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- Convenors:
-
Sophia Thubauville
(Frobenius Institute)
Sabine Klocke-Daffa (University of Tuebingen)
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- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Sessions:
- Friday 26 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
Worldwide, funerals are figuring among the most elaborate social events. Moreover, burial commodities and places cause high costs to the deceased and their survivors. This panel wants to discuss the creative ways in which people deal with the challenges they face when preparing for the afterlife.
Long Abstract:
For many societies worldwide, social security is one of the most pressing issues to be addressed. If states have few social benefits to offer, individuals must make their own provisions for times of crisis. Rather than relying exclusively on formal ways of support, new possibilities have been sought which allow for maintaining familial obligations and social norms without threatening individual economic wellbeing. However, some forms of social security have been so successful that they have been adopted in diaspora communities in host countries with very sophisticated social security systems. Caring for the future entails the care for the life of the living as well as for the afterlife of the dead. Funerals are figuring among the most elaborate and costly social events consuming large amounts of financial and material resources. Some diaspora communities are also faced with the high costs of repatriation of bodies of the deceased. In order to cover the expenses, new forms of safeguarding have been accessed and creatively developed. Among them are rotating credit associations, funeral and life insurances, and the negotiation of "death benefits" as part of work contracts. Getting engaged in one of the "caring units" are locals as well as external family members and international diaspora communities. This panel aims to discuss the creative ways in which people deal with the challenges they face due to the high cost of caring for the afterlife. We invite papers that focus on forms of social security, on funerals, and /or care for the afterlife.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 26 July, 2024, -Sophia Thubauville (Frobenius Institute)
Paper short abstract:
In Ethiopia insurance associations, who are mainly responsible for the organization and financing of funerals, exist. Because of the great importance of funerals and the associations so central to them, these associations are also found in the Ethiopian diaspora, e.g. in southern California.
Paper long abstract:
In Ethiopia insurance associations, who are mainly responsible for the organization and financing of funerals and the extensive funeral ceremonies, are an important part of life. They are mostly organised on the basis of neighbourhood and due to the mixed neighbourhoods in Ethiopian cities, they are very inclusive. Because of the great importance of funerals and the associations so central to them for persons of Ethiopian origin, these associations are also found in the Ethiopian diaspora in countries with diversified formal institutions.
The presentation will explain the insurance associations in the Ethiopian diaspora in southern California as a resource for the community members. It will question how this valuable resource is modified and preserved in moments of transition. How is the resource under study adapted to the new social, economic and religious environment in Southern California? And how is it possible to preserve these associations in the next generation?
Mirjam Twigt
Paper short abstract:
How does care for (after)lives take shape in a context of prolonged geographical separation? This paper explores funerary practices among precarious refugees in Jordan and The Netherlands, when economic and legal barriers make physical proximity to navigate bureaucracy and mourning impossible.
Paper long abstract:
How are funerary rites (un)done, when prolonged geographical separation impedes togetherness, and what creative ways do persons residing in legal precarity in Jordan and The Netherlands find to care for the (after)lives of their loved ones?
People’s experiences of forced migration often coincide with border violence, prolonged geographical separation and the necessity of making do with restricted rights, also in afterlives. The same legal and economic barriers that hinder onward movement also impede physical presence to mourn together, whereas legislation and institutionalized procedures to govern death are embedded in colonial legacies and largely driven by sedentary logics.
This paper draws on research in process on experiences of loss at a distance and mediated practices around navigating bureaucratic procedures and affective rituals. The central role of bureaucracy and the social significance of burial rituals for holding on to and continuing life are widely recognised. Contemporary studies also suggest increased importance of mediated networks for individuals and communities dealing with bereavement and the central roles that diasporic communities play in migrants’ experiences of loss.
Here, I further explore the roles of digital affordances for sustaining relational and biographical dynamics of (after)lives in a context of everyday necropolitcs (Mbembe, 2003). Participatory media ethnography on this topic has much potential for falling into the traps of ‘anthropological consumption’ (Walia, 2022, p. 2). Rather, I draw on a relational ethics of care (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017) to foster dignified engagement and life-affirming research on dealings with loss (Tuck, 2009).
Simone Cerulli (University of Milan Bicocca) Punny Kabir (University of Cologne)
Paper short abstract:
This article explores the attempt of Bangladeshi Muslims to establish an Islamic cemetery in Rome, reflecting a need for adequate burial space and a sense of place belonging. Ethnographic fieldwork will reveal intergenerational home-making strategies and the challenges of state monoculturalism
Paper long abstract:
This study intends to investigate the efforts of the Bangladeshi Muslim diaspora to establish an Islamic cemetery in Rome. As an increasingly rooted – and therefore ageing – presence, the community stands at a critical juncture in its settlement, experiencing a growing need for dedicated burial spaces. The absence of such areas often implies the repatriation of the deceased, a complex and costly process that inflicts emotional turmoil on families. This case holds particular significance as it reflects broader challenges of building Muslim cemeteries on European soil, generally accompanied by tensions regarding Islam in public spaces. While hosting a Muslim population of nearly three million worshippers, Italy impels Islamic believers to confront a multitude of legal and cultural challenges to the free exercise of religion and public visibility. Moreover, the issue highlights how new generations tend to be regarded as outsiders, following a Muslim-foreigner paradigm that marginalises their instances and needs. In this context, the present study delves into the intricate dynamics of “deathscapes”, encompassing places of death, final dispositions and sites of remembrance and representation. Such issues bear on complex mechanisms of power and necropolitics, and ultimately shed light on the negotiation between home-making and "domestication". Home-making practices by diasporic "others" invariably elicit domestication responses in the name of monoethnic coherence from "governmental subjects", who assert their authority in the name of state monoculturalism, effectively enacting forms of localized “necropower”. These dynamics are intertwined with broader narratives of otherness and power relations, necessitating an in-depth exploration.
Yvonne Wallace (University of Toronto)
Paper short abstract:
I explore how residents of a private retirement home in Edmonton, Canada, prepare for the afterlife of the institution in which they live. As residents fear the seemingly inevitable closure of the place they call home, how do they make sense of an unplanned future?
Paper long abstract:
In this presentation, I explore how residents of a private retirement home prepare for the anticipated afterlife of the institution in which they live. The Churchill retirement home, in Edmonton, Canada, is owned by a multinational real estate company and managed by a third-party care provider. Recently, the home’s future has become uncertain. The contract with state-funded nursing services was discontinued leaving residents to navigate private home care options and signalling a new horizon in which the availability of care services is insufficient. Thus, many who planned to ‘age in place’ here have been given no choice but to move out (some as old as 101 years old). Others plan to “stay to the bitter end,” if they can. The potential closing of a retirement home is an exceptional circumstance, and yet it is a consequence of a common situation in that care provision for Canada’s aging population is largely private. The plight of Churchill residents is an example of what can happen when housing security and care provision of the elderly is contingent on the monetary returns of an investment company. Amidst this moment of crisis, daily life continues for residents who remain. As residents fear and anticipate the seemingly inevitable closure of the place they call home, where and how do they find strength and hope? How do they make sense of this loss? At a time of life when they had hoped to ‘age in place,’ how do they make sense of an unplanned future?
Sabine Klocke-Daffa (University of Tuebingen)
Paper short abstract:
This paper looks into the backdrops of increased sales of life covers and redirected monetary flows. It is argued that striving for a good life and caring for those who stay behind impacts not only savings behavior but also notions of solidarity and the relations between the living and the dead.
Paper long abstract:
With a share of more than 80% of all insurances sales, the Southern African countries of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana are dominating the African life insurance market. Namibia, though being only a small country in respect to its population size, stands for the “new targets” of insurers, where more life premiums than non-life premiums are sold covering up more than 1,0 billion USD per year. Life insurances turned out best sellers, including funeral covers which are sold out immediately after death.
The paper looks into the backdrops of increased sales of life covers and redirected monetary flows to insurance companies and banks. It is argued that striving for a good life and caring for those who stay behind impacts not only savings behavior but also notions of solidarity and the relations between the living and the dead. Since those who passed provided for covering the costs of their own funeral (by insurances) – what is left to those who stay behind whose task it used to be to care for the dead by organizing a costly funeral covered by solidarity contributions?
Grace Johnson (South East Technological University)
Paper short abstract:
Architecture could have a huge impact on the way we deal with death as a society. Having a sacred but safe place to connect loved and lost ones in an innovative but careful way could be the future of an afterlife.
Paper long abstract:
society has alienated death. we are making the space to talk about dealing with death macabre and foreign. the process of death care has become impersonal and intangible for friends and family of lost loved ones. often hidden in funeral homes or morgues, death care is a forgotten but important process. centuries ago when a loved one died families gathered and prepared the body with love and without fear, a space for this does not exist in the modern world. a rethinking of architectural facilities that enable proper and considerate death care could re-establish the social connection afterlife. innovative and eco-friendly alternatives exist in the death care world, and designing a beautiful but important meeting place for all these social needs could reshape death care.