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

Abstract

The article analyses how potentially conflicting frames of grief and family operate in a number of English funerals. The data come from the 2010 Mass-Observation directive “Going to Funerals” which asked its panel of correspondents to write about the most recent funeral they had attended. In their writings, grief is displayed through conventional understandings of family. Drawing on Randall Collins, we show how the funeral stratifies mourners into family or nonfamily, a stratification accomplished—by family and nonfamily—through both outward display and inner feeling. The funerals described were more about a very traditional notion of family than about grief; family trumped grief, or at least provided the frame through which grief could be written about; and perceptions of “family” prompted emotions which in turn defined family. The funerals were portrayed as a distinct arena privileging family over the fluid and varied personal attachments highlighted in both the new sociology of personal life and in the concept of disenfranchised grief.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Funerals: Experiences of Participants in the 2020 Dying2Learn Massive Open Online Course

“…For many the fact that close family (even spouses) may not be able to attend due to restricted numbers, quarantine or inability to travel (such as border closures) was hard to consider. The restrictions on numbers allowed to attend changed in response to government guidelines and so many of the bereaved were faced with choosing who could attend and who could not ( Walter & Bailey, 2020 ). The fact that physical distancing prevented close contact was also described negatively, with an inability to sit close to someone, hug and comfort them or more intimately share their grief, with social contact and connectedness fundamental to well-being ( Abel & Taubert, 2020 ).…”

“…Funerals are a universal after-death ritual ( Woodthorpe, 2017 ). They can vary widely in form and function but have the collective goal of farewelling someone, a place where participants can express grief and share sorrow, remember the person who has died and their life, mark the transition from living to dead, and act as a starting point for recovery ( Mitima-Verloop et al, 2019 ; O’Rourke et al, 2011 ; Walter & Bailey, 2020 ). Funerals have also served as a reminder of mortality although the professionalisation of the industry has removed many of the direct preparation elements from the community ( Lundgren & Houseman, 2010 ).…”

Feeding the family at the end‐of‐life: An ethnographic study on the role of food and eating practices for families facing death in Portugal

“…In the academic field of death studies, the various relational dynamics that emerge at the end-of-life have assumed particular importance (Hockey, 1990;Kellehear, 2008;Lawton, 2000;Woodthorpe & Rumble, 2016). This trend is visible in the sociological literature that addresses the role played by the family in the context of a lifethreatening illness or death (Broom & Kirby, 2013;Ellis, 2013;Walter & Bailey, 2020). However, everyday practices and the multiple negotiations that take place at the end-of-life have not been sufficiently explored (Ellis, 2018).…”

O luto nos tempos da COVID-19: desafios do cuidado durante a pandemia

“…No reino animal, apesar de várias espécies cuidarem de alguma forma de seus mortos, os seres humanos são os únicos a realizarem cerimônias fúnebres propriamente ditas (Shimane, 2018). O funeral é uma parte importante do comportamento social e propicia a demonstração e o compartilhamento do sofrimento (Shimane, 2018;Walter & Bailey, 2020), mas para muito além disso, os rituais funerários revelam o modo de funcionamento de uma sociedade e como ela lida com a ideia do morrer (Souza & Souza, 2019). Nas sociedades ocidentais na era cristã, somente a partir do século XVIII os rituais funerários passaram a ser de responsabilidade da família, pois, até então, a guarda do corpo ficava aos cuidados do clero.…”