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American Ethnological Society
Oral Presentation Session
Sofia Pinedo-Padoch
Princeton University
When a so-called hoarder dies, what happens to their stuff? This paper is based on fieldwork at the Public Administrator’s office in New York City, the government agency that administers the estates of New Yorkers who die alone and intestate. Though the “decedents,” as the deceased are called, come from a wide cross-section of New York City, a significant number can be classified as “hoarders.” Because there are no close and or named heirs positioned to inherit decedents’ stuff, all of their assets must be liquidated. The work of estate administration, then, focuses on the organization, sale, and disposal of all these possessions. This paper centers around the homes of decedents who “hoard,” following their accumulated stuff from its presence in the home through its eventual liquidation. What kind of presence and purpose do hoarded things have and serve after their owner’s death? How does death and the passage of time transform their function? By following the process of liquidation, I also ask how dealing with the seemingly pathological accumulation of stuff affects the people tasked with organizing, cleaning and selling the objects, including their attitudes toward material things. This paper will contribute a new perspective on “hoarding” by looking at its transformations and implications after the death of the “hoarder.”