Dood en overgangsriten

Burying and remembering the dead

“…In Durkheim’s (1995) provocative words, “mourning is not a natural movement of private feeling wounded by a cruel loss; it is a duty imposed by the group” (p. 400). In countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, a locally well-embedded Catholic Church used to “manage” and “control” this collective memory (Vandendorpe, 2003; Voyé, 2007: 114–115).…”

“…Bourdieu has focused on “high points,” such as baptisms, first communions and weddings. But his approach can be expanded to discuss the social codification of the use of visual images on grave markers (also see Hallam and Hockey, 2001; Voyé, 2007).…”

Modes of Individualisation at Cemeteries

“…a middlebrow and middleclass art. But in the last decades of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century, the use of visual images has become more widely spread throughout different social classes (Voyé 2007).…”

“…The healthy or strong body is attributed a value of and in itself. It is no longer seen as the mere earthly frame of an immaterial spirit or soul (Giddens 1991; see also Mellor and Shilling 1993;Voyé 2007). [8] The individual body currently also plays a prominent role in the process of identifying and commemorating the dead.…”

“…Current-day reformers air concerns about the impersonality and uniformity in life cycle rituals and portray their struggle as that of freeing families and individuals from religious conformity. In fact, it has already frequently been observed that the survivors construct funeral practices out of a plethora of religious idioms available to them -which are neither tied to nor controlled by organised, denominational religion (see, e.g., Vandendorpe 2003;Walter 2005;Garces-Foley and Holcomb 2006;Voyé 2007). During many funerals, for example, the survivors have ceased to have the local priest prepare their texts.…”