Memory, memorialization and social change

Question 1

describe how death is everywhere

Answer 1

• tension between death denial as a social norm and omnipresence of death, including public memorialization
• street signs, names of buildings, memorial plaques, monuments

Question 2

define continuing bonds and meaning-making

Answer 2

Continuing bonds: the ways the living maintain connections - a bond - with the deceased loved ones by making the deceased feel actively present in our lives

Meaning making: the process through which individuals and groups seek to make sense of loss and death, their relationship to the dead and their lives after a loss

Question 3

describe official memorials

Answer 3

• focus on elites or victim’s of conflict
• a way of telling stories about the past, representing a shared history, bearing witness to past tragedy in order to affect future behaviour, reinforce common values
• can be important for healing, reconciliation after conflict
• can generate conflict

Question 4

describe informal memorials

Answer 4

• democratization of the act of remembering - memorials created for ‘ordinary people’ in public spaces
• created by families or those directly affected
• commemorate the dead
• place to mourn, remember for families
• raise awareness, inspire action

Question 5

what is grief activism?

Answer 5

• the use of public mourning and memorialization to contest, raise awareness about unjust deaths, pursue social change
• deaths positioned as linked not isolated cases
• public morning asserts personhood, humanity of the dead and resistance to oppressive social dynamics that dehumanize people and disenfranchise grief

Question 6

what is disenfranchised grief

Answer 6

• losses that are not publicly mourned, acknowledged or recognized

Question 7

how are funerals used as resistance?

Answer 7

• drawing linkages between historic and contemporary forms of racism and violence
• recognition of the role of the funeral in long history of civil rights activism
• celebration of life, highlights humanity, dignity that was denied in life

Question 8

what is the death care industry?

Answer 8

• multi billion dollar industry
• funerals cost on average between 2000 - 5000 (for cremation) and 5000 - 20,000 for full funeral services and burial

Question 9

What is cremation and embalming

Answer 9

• cremation = use of fire to reduce the body and its container to ashes
• embalming = semi-surgical process that replaces body fluids with liquid chemicals
• different religious groups hold varying beliefs on the acceptability of cremation, burial and embalming

Question 10

describe capitalism and the death care industry

Answer 10

• myths about dead bodies and fears/taboos related to contamination, decomposition increases the demand for expensive services like embalming or products
• embalming is not legally required
• dead bodies do not contaminate the ground in cemeteries, except for the chemicals that we put into the bodies

Question 11

what are green burials?

Answer 11

• only biodegradable materials are used
• no embalming or cremation
• no markers are permitted
• cost between 3000 - 5000

Question 12

what are some types of death care practices?

Answer 12

• burial with embalming
• cremation
• green burial
• tree burial pods
• aquamation
• space burial