Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 P32 / Master of Landscape Architecture

In contemporary North America, death is often responded to by means of geographical and social separation. Formally removed from the everyday lifeworld and boundaries of home and community, the cemetery landscape has depreciated greatly in its cultural significance and visible taking care. As changing death practices and perceptions towards mortality look to reintegrate the dead back into the living community, traditional ways of locating, memorializing and ritualizing the dead no longer reflect or express the meaning of death held by modern cultural ideals. This research looks to investigate how landscape architecture may re-imagine the cemetery landscape providing newfound cultural significance and presence within the modern everyday lifeworld. In the City of Brandon, Manitoba, the limited interment capacity of the current Municipal cemetery has established a need for expanded cemetery space. This practicum proposes rather, to relocate the cemetery within a place of meaningful significance to the community of Brandon. The design responds to the shifting ideals, and patterns of disposal and ritualization emerging within present western society. / May 2016

This dissertation is focused on changes in burial culture in the modern and post-modern era resulting from the introduction of cremation as a new part of burial practices in Western countries. Its aim is to analyze changes in burial culture in the context of social and political developments and through their physical effects on the landscape. In order to evaluate contemporary burial culture in the Western world, the main cause of changes in burial culture was first separately analyzed as a phenomenon that appeared (the conditions for the origins of cremation) and expanded in geographical space (the circumstances under which cremation was adapted in Western countries). The diffusion of innovations theory is used, which is capable of describing and interpreting the process of introducing cremation in its modern form. In the second phase of research, specific manifestations of changes in burial culture caused by the introduction of cremation are examined based on case studies conducted in the field. In the following part of the dissertation findings are generalized, and how the perception and function of cemeteries have changed due to the influence of changes in burial culture and how the significance of the concept of the deathscape - landscapes and places whose appearance and relationships are...

A despeito de ser considerado o único animal consciente de sua própria finitude, sendo capaz de raciocinar e elaborar ritos para lidar com esta realidade, o ser humano, principalmente a partir da modernidade, nega cada vez mais sua mortalidade. Apesar da superexposição decorrente da violência dos grandes centros e da mídia, a morte, no contexto atual, geralmente é pensada como um fato abstrato, colocada de forma longínqua, do outro. Dentro deste quadro, diversos autores relacionam este \"tabu\" em relação ao tema com o desenvolvimento de novas formas de lidar com os mortos. A cremação, prática relativamente recente nos meios urbanos ocidentais, foi considerada como um método que possivelmente poderia reforçar esta mentalidade de interdição: dispensaria os túmulos e locais para homenagem, sendo uma maneira racional de lidar com o cadáver e sua decadência após o falecimento. Diante do exposto, a presente dissertação busca uma crítica a esta visão a partir das atitudes encontradas no Crematório Municipal de São Paulo. Constituído por um edifício locado em meio a um jardim que se assemelha a uma configuração de parque, seus espaços livres possuem as mais diversas apropriações, dentre as quais chamam a atenção as delimitações constituídas pelos enlutados para a disposição de cinzas de seus entes queridos. Locais de homenagem e retorno para visitação, delineados à moda de pequenos jardins dentro de um grande jardim, são muitas vezes cercados e personalizados, de maneira a se constituírem como únicos e identitários de seus mortos. Assim, estes lugares, por suas características e papel evocativo de lembrança, foram denominados pela pesquisa de \"jardins de memória\". Entendendo-se paisagem como uma categoria sensível e ligada a natureza, poder-se-ia estabelecer um diálogo com esta forma de lidar com a morte no Crematório expressa pelos jardins. Assim, procurou-se um embasamento nos estudos da filósofa Adriana Serrão, que muito se apoia em Rosário Assunto, filósofo que entende o sentimento de paisagem ligado a um tempo circular, ligado à natureza, onde a apreensão estética humana, com um sentimento de pertença, seria fundamental. Desta forma, assumindo a existência de um sentido de paisagem no local, buscou-se entender em que medidas este poderia se relacionar com tais expressões nos espaços livres do Crematório, estabelecendo-se um diálogo entre a morte, símbolo da finitude, com a vida, em uma dialética revelada pela paisagem. / In spite of be considered the only animal conscious of his own finitude, being able to reason and elaborate rituals to deal with this reality, the human being, especially from modernity, increasingly deny their mortality. Although the overexposure due to the violence of the urban centers and the media, death, in the current context, it is generally thought as an abstract fact, placed distantly on the other. In this framework, several authors relate this \"death taboo\" with the development of new ways of dealing with the dead. Cremation, relatively recent practice in Western urban areas, was considered as a method that could strengthen this mentality: dispense the tombs and places to honor, being a rational way to deal with the body and its decay after death. Therefore, this research seeks a critique of this view from the attitudes found in the São Paulo Municipal Crematorium. Formed by a building within a garden that resembles a park, its open spaces have the most diverse appropriations, of which draw attention the places established by the mourners for the disposal of their loved ones ashes. Sites for reverence and visit, like little gardens in a big garden, most of them are surrounded and presents individual objects in reference to the dead. Therefore, by reason of this characteristics, this places were named \"memory gardens\". Considering Landscape as a sensitive category and connected to the nature, it can establish a dialogue with the way of dealing with death expressed by the memory gardens. Thus, were studied texts of the philosopher Adriana Serrão, that much is based in philosopher Rosario Assunto: he consider the sense of landscape related to a circular time, connected to the nature, where the human aesthetic apprehension, with a sense of belonging , be essential. Therefore, assuming the existence of a landscape sense on site, it looked for to understand how could to relate this with the memory garden in Crematorium spaces, establishing a dialogue between death and life in a dialectic revealed by the Landscape.

The thesis explores burial practices across all three phases (early, middle and late) of the Anglo-Saxon period (c.450–1066 AD) in Norfolk and the relationship with the identity of the deceased. It is argued that despite the plethora of research that there are few studies that address all three phases and despite acknowledgement that regional variation existed, fewer do so within the context of a single locality. By looking across the whole Anglo-Saxon period, in one locality, this research identified that subtler changes in burial practices were visible. Previous research has tended to separate the cremation and inhumation rites. This research has shown that in Norfolk the use of the two rites may have been related and used to convey aspects of identity and / or social position, from a similar or opposing perspective, possibly relating to a pre-Christian belief system. This thesis stresses the importance of establishing biological identity through osteological analysis and in comparing biological identity with the funerary evidence. Burial practices were related to the biological identity of the deceased across the three periods and within the different site types, but the less common burial practices had the greatest associations with the biological identity of the deceased, presumably to convey social role or status. Whilst the inclusion of grave-goods created the early Anglo-Saxon burial tableau, a later burial tableau was created using the grave and / or the position of the body and an increasing connection between the biological and the social identity of the deceased, noted throughout the Anglo-Saxon period in Norfolk, corresponds with the timeline of the religious transition.

<p>This thesis is aiming to describe and understand the access to and evolvement of necral land (burial and crematory grounds) in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania and one of the most rapid growing cities in Africa. The study is based on field work conducted in Kinondoni District during the spring of 2010. It could partly be described as intensive research, because it is done like a pioneer study, trying to describe and understand a phenomena; not so much trying to find out how widespread the phenomena is. The data was primarily produced through interviews with persons representing different actors. The result from the field study is that even if there are differences in costs and needs for permits to access the land, it seems like there are ways for everyone to bury or cremate a dead body. One common way of manage costs is to collect financial contributions from friends, family and neighbours. The problem however is the evolvement, where centrally located burial grounds are considered full but still used and the cemetery established by the municipality outside the centre is not used by city dwellers, because of the lack of information and the transportation cost.</p>

This thesis is aiming to describe and understand the access to and evolvement of necral land (burial and crematory grounds) in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania and one of the most rapid growing cities in Africa. The study is based on field work conducted in Kinondoni District during the spring of 2010. It could partly be described as intensive research, because it is done like a pioneer study, trying to describe and understand a phenomena; not so much trying to find out how widespread the phenomena is. The data was primarily produced through interviews with persons representing different actors. The result from the field study is that even if there are differences in costs and needs for permits to access the land, it seems like there are ways for everyone to bury or cremate a dead body. One common way of manage costs is to collect financial contributions from friends, family and neighbours. The problem however is the evolvement, where centrally located burial grounds are considered full but still used and the cemetery established by the municipality outside the centre is not used by city dwellers, because of the lack of information and the transportation cost.

With the shift in perspective from temporary to permanent residence in this country, Sikhs are caught in between two polar ends of homeland and diaspora. This thesis attempts to illuminate a third – a universal permanence free of physical barriers. This account describes a movement towards establishing a Sikh homeland that is manifested in the collective Sikh body of the world rather than in the physical land of Punjab. The turban that is the physical identity of the Sikhs in diaspora has also come to represent the rigidities of the culture, which neglect the omnipresent divinity, and sacredness of every place. In its form and content, this thesis is engaged in “unfolding of the turban” to open it to the new worlds it is now a part of, to create a new beginning as a human body unfolds upon death into its five primal elements on the verge of reviviscence. Sikhs worldwide are aware of their need to convert diaspora back into a homeland, to fight against restrictions that hinder the completion of rituals of life and death. The unraveling of the turban into an undulating path allows for a new perspective on permanence for the Sikhs in foreign lands. Unfolded into a form of the meandering river, the turban also represents the eternally flowing waters. The silent sacredness of the water indistinctly exists in Toronto. Behind the towering city, the Don River often flows quietly, leading a life parallel to that of the River Ganges and the River Sutlej. This once pastoral valley that sustained villages and nature is now discarded, in post-industrial despair. Trapped within these modern city confines, the river still secretly retains the power to transfigure souls, but its powers of reviviscence remain unidentified and unused due to restrictive cremation bylaws. This thesis attempts to create for the Sikhs an essential funeral landscape, whose icons may be read through an anamorphic lens of Sikh culture, while providing for all an opportunity to engage the forgotten river, and its energy.

The Iron Age cemetery at Tuna in Badelunda parish, Västmanland, is a complex and unique burial ground used for only 69 graves during a period of roughly 700 years, between 300 - 1050 AC. The individuals buried at Tuna show an impressive variety of gravegods as well as stonesettings formed above the grave. Who where these people that were cremated at Tuna, among the mysterious women in the boats and the rich women in grave X? As we study the graves of the cremated individuals we reach a new understanding of the cemetery; from its social structure down to every individual. Through the analysis of the stonesettings, gravegods and bones we see a how these subjects, when analysed, show a picture of the individuals and social structure of the cemetery. It was a cemetery for the higher society and unique individuals rather then the average people.

With the shift in perspective from temporary to permanent residence in this country, Sikhs are caught in between two polar ends of homeland and diaspora. This thesis attempts to illuminate a third – a universal permanence free of physical barriers. This account describes a movement towards establishing a Sikh homeland that is manifested in the collective Sikh body of the world rather than in the physical land of Punjab. The turban that is the physical identity of the Sikhs in diaspora has also come to represent the rigidities of the culture, which neglect the omnipresent divinity, and sacredness of every place. In its form and content, this thesis is engaged in “unfolding of the turban” to open it to the new worlds it is now a part of, to create a new beginning as a human body unfolds upon death into its five primal elements on the verge of reviviscence. Sikhs worldwide are aware of their need to convert diaspora back into a homeland, to fight against restrictions that hinder the completion of rituals of life and death. The unraveling of the turban into an undulating path allows for a new perspective on permanence for the Sikhs in foreign lands. Unfolded into a form of the meandering river, the turban also represents the eternally flowing waters. The silent sacredness of the water indistinctly exists in Toronto. Behind the towering city, the Don River often flows quietly, leading a life parallel to that of the River Ganges and the River Sutlej. This once pastoral valley that sustained villages and nature is now discarded, in post-industrial despair. Trapped within these modern city confines, the river still secretly retains the power to transfigure souls, but its powers of reviviscence remain unidentified and unused due to restrictive cremation bylaws. This thesis attempts to create for the Sikhs an essential funeral landscape, whose icons may be read through an anamorphic lens of Sikh culture, while providing for all an opportunity to engage the forgotten river, and its energy.