How Funerals accomplish Family: Findings from a Mass-Observation Study. Transl. from Eng. by A.A. Zaitseva, Yu.A. Ivanova
Research Article
How to Cite
Walter T., Bailey T. How Funerals accomplish Family: Findings from a Mass-Observation Study. Transl. from Eng. by A.A. Zaitseva, Yu.A. Ivanova. Sotsiologicheskiy Zhurnal = Sociological Journal. 2023. Vol. 29. No. 1. P. 141-160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/socjour.2023.29.1.8 (in Russ.).
Abstract
This article analyzes 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 attended. In their writings, grief is displayed through conventional conceptions of family. Drawing on Randall Collins, we show how the funeral divides mourners into family or nonfamily, with such differentiation occurring through outward display and internal feelings. 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 described. Funerals were portrayed as a distinct arena privileging family over fluid and varied personal attachments. They are described both in terms of the new sociology of personal life and through the concept of disenfranchised grief.
Keywords:
funerals, family, grief, Mass-Observation directive, feeling
References
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32. Pahl R., Spencer L. Personal communities: Not simply families of “fate” or “choice”. Current Sociology. 2004. Vol. 52. Iss. 2. P. 199–221. DOI: 10.1177/0011392104041808
33. Pahl R., Spencer L. Family, friends and personal communities. Journal of Family Theory & Review. 2010. Vol. 2. P. 197–210. DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-2589.2010.00053.x
34. Pine V.R. Caretaker of the dead: The American funeral director. N.Y.: Irvington, 1975. 219 p.
35. Reimers E. Primary mourners and next-of-kin — How grief practices reiterate and subvert heterosexual norms. Journal of Gender Studies. 2011. Vol. 20. P. 251–262. DOI: 10.1080/09589236.2011.593324
36. Robson P., Walter T. Hierarchies of loss: A critique of disenfranchised grief . OMEGA — Journal of Death and Dying. 2012–2013. Vol. 66. P. 97–119. DOI: 10.2190/OM.66.2.a
37. Roseneil S., Budgeon S. Cultures of intimacy and care beyond “the family”: Personal life and social change in the early 21st century. Current Sociology. 2004. Vol. 52. Iss. 2. P. 135–159. DOI: 10.1177/0011392104041798
38. Sheridan D. Using the mass-observation archive. Researching ageing and later life: The Practice of Social Gerontology. Ed. by A. Jamieson, C.R. Victor. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2002. Pt. 5.
39. Smart C. Personal life. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. 232 p.
40. Szmigin I., Canning L. Sociological ambivalence and funeral consumption. Sociology. 2015. Vol. 49. P. 748–763. DOI: 10.1177/0038038514552008
41. Walter T. The revival of death. L.: Routledge, 1994. 240 p.
42. Walter T. A new model of grief: Bereavement and biography. Mortality. 1996. Vol. 1. P. 7–25. DOI: 10.1080/713685822
43. Walter T. Three ways to arrange a funeral: Mortuary variation in the modern West. Mortality. 2005. Vol. 10. P. 173–192. DOI: 10.1080/13576270500178369
44. Weeks J. Same sex intimacies: Families of choice and other life experiments. J. Weeks, B. Heaphy, C. Donovan. L.: Routledge, 2001. 256 p. DOI: 10.4324/9780203167168_Introduction
45. Yoder L. The funeral meal: A significant funerary ritual. Journal of Religion and Health. 1986. Vol. 25. P. 149–160. DOI: 10.1007/BF01533245
2. Aveline-Dubach N. Invisible population: The place of the dead in East Asian megacities. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012. 250 p.
3. Bloch M. Death and the regeneration of life. Ed. by J.K. Parry. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 1982. 248 p. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511607646
4. Bowman L. The American funeral: A study in guilt, extravagance, and sublimity. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1959. 181 p.
5. Braun V. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Ed. by V. Clarke. Qualitative Research in Psychology. 2006. Vol. 3 (2). P. 77–101. DOI: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
6. Cann C. Dying to eat: Cross-cultural perspectives on food, bereavement and afterlives. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2017. 208 p. DOI: 10.5810/kentucky/9780813174693.001.0001
7. Carsten J. After kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 194 p.
8. Caswell G. Personalisation in Scottish funerals: Individualised ritual or relational process? Morality. 2011. No. 16. P. 242–258. DOI: 10.1080/13576275.2011.586124
9. Clark D. Between pulpit and pew: Folk religion in a North Yorkshire fishing village. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. 198 p.
10. Collins R. Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. 464 p.
11. Davies D.J. Death, ritual and belief. L.: Continuum, 2002. 272 p.
12. Doka K.J. Disenfranchised grief: New directions, challenges, and strategies for practice. Champaign, IL: Research Press, 2002. 451 p.
13. Douglas M. Purity and danger. L.: Routledge, 2002. 272 p. DOI: 10.4324/9780203361832
14. Durkheim E. The elementary forms of the religious life. L.: Unwin, 1915. 456 p.
15. Durkheim E. The division of labour in society. L.: Macmillan, 1933. 439 p.
16. Edwards R. The politics of concepts: Family and its putative replacements. Ed. by R.J. McCarthy, V. Gillies. British Journal of Sociology. 2012. No. 53. P. 730–746. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2012.01434.x
17. Finch J. Displaying families. Sociology. 2007. No. 41. P. 65–81. DOI: 10.1177/0038038507072284
18. Finch J. Negotiating family responsibilities. Ed. by J. Mason. L.: Tavistock, 1993. 240 p.
19. Fulton R. The funeral in contemporary society. Death and identity. Ed. by R. Fulton, R. Bendiksen. Philadelphia, PA: Charles Press, 1994. P. 288–312.
20. Gabb J. Troubling displays: The affect of gender, sexuality and class. Displaying families. Ed. by E. Dermott, J. Seymour. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. P. 38–57. DOI: 10.1057/9780230314306_3
21. Gilding M. Reflexivity over and above convention: The new orthodoxy in the sociology of personal life, formerly sociology of the family. British Journal of Sociology. 2010. No. 61. P. 757–777. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2010.01340.x
22. Gillis J.R. A world of their own making: Myth, ritual, and the quest for family values. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. 336 p.
23. Grainger R. Let death be death: Lessons from the Irish wake. Mortality. 1998. No. 3. P. 129–141. DOI: 10.1080/713685896
24. Harper S. Behind closed doors? Corpses and mourners in American and English funeral premises. The matter of death: Space, place and materiality. Ed. by J. Hockey, C. Komaromy, K. Woodthrope. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010. P. 100–116. DOI: 10.1057/9780230283060_7
25. Heapy B. Critical relational displays. Displaying families. Ed. by E. Dermott, J. Seymour. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. P. 19–37. DOI: 10.1057/9780230314306_2
26. Hochschild A. The managed heart. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993. 340 p.
27. Hockey J. The acceptable face of human grieving? The Sociology of Death. Ed. by D. Clark. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. P. 129–148. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.1992.tb03390.x
28. Holloway M. Funerals aren’t nice but it couldn’t have been nicer. The makings of a good funeral / M. Holloway, S. Adamson, V. Argyrou, P. Draper, D. Mariau. Mortality. 2013. Vol. 18. P. 30–53. DOI: 10.1080/13576275.2012.755505
29. Howarth G. Last Rites: The work of the modern funeral director. Amityville, NY: Baywood, 1996. 232 p. DOI: 10.2190/LRT
30. Morgan D. Family connections. Cambridge, MA: Polity, 1996. 224 p.
31. O’Rourke T. The good funeral: Toward an understanding of funeral participation and satisfaction. T. O’Rourke, B.H. Sptizberg, A.F. Hannawa. Death Studies. 2011. Vol. 35. P. 729–750. DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2011.553309
32. Pahl R., Spencer L. Personal communities: Not simply families of “fate” or “choice”. Current Sociology. 2004. Vol. 52. Iss. 2. P. 199–221. DOI: 10.1177/0011392104041808
33. Pahl R., Spencer L. Family, friends and personal communities. Journal of Family Theory & Review. 2010. Vol. 2. P. 197–210. DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-2589.2010.00053.x
34. Pine V.R. Caretaker of the dead: The American funeral director. N.Y.: Irvington, 1975. 219 p.
35. Reimers E. Primary mourners and next-of-kin — How grief practices reiterate and subvert heterosexual norms. Journal of Gender Studies. 2011. Vol. 20. P. 251–262. DOI: 10.1080/09589236.2011.593324
36. Robson P., Walter T. Hierarchies of loss: A critique of disenfranchised grief . OMEGA — Journal of Death and Dying. 2012–2013. Vol. 66. P. 97–119. DOI: 10.2190/OM.66.2.a
37. Roseneil S., Budgeon S. Cultures of intimacy and care beyond “the family”: Personal life and social change in the early 21st century. Current Sociology. 2004. Vol. 52. Iss. 2. P. 135–159. DOI: 10.1177/0011392104041798
38. Sheridan D. Using the mass-observation archive. Researching ageing and later life: The Practice of Social Gerontology. Ed. by A. Jamieson, C.R. Victor. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2002. Pt. 5.
39. Smart C. Personal life. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. 232 p.
40. Szmigin I., Canning L. Sociological ambivalence and funeral consumption. Sociology. 2015. Vol. 49. P. 748–763. DOI: 10.1177/0038038514552008
41. Walter T. The revival of death. L.: Routledge, 1994. 240 p.
42. Walter T. A new model of grief: Bereavement and biography. Mortality. 1996. Vol. 1. P. 7–25. DOI: 10.1080/713685822
43. Walter T. Three ways to arrange a funeral: Mortuary variation in the modern West. Mortality. 2005. Vol. 10. P. 173–192. DOI: 10.1080/13576270500178369
44. Weeks J. Same sex intimacies: Families of choice and other life experiments. J. Weeks, B. Heaphy, C. Donovan. L.: Routledge, 2001. 256 p. DOI: 10.4324/9780203167168_Introduction
45. Yoder L. The funeral meal: A significant funerary ritual. Journal of Religion and Health. 1986. Vol. 25. P. 149–160. DOI: 10.1007/BF01533245
Article
Received: 01.09.2022
Accepted: 17.03.2023
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[1]
Walter, T. and Bailey, T. 2023. How Funerals accomplish Family: Findings from a Mass-Observation Study. Transl. from Eng. by A.A. Zaitseva, Yu.A. Ivanova. Sotsiologicheskiy Zhurnal = Sociological Journal. 29, 1 (Mar. 2023), 141-160. DOI:https://doi.org/10.19181/socjour.2023.29.1.8.
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DEATH STUDIES
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