Funerals in Africa

Explorations of a Social Phenomenon
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-85745-205-4
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, 244 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 512 g

Across Africa, funerals and events remembering the dead have become larger and even more numerous over the years. Whereas in the West death is normally a private and family affair, in Africa funerals are often the central life cycle event, unparalleled in cost and importance, for which families harness vast amounts of resources to host lavish events for multitudes of people with ramifications well beyond the event. Though officials may try to regulate them, the popularity of these events often makes such efforts fruitless, and the elites themselves spend tremendously on funerals. This volume brings together scholars who have conducted research on funerary events across sub-Saharan Africa. The contributions offer an in-depth understanding of the broad changes and underlying causes in African societies over the years, such as changes in religious beliefs, social structure, urbanization, and technological changes and health.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jindra, Michael

Noret, Joël

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Thanatologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Tod, Sterbehilfe: Soziale und Ethische Themen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Foreword

Jan Vansina

Introduction: Funerals in Africa. An Introduction

Michael Jindra and Joël Noret

Chapter 1. African Funerals and Sociocultural Change: A Review of Momentous Transformations across a Continent

Michael Jindra and Joël Noret

Chapter 2. A Decent Death: Changes in Burial in Bulawayo

Terence Ranger

Chapter 3. Kikuyu Transformation of Death in Kenya: From Hyenas to Tombs

Yvan Droz

Chapter 4. Decomposing Pollution? Corpses, Burials, and Affliction among the Meru of Central Kenya

Mark Lamont

Chapter 5. The Rise of Death Celebrations in the Cameroon Grassfields

Michael Jindra

Chapter 6. Funerals and Religious Pluralism in Burkina Faso

Katrin Langewiesche

Chapter 7. Funerals and the Religious Imagination: Burying and Honoring the Dead in the Celestial Church of Christ (Southern Benin)

Joël Noret

Chapter 8. Of Corpses, Clay, and Photographs: Body Imagery and Changing Technologies of Remembrance in Asante Funeral Culture

Marleen de Witte

Chapter 9. Funerals and Fetish Interment in Accra, Ghana

Jonathan Roberts

Notes on the Contributors

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jindra, Michael
Michael Jindra is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and a visiting research scholar in the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. He has published in journals such as Africa, Sociology of Religion, Anthropological Forum, and Society and has also contributed chapters to a number of books. His current research focuses on the connection between lifestyle diversity, culture, and inequality in the US.

Noret, Joël
Joël Noret is Assistant Professor of anthropology at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He has been conducting fieldwork in southern Benin since the beginning of the 2000s. His publications include the co-edited special issue of Gradhiva, Mémoire de l'esclavage au Bénin (with Gaetano Ciarcia, 2008), his monograph, Deuil et funérailles dans le Bénin méridional. Enterrer à tout prix (Brussels, 2010), and Mort et dynamiques sociales au Katanga (with Pierre Petit, Tervuren-Paris, 2011).

Michael Jindra is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and a visiting research scholar in the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. He has published in journals such as Africa, Sociology of Religion, Anthropological Forum, and Society and has also contributed chapters to a number of books. His current research focuses on the connection between lifestyle diversity, culture, and inequality in the US.