From one body to another

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an unprecedented global crisis. To limit the spread of the virus and the associated excess mortality, states and governing bodies have produced a series of regulations and recommendations from a health perspective. The funerary aspects of these directives have reconfigured not only the ways in which the process of dying can be accompanied, but also the management of dead bodies, impacting on the dying, their relatives and professionals in the sector. Since March 2020, the entire process of separation and farewell has been affected, giving rise to public debates about funeral restrictions and the implications for mourning. We carried out a study in France and Switzerland to measure the effects of this crisis, and in particular to explore whether it has involved a shift from a funerary approach to a strictly mortuary one. Have the practices that would normally be observed in non-pandemic times been irrevocably altered? Does this extend to all deaths? Has there been a switch to an exclusively technical handling? Are burial practices still respected? The results of the present study pertain to the ‘first wave’ of spring 2020 and focus on the practices of professionals working in the funeral sector.

Denied funeral rituals in pandemic times

“…In fact, they radically changed the meaning and role of their work: from 'masters of ceremonies' and 'funeral operators' they became 'mortuary workers'. 37 This rapid and violent transformation is described in the testimonies collected here that express unease and suffering. They are correlated with feelings of frustration, anger and regret, caused by the workers' situation, during the pandemic, of not being able to carry out their work in the usual way.…”

“…On the one hand, the emotional and physical traumas caused to them by the rapid transformation of their professional and social role -from 'funeral operator' to 'mortuary workers' -are recognised. 53 On the other hand, these same voices, through the use of certain images, expressions and specific memories, have allowed Denied funeral rituals in pandemic times access to another aspect of the phenomenon -that is, to the profound, painful and often contradictory transformation of their intimate and affective relation with the COVID corpse. What emerges is the experience of a cold and emotionally unbearable encounter with the dimension of death without the mediation of the ritual act.…”

Special issue introduction: burial and the politics of dead bodies in times of COVID-19

“…27 In their contribution to this special issue, Clavandier et al ask how professionals in the funerary sector in France and Switzerland dealt with and experienced the rst wave of the pandemic and the introduction of emergency protocols that accompanied it. 28 Not only did these protocols demand that bodies were put in a closed co n within 24 hours -in practical terms prohibiting post-death care of the bodies -but in addition, it was the impression of funerary workers that the prime interest of healthcare institutions was to have the dead bodies removed from their premises as quickly as possible. According to the authors, a main concern for funerary professionals during the rst wave was to avoid a transition from a 'funerary' towards the 'mortuary approach' that o en accompany emergencies of mass death.…”