Funerals against death

Abstract

While anthropological studies in non-Western societies show how funerals protect the community from the threat of death, sociological studies of British funerals have so far focused on meanings for the private family. The article reports on results from a Mass Observation directive – the first British study to focus specifically on the entire funeral congregation – and shows how attendees experience the contemporary life-centred funeral as a symbolic conquest of death. While the eulogy’s accuracy is important, even more so – at least for some – is its authenticity, namely that the speaker has personal knowledge of the deceased. Whereas Davies analyses the power of professionally delivered ritual words against death, our data reveals how admired is the courage exercised by non-professionals in speaking against death, however faltering their words. Further, the very presence of a congregation whose members have known the deceased in diverse ways embodies a configurational eulogy, which we term relationships against death. We thus argue that funerals symbolically conquer death not only through words delivered by ritual specialists, but also through those who knew the deceased congregating and speaking.

Death and dying during the pandemic

“…Dying alone or leaving a death unmarked is a major societal wrong,7 as evidenced by the emotional labour expended by professionals when bearing witness in the absence of family or friends 7. This is a testament to our collective belief in the need for humanity at the end of life, and it is highly valued by many families in the current situation 8…”

How Funerals Accomplish Family: Findings From a Mass-Observation Study

“…Third, given the centrality of fertility symbols in many non-Western death rites (Bloch & Parry, 1982), we could speculate that M-O correspondents' focus on a conventional understanding of family as the social unit of reproduction places the deceased within an ongoing process in which decay is countered by reproduction, with the deceased's children and grandchildren potent symbols of new life that cannot be represented by friends or colleagues, however, long standing and close. If funerals are a rite symbolically conquering death (Davies, 2002;Bailey & Walter, 2016), then displaying biological family would be a prime way to do this. The M-O data neither support nor undermine this particular interpretation, though anecdotal stories we have heard of younger children being kept away from funerals do not support it.…”

Angels and the Digital Afterlife: Death and Nonreligion Online

“…In the UK, for example, church funerals have declined in popularity but remain much more common than church attendance (Field 2011). Death is also a space for cultural, ideological and symbolic innovation, and new cultural forms like "lifecentred funerals" (Bailey and Walter 2016), humanist funerals (Engelke 2015) and natural burials (Davies and Rumble 2012) have attracted much academic attention. Death offers an opportunity for individuals, families and communities to reengage temporarily with established traditions, or to find new ways to express their values and aspirations.…”