THE GHOSTS OF CEMETERY ROAD: TWO FORGOTTEN INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND THE CRISIS OF ANALYTICAL JURISPRUDENCE

Taking an example of two indigenous women from my early 19th century family, this article examines why they were forgotten after their deaths. The article connects this forgotten phenomenon with the preoccupation of analytical jurisprudence and legal analysis with concepts. When the tradition of Analytical Jurisprudence has identified a law as if emptied of social relationships, experiential knowledge cannot be accessed. Experiential knowledge draws from experiential body's expectations as well as personal and collective memories. Rights, property jurisdiction, doctrines, rules and other legal standards risk being analyzed as emptied of such experiential knowledge. The indigenous women were forgotten because they were signified as empty concepts, better known as abstract, rather than concrete, persons.