Memory, memorialization and social change Flashcards
describe how death is everywhere
- tension between death denial as a social norm and omnipresence of death, including public memorialization
- street signs, names of buildings, memorial plaques, monuments
define continuing bonds and meaning-making
Continuing bonds: the ways the living maintain connections - a bond - with the deceased loved ones by making the deceased feel actively present in our lives
Meaning making: the process through which individuals and groups seek to make sense of loss and death, their relationship to the dead and their lives after a loss
describe official memorials
- focus on elites or victim’s of conflict
- a way of telling stories about the past, representing a shared history, bearing witness to past tragedy in order to affect future behaviour, reinforce common values
- can be important for healing, reconciliation after conflict
- can generate conflict
describe informal memorials
- democratization of the act of remembering - memorials created for ‘ordinary people’ in public spaces
- created by families or those directly affected
- commemorate the dead
- place to mourn, remember for families
- raise awareness, inspire action
what is grief activism?
- the use of public mourning and memorialization to contest, raise awareness about unjust deaths, pursue social change
- deaths positioned as linked not isolated cases
- public morning asserts personhood, humanity of the dead and resistance to oppressive social dynamics that dehumanize people and disenfranchise grief
what is disenfranchised grief
- losses that are not publicly mourned, acknowledged or recognized
how are funerals used as resistance?
- drawing linkages between historic and contemporary forms of racism and violence
- recognition of the role of the funeral in long history of civil rights activism
- celebration of life, highlights humanity, dignity that was denied in life
what is the death care industry?
- multi billion dollar industry
- funerals cost on average between 2000 - 5000 (for cremation) and 5000 - 20,000 for full funeral services and burial
What is cremation and embalming
- cremation = use of fire to reduce the body and its container to ashes
- embalming = semi-surgical process that replaces body fluids with liquid chemicals
- different religious groups hold varying beliefs on the acceptability of cremation, burial and embalming
describe capitalism and the death care industry
- myths about dead bodies and fears/taboos related to contamination, decomposition increases the demand for expensive services like embalming or products
- embalming is not legally required
- dead bodies do not contaminate the ground in cemeteries, except for the chemicals that we put into the bodies
what are green burials?
- only biodegradable materials are used
- no embalming or cremation
- no markers are permitted
- cost between 3000 - 5000
what are some types of death care practices?
- burial with embalming
- cremation
- green burial
- tree burial pods
- aquamation
- space burial