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        A relative absence: exploring professional experiences of funerals without mourners

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        Turner_and_Caswell_2020_funerals_author_accepted_version.pdf (PDF, 296Kb)(embargoed until 16/03/2022)
        Author
        Turner, Nicola
        Caswell, Glenys
        Attention
        2299/23662
        Abstract
        When someone dies, it is usual for relatives to gather at a funeral to embody a collective act of eulogy for the deceased and stand against the finality of death. When someone who lived alone dies alone at home, it is not always possible to identify anyone to attend a funeral. In such cases, funeral professionals are required to perform the appropriate social rites in the absence of the confirmatory power of a society. Drawing on interviews with funeral professionals and ethnographic observations of funerals without mourners, we explore how professionals understand their roles in performing social rites against death when there is no one to participate in them. We consider the impact of attempting to make good a death generally perceived as bad, and we examine the significance of funerals as a social rite when the deceased is assumed to have forgone social relationships during their lifetime. 
        Publication date
        2020-09-16
        Published in
        Omega
        Published version
        https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222820959960
        Other links
        http://hdl.handle.net/2299/23662
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