Monument Analysis

Over the past few weeks myself and two group members had been working on a "monument analysis" assignment which entailed doing some field work at a cemetery in Victoria. Since I LOVE cemeteries, and my group members didn't really have a strong opinion either way, I got to pick which cemetery we would use for our study. I chose the Jewish cemetery, which just happens to be my favourite cemetery in the city! It's quaint and quiet, and even though it has been in use for over 150 years, you can still walk from one end to the other in a minute. It holds a lot of history that most people wouldn't know about, and, of course, it contains my favourite headstone tucked away in the back corner which reads "Old and Grey and Full of Sleep". So simple, so brilliant.

Anyway, for this assignment we had to come up with research questions, related in some capacity to the cemetery and monuments within it, and through investigation and data assessment we were supposed to try and make preliminary conclusions for those questions. Our assignment focused on the obelisk and column shaped monuments in the cemetery, of which there were twelve in total. We asked two questions, one about the time period the monuments were popular in, and one about the number of individuals represented by a single monument. The most interesting thing for me was that based on only preliminary research we were able to come to some conclusions, which I was doubtful that we would be able to do. It turns out that there was a specific time period that was associated with our group of monuments. I was able to find published articles which backed up our findings, which I though was awesome, because it made me feel like we had actually done a proper analysis for our assignment. Our second question which related to the amount of people buried in connection to a single monument was intriguing because although we were able to come to a definitive conclusion yet again (!!), it is also possible, that if the dataset we had been working with hadn't have been so small, our conclusion may not have been so easily reached. We were able to come to the conclusion that the monuments were more characteristic of group "units" buried rather than these monuments being for single individuals, however, in my opinion these figures could be coincidences based on a handful of different factors, such as family members dying in overseas battles, or on the mainland where they could have been buried along the Gold Rush trade routes, as many Vancouver Island Jewish families in the second half of the 19th century were shop owners in mining areas (Yes, these dates go back to the West Coast Gold rush! (Cool, no?!).

But I digress,

I found the outcome of the last question to be fascinating, because it really showed that you really can't make general conclusions when it comes to research. And, yes, of course I knew that before, but it is just interesting to think that if I hadn't thought about our conclusion critically, it may have been possible to try and make a blanket statement about either other monuments in the cemetery, or even other cemeteries in the city or further! It showed me in a sense that it is important to look into the background research of studies I read or am interested in so that I don't make the mistake of making generalizations or misjudgments on future research I may be involved in. This project was definitely a good field work experience for me because it forced me to think critically and dig deeper into things (even if we only did a small amount of research), in order to make sure you are presenting the most accurate information possible. As for as school work goes, I really enjoyed that project.


Here is a picture of my FAVOURITE headstone ever.It's in the southeast corner of the cemetery near the fence! I always visit him when I go! It's exactly the type of gravestone I'd expect for myself if I do indeed end up with one.








Here is the URL to our Google map of the cemetery, if anyone is interested!