案例

摘要 本文探讨了“尸体路径”的概念，即葬礼方将死者带到他们的埋葬地点的路线。这些路线通常延伸到全国各地，将没有获得许可的墓地的定居点与有墓地的定居点联系起来。至少从近代早期到 18 和 19 世纪，它们作为各种地方传统中的民俗图案出现，当时由于对景观的封闭和监管的增加以及金属化道路网络的发展而不再使用。尽管转瞬即逝，但尸体路径作为一个抽象概念以及特定路线出现在各种来源中，包括口述传统、教堂记录和历史地图。本文检验了这一证据的范围和质量。它继续争辩说，如果被接受为民俗主题，尸体路径提供了对“乡土”景观的传统考古解读与当今人们观察、穿越和利用这些景观的方式之间的联系。这包括旅游、流行文化和数字世界的背景。通过建立这种联系，我们可以更深入地了解过去和现在的这些景观。