在当代社会，遗体的流动范围正不断超出亲属组织的界限，被更庞大且陌生的社会组织接管。在死亡医学化的趋势之下，死亡图景愈发集中在医院。作为医学知识的空间装置以及医院制度的构成部分，医院太平间成为接管患者遗体的场所。在医院太平间内，存在两种遗体观念：一种是西方医学体系中将遗体客体化并加以切割凝视的知识与文化传统，另一种则是中国社会思想脉络中情感的、伦理的、互渗的遗体观念。田野研究显示，两者间虽存在一定的张力，但又能在太平间的商业活动中被加以弥合。

In modern society, the scope of the flow of remains is continually exceeding the boundaries of family organizations and being taken over by larger and impersonal social organizations. Under the trend of the medicalization of death, the hospital has become the focal point of death and dying. As a spatial device of medical knowledge and a constituent of the hospital system, the mortuary has become a place for taking charge of patients’ remains. In the mortuary, there are two concepts of remains: one pertains to the Western medical system’s knowledge and cultural tradition that objectifies and dissects dead bodies, the other is the emotional, ethical, and mutually permeable concept of remains within the context of Chinese social thought. Despite the tension between them, anthropological research finds that these two concepts can be reconciled in commercial activities in the mortuary.