Death and Events: International Perspectives on Events Marking the End of Life

235 Pages·2021·6.154 MB·English

by  Ian R Lamond (editor), Ruth Dowson (editor)

Death and Events
This unique volume examines death from a socio-cultural events perspec-
tive. Drawing on the empirical and conceptual work produced by an in-
ternational body of researchers, it is the first publication to look at death,
dying, memorialization, and their mediation, from an events orientation.
By placing the contribution of these scholars together, this book pro-
vides a unique opportunity to instigate an international, critical discussion,
around the connectivities associated with death and events. Chapters con-
sider connections to death and events on many levels, including individual,
local, communally based, construals of the event landscape; the relation-
ship between death and events in larger socio-cultural frames of reference.
Chapters also consider how death and events are manifest through diverse
platforms of mediation, with a discussion of the media presentation of end
of life events, and the articulation of death online. Case studies from a
wide-ranging selection of countries, from Moscow to Bangladesh to Cam-
bodia, are examined throughout.
This will be of great interest to upper-level students and researchers in
event studies as well as a variety of other disciplines such as sociology and
cultural studies.
Ian R Lamond is a senior lecturer in event studies, teaching on a variety
of modules within the School of Events, Tourism, and Hospitality Man-
agement at Leeds Beckett University, UK. He is interested in developing
a critical approach to event studies that can act as a post-disciplinary con-
ceptual framework. His research interests are concerned with applying the
concept of event to a wide range of fields, including anthropology; business
and management studies; political and cultural studies; psychoanalysis; and
sociological theory.
Ruth Dowson has over 25 years’ professional experience in events management
and has been a Senior Lecturer at the UK Centre for Events Management,
Leeds Beckett University, UK since 2007. Ordained in the Church of England
in 2012, her academic research combines her passion for church and events.
Ruth’s published research interests focus on events and church, the eventiza-
tion of faith, venuefication, and the use of religious buildings for events.
Routledge Advances in Event Research Series
Edited by Warwick Frost and Jennifer Laing, Department of Marketing,
Tourism and Hospitality, La Trobe University, Australia
Power, Construction and Meaning in Festivals
Edited by Allan Jepson and Alan Clarke
Royal Events
Rituals, Innovations, Meanings
Jennifer Laing and Warwick Frost
Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity in Critical Event Studies
Edited by Rebecca Finkel, Briony Sharp, and Majella Sweeney
Tourism Events in Asia
Marketing and Development
Edited by Azizul Hassan and Anukrati Sharma
Marginalisation and Events
Edited by Trudie Walters and Allan Stewart Jepson
Festival and Event Tourism Impacts
Edited by Dogan Gursoy, Robin Nunkoo and Medet Yolal
Death and Events
International Perspectives on Events Marking the End of Life
Edited by Ian R Lamond and Ruth Dowson
Managing and Leveraging Events
Business and Social Dimensions
Nico Schulenkorf, Katie Schlenker, Hussain Rammal, Jon Welty Peachey
and Ashlee Morgan
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Advances-in-Event-Research-Series/book-series/RAERS
Death and Events
International Perspectives on Events
Marking the End of Life
Edited by
Ian R Lamond and Ruth Dowson
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ian R Lamond and Ruth
Dowson; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Ian R Lamond and Ruth Dowson to be identified as
the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lamond, Ian R., editor. | Dowson, Ruth, editor.
Title: Death and events : international perspectives on events
marking the end of life / edited by Ian R. Lamond and Ruth
Dowson.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Routledge advances in event research series | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021021879 (print) | LCCN 2021021880 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367725600 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367725631 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003155324 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Death—Social aspects—Cross-cultural studies. |
Funeral rites and ceremonies—Cross-cultural studies. | Mourning
customs—Cross-cultural studies.
Classification: LCC GN485.5 .D43 2022 (print) |
LCC GN485.5 (ebook) | DDC 306.9—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021021879
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021021880
ISBN: 9780367725600 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780367725631 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003155324 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003155324
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Ian R Lamond
To all of my dear friends in SP - quando o mundo está de
cabeça para baixo, devemos nos tornar os mutantes. In solidarity.
Ruth Dowson
For Aria Rose, the newest generation: fulfilment of a promise,
hope abounds.

Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables xi
List of contributors xiii
1 Introduction 1
IAN R LAMOND AND RUTH DOWSON
2 Funerals as a social process: rituals and symbols in rural and
urban funerals 13
IRINA ZAMFIRACHE
3 Dying with dignity: perception of good death among the
Santals of Bangladesh 26
SHAIKH MOHAMMAD KAIS
4 Memorial space of the necropolis: the case of Novodevichy Cemetery 48
MARIA KUCHERYAVAYA
5 Death, trauma, and the ‘event’ 63
ARNAR ÁRNASON AND SIGURJÓN BALDUR HAFSTEINSSON
6 Ritualized death in Eastern and Islamic culture: “Taste of Cherry” 80
MIKAIL BOZ AND RIFAT BECERIKLI
7 Burdened with the memories of death: an autoethnographic
account of the real and the imagined deaths 97
KHYATI TRIPATHI
8 Living in ‘limbo’: death in everyday Sundarbans 113
PRAMA MUKHOPADHYAY
viii Contents
9 Reframing grief in Colombian armed conflict: performativities
of the photographic image in processes of civil resistance in the
Magdalena Medio zone (Cimitarra Valley) 130
CAROLINA SOURDIS AND ANDRÉS PEDRAZA TABARES
10 The role of cultural institutions in navigating transnational
social spaces of cosmopolitan memory: a reading of the Tuol
Sleng Genocide Museum 149
LAURA SUYIN HALLENSLEBEN
11 Remember your brothers: memory and inspiration in the video-
testaments of the Islamic State 164
GIUSEPPE PREVITALI
12 The assisted dying movement: how media platforms influence
our response to events that challenge the boundaries of
contemporary social control 177
RHONA WINNINGTON
13 Conclusion 194
RUTH DOWSON
Index 213
Figures
3.1 Santal women with kids 31
3.2 A Christian church in Dangapara 35
4.1 Souvenir shop, vending machines and a map. (Author’s photo.) 51
4.2 Visitors watching at the grave of Yuriy Nikulin. (Author’s photo.) 54
4.3 Boris Yeltsin’s grave. (Author’s photo.) 56
4.4 Lyudmila Gurchenko’s grave (right) at the newest part of
the cemetery. (Author’s photo.) 58
7.1 An open wood pyre cremation taking place on
Manikarnika Ghat in Benaras 104
7.2 A Ghat worker carrying a load of ashes from the burnt
pyres to be immersed in the Ganges 105
7.3 Personification of Corona in the Painting. (Created by
the author.) 109
8.1 The traditional fisher of the Sundarbans. (Author’s photo.) 115
8.2 Death certificate of a ‘tiger accident’ victim. (Author’s photo.) 121
8.3 At the jetty of Bandhob-Pur. (Author’s photo.) 123
9.1 Nelcy Cuesta’s portrait made by the ACVC 137
9.2 Omaira Murcia’s photo-montage made by her son as a post-
mortem tribute 138
9.3 Women around the flag painted for the 1st Meeting of
Women held in The Magdalena Medio where we can see
Nelcy’s and Omaira’s visage. (Photography by CESPAZ.) 141
9.4 Nelcy’s original photograph as preserved today in the
Cuesta’s family album 142