Mourners’ Dissatisfaction with Funerals May Influence Their Subsequent Medical/Welfare Expenses—A Nationwide Survey in Japan

Japan’s super-aged mortality rate bereaves millions of people annually, threatening the mental health of the bereaved population. Previous research suggests that participation in satisfying funeral rituals can protect or improve the health of a bereaved population—but pandemic restrictions threaten traditional funeral assemblies. To determine how bereaved mourners’ mental health—and consequent dependence upon medical, pharmaceutical, or social services—are affected by funerals and the aspects of funerals most likely to cause satisfaction or dissatisfaction, we conducted an anonymous nationwide survey across Japan. In total, 1078 bereaved Japanese responded; we analyzed their responses by comparing the 106 citing funeral dissatisfaction with the 972 citing no dissatisfaction. The cohort showing greatest satisfaction with funerals tended to be older widows or parents who lost children; they showed greater grief but spent less on medical, pharmaceutical, or social services thereafter than the dissatisfied. Conversely, mourners with the greatest dissatisfaction toward their interactions with funeral directors and Buddhist priests tended to spend more on medical, pharmaceutical, or social services after bereavement. We conclude that training or education to improve priests’ and funeral directors’ interactions may reduce dissatisfaction with funerals, potentially reducing subsequent costs of medical, pharmaceutical, or social services for the rapidly growing population of bereaved Japanese.

Az átmenet etikája – Az előregyártott síremlék, mint önkép

The Ethics of Transition – The Prefabricated Tombstone as Identity Portrait. The present paper is part of a broader study. The broader context of the research compares and analyses the English and Transylvanian funeral rituals. My current paper examines a slice of this broader research context, identifying the problem of the funeral ritual, which has traditionally served as a transitional and linear ceremony. As such, the funeral started to transform from being a transitional ritual into a mosaic, personalized rite, by losing its transitional character. In the context of examining the social causes, the study examines how linear transitional elements are eliminated in funerals and, ultimately, how so-called existential holes appear in the funeral rituals. Keywords: self-image, post-socialist identity, tombstone, funeral

muerte no existe; variaciones en los rituales de velación y cremación frente a la inhumación. Tipologías actuales de tanatorios y camposantos

Este artículo compara los antiguos rituales funerarios de velación (celebrados en las casas) e inhumación (en los cementerios, con su ritual de costumbres, en los que la presentación del cadáver era muy importante) con los nuevos rituales de velación en los tanatorios (lugares pensados para que la muerte no exista y se camufle con la vida), la cremación y los nuevos depósitos para depositar las cenizas (árboles, lagos, columbarios escondidos en las ciudades, ceniceros comunales...) o deshacerse de ellas. En estos (mar, aire, praderas en los cementerios, circuitos de agua...) no se conserva la reliquia sino la memoria, intentando esconder la muerte y aceptando falsamente que ésta no existe. This article compares the old funeral rituals of vigil (celebrated at home) and burial in cemeteries (with a long ritual full of customs where the presentation of the corpse was very important) with the new funeral rituals celebrated in funeral homes (places designed so that death does not exist and is camouflaged with life), the cremation and new places to deposit the ashes (trees, lakes, columbariums hidden in cities, communal ashtrays...) or getting rid of these through a new way where the relic is not preserved (sea, air, meadows in cemeteries, water circuits...), but the memory; trying to hide death and falsely accepting that it does not exist.

Iron Cones in the Burials of Ulus Jochi: Aspects of Ethnocultural Identification

Cone-shaped objects, rolled from iron and bronze sheets, are found in the Golden Horde burials of the late 13th – early 15th centuries. The authors collected information on more than 100 burials with iron and bronze cones located in the territory of Ulus Jochi. This article is examines material from 78 iron cone burials. Specific features of the topographic location of these complexes, use of stones in rituals, construction of log cabins around graves is similar to archaeological and ethnographic monuments of Central Asia associated with ethnic Mongols. As a rule, human remains buried in graves are oriented north or northeast with their heads, which is also a feature of the Mongol funeral rite. Accompaniment of the burial with whole or stuffed horses remains in the complexes with cones is not common, but these features are also known in Mongolian cemeteries in Central Asia. The placement of a sheep tibia at the head of the buried occasionally in vertical position is considered a main ethnic feature of the Mongol culture. In general, the sample of the Ulus Jochi burials, united by the iron cones presence in the burial inventory, is characterized by an increased concentration of rather specific ritual signs typical of the Mongols of Central Asia. This allows us to conclude that the considered monuments belong to the same ethnocultural group of population. Moreover, the available anthropological data testify to the Central Asian (Mongolian) origin of the representatives of this group of nomads of Ulus Jochi Burials with iron cones. The authors observe manifestations of pagan shamanic and Buddhist rituals judging by the dominant features of funeral rituals left by the bearers of Mongolian ethnic and cultural traditions.

“Red Funeral”. New Funeral Rites in Early Soviet Russia

The article analyzes the emergence of the so-called red funeral ritual in the 1920s in Soviet Russia as an important component of political everyday life. The first part of the article examines the funeral rituals of representatives of the Bolshevik elite. The second part attempts to characterize the transformation of funeral rites among the “common” population. The analysis undertaken clearly shows the undoubted political and public nature of funeral rituals in early Soviet Russia. Initially, Soviet funeral rituals were powerfully influenced by radical utilitarianism and total nihilistic denial of the religious worldview, intensified by the excesses of the World War, Revolution and Civil War. Nevertheless, nihilism and utilitarianism, the highest expression of which was the idea of cremation, were quickly pushed out by a new funeral ritual, the key elements of which were demonstration and “theatrical ritual” with its music, processions, pretentious speeches and fireworks, in many respects borrowed from military funerals. The main role in the emergence of the red funeral ritual was played by the cult of fallen heroes, which in turn was a guarantee of political immortality of the Bolshevik leaders. As a result, the red funeral became an important element of the alternative Bolshevik culture. The concept of Vladimir Buldakov, who characterized revolutionary funeral rituals as “neo-pagan”, is at least controversial. The attempt to make funerals of the Bolshevik elites a model for mass funerals collided with conservative rituals, especially in the countryside. With regard to the 1920s, at best, we can talk about the emergence of a kind of “the effect of dual faith", a specific symbiosis of red and religious funeral rites. Thus, in the 1920s, the process of a new Soviet ritualism development was far from complete, including the Soviet party and state elites, as evidenced by the fluctuations between party asceticism with its utilitarian attitude to ashes and splendid funerals of leaders.

RITUAIS DE SEPULTAMENTO DOS SÍTIOS LAJEDO DO CRUZEIRO E PEDRA DA TESOURA, PARAÍBA: Um Estudo Comparativo Entre Sítios com Deposições Funerárias

Este artigo apresenta preliminarmente uma caracterização dos Lajedo do Cruzeiro e Pedra da Tesoura, procuramos contextualizar os resultados, ainda que iniciais, através de informações etnohistóricas e pesquisas arqueológicas realizadas na Paraíba. Analisamos as informações existentes sobre as populações que habitavam o interior no período Pré- histórico na área conhecida hoje como estado da Paraíba, especialmente os dados concernentes a contexto funerário. Os resultados dispostos nos estudos arqueológicos realizados nos sítios Barra (Camalaú), Serrote da Macambira (São João do Cariri), Pinturas I (São João do Tigre) e Furna dos Ossos (São João do Cariri), foram utilizados, porém, percebe-se que uma das principais dificuldades é estudar um sítio com sepultamento que apresente contexto de deposição preservado, impossibilitando, em grande parte dos casos, inferências seguras acerca das práticas funerárias. BURIAL RITUALS OF THE LAJEDO DO CRUZEIRO AND CRUZEIRO DA PEDRA SITES, PARAÍBA: A Comparative Study Between Sites with Funerary DepositionsABSTRACTThis paper presents a preliminary characterization of the Lajedo do Cruzeiro and Pedra da Tesoura, we seek to contextualize the results, even if initial, through the ethnohistorical information and archaeological research carried out in Paraíba. We analyzed the existing information about the populations that inhabited the interior in the Pre-historic period in the area known today as the state of Paraíba, especially the data concerning the funeralcontext. The results obtained in the archaeological studies carried out at the Barra (Camalaú), Serrote da Macambira (São João do Cariri), Pinturas I (São João do Tigre) and Furna dos Ossos (São João do Cariri) sites were used, one of the main difficulties is to study a buried site that has a preserved deposition context, making it impossible to obtain reliable inferences about funeral practices in most cases.Keywords: Death; funeral rituals; Tapuias; Paraíba

Funerals and the politics of emotion

This chapter presents a detailed ethnography of the funeral rituals of the Roma of Ceuaş. It describes how a funeral ceremony unfolds and how musicians participate in it. The ethnographic description points to the instable and open-ended distinction between the “relatives” (neamuri) of the deceased and the “outsiders” (străini). These two groups interact on an essentially emotional level: the former are under pressure to express their grief to the latter, who are themselves on the lookout for these expressions of feeling. The chapter highlights the key differences between the tears of the neamuri, who cry “with full throat,” and those of the străini, who “cry inside.” The final part of the chapter presents an interpretation of the Roma funerals. Ritual actions, including wailing and playing music, seek to nudge the relationships between the living and the dead, and the neamuri and the străini, toward the positive emotional poles of piety and pity (milă) and away from the negative poles of fear and shame (laja).

Time to Say Goodbye?: A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands

In Time to Say Goodbye? A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands, Janieke Bruin- Mollenhorst explores attitudes towards death in the Netherlands through the lens of music during contemporary funeral rituals. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the author stud-ies the interplay between music facilities, musical repertoires and funeral rituals from 1914 to present; the functions of contemporary funeral music; and the use of religious expressions in contemporary funeral music. She shows that continuing bonds play an important role in the ways people in contemporary Dutch society deal with death. In this innovative study, the lens of funeral music sheds new light on the socio-cultural context of death-related practices and ideas. It demonstrates the relevance of music, both in funerary practices and in the academic fields of death studies and ritual studies.