{"podcast":{"title":"AnthroBiology Podcast","slug":"anthrobiology-podcast-263302","podcast_index_feed_id":263302,"rss_url":"https://anthrobiologypodcast.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://anthrobiology.com/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/5/9/d/4/59d47ccc72bd27a1d959afa2a1bf1c87/1Logo.jpeg","author":"Gaby Lapera","episode_count":74,"summary":"The AnthroBiology Podcast sits down with biological anthropologists once or twice a month to learn about what they do and why it's rad. Want to know more about our evolutionary past? Or what your bones say about you? Maybe chimps are more your speed? If it's anthropology and it's about humans, we'll cover it. Learn more at anthrobiology.com","last_synced_at":"2026-07-30T04:19:27.461817+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/anthrobiology-podcast-263302"},"episode":{"title":"Ron Romano - Decoding cemeteries: A historian's guide to death symbolism, power structures, and tech in early American burial grounds","slug":"ron-romano-decoding-cemeteries-a-historian-s-guide-to-death-symbolism-power-structures-and-tech-in-early-american-burial-grounds","published_at":"2026-04-22T15:15:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/anthrobiology-podcast-263302/ron-romano-decoding-cemeteries-a-historian-s-guide-to-death-symbolism-power-structures-and-tech-in-early-american-burial-grounds","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/anthrobiology-podcast-263302","url":"https://anthrobiologypodcast.libsyn.com/decoding-cemeteries-a-historians-guide-to-death-symbolism-power-structures-and-tech-in-early-american-burial-grounds","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/anthrobiologypodcast/ABP_Romano_mixdown_v2.mp3?dest-id=1761989","summary":"Ron Romano of Spirits Alive (a non-profit dedicated to preserving Eastern Cemetery and its history) joins the show to talk about gravestone symbolism, mortuary practices, cemetery organization and social status, and the evolution of gravestone creation in Eastern Cemetery of Portland, ME. Cemeteries reveal a lot about the people who made them -- how they think about death, life, and religion; social and economic hierarchies; changing technologies; what's important to them; what causes anxiety. Cemeteries are human-made spaces filled with our bodies and artifacts that we've created. They can't help but be reflections of who we are and what we care about in any particular moment. Historians like Ron help us unpack these layered contexts by using the cemetery as a lens for interpretation of the past. Recommendations Spirits Alive Spirits Alive - Monographs about Portland's Eastern Cemetery by Ron Romano Association for Gravestone Studies Romano, R. (2017). Portland's Historic Eastern Cemetery: A Field of Ancient Graves . Historic Press. Romano, R. (2016). Early Gravestones in Southern Maine: The Genius of Bartlett Adams . Historic Press. Giguere, JM. (2024). Pleasure Grounds of Death: The Rural Cemetery in Nineteenth-Century America. University of Michigan Press. Burnett, A. (2015). Gone to the Grave: Burial Customs of the Arkansas Ozarks, 1850-1950 . University Press of Mississippi. Blachowicz, J. (2015). From Slate to Marble: Gravestone Carving Traditions in Eastern Massachusetts, 1770-1870 (Vols. 1-2) . Graver Press. Bondeson, J. (2002). Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear . W.W. Norton & Company. Hartnell, J. (2019). Medieval Bodies: Life and Death in the Middle Ages . W.W. Norton & Company. Hartnell, J. (2019). Medieval Bodies: Life, Death an…","meta_description":"Ron Romano of Spirits Alive (a non-profit dedicated to preserving Eastern Cemetery and its history) joins the show to talk about gravestone symbolism, mor…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3058,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/anthrobiology-podcast-263302/episodes/ron-romano-decoding-cemeteries-a-historian-s-guide-to-death-symbolism-power-structures-and-tech-in-early-american-burial-grounds/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/anthrobiology-podcast-263302/ron-romano-decoding-cemeteries-a-historian-s-guide-to-death-symbolism-power-structures-and-tech-in-early-american-burial-grounds.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}