Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes special report study entitled: Geotechture. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes special report study entitled : Geotechture. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

This thesis examines the development of cremation in England, the first Christian country to cremate, rather than bury, the majority of its dead. It offers the first full length account of cremation in England. The thesis first compares the social setting of funerals in simpler and industrial societies. It then examines successive developments in Roman Catholic policy towards cremation and compares contemporary modes of disposal in selected European countries, emphasising the differing role of specific social institutions. The history of cremation in England is traced from 1820, when the social problems of rapid urbanisation challenged the Churches' monopoly in the disposal of the dead. The development of local authority cemeteries after 1850 is presented as a critical point in the secularisation of death. After legalisation in 1884, the acceptance of cremation was slow, only 9% of funerals by 1945. Thereafter, local authorities rapidly and successfully promoted cremation which first outnumbered burial in 1967. The thesis examines the causes of this rapid change. It estimates the effects upon cremation practice of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Contemporary choice between burial and cremation is examined from the perspective of 58 families, bereaved in 1988-9. Fieldwork was conducted in a Fenland village and in an East Midlands city. Disposal decisions are revealed as taken on grounds meaningful in family terms and rarely with a religious referent. The funeral is a critical focus for social and conceptual attitudes to death. In developed societies, the traditional functions of the funeral have been reduced and the social threat of death mitigated, by such factors as greater longevity, the professionalisation of death work, the changing role of the family and the reduced salience of religion. Through its analysis of the replacement of burial by cremation, this thesis offers a further understanding of the relationship between death and social structure. -

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This thesis is a study of nineteenth century forms of grief and mourning, wlth particular reference to the peculiar pressures of writing to the bereaved, and how these were, or were not, overcome. Although the focus is mainly on the letters of condolence and on the poems of Tennyson, and the novels, journalism and letters of condolence of Dickens, use is also made of letters by the following: Thomas Carlyle, Edward FitzGerald, Benjamin Jowett, Cardinal Newman, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Queen Victoria. Letters of condolence to Henry Hallam after the death of his son, Arthur, (given in appendix from unpublished originals in Christ Church College Library, Oxford), and also letters of condolence to George Eliot, are also studied. Twentieth century psychological studies of bereavement by Freud (Mourning and Melancholia [1917]), Eric Lindemann (Symptomology of Grief, [1944]) Geoffrey Gorer (Death and Bereavement in Contemporary Britain [1965]), and by Colin Murray Parkes (Bereavement; studies of grief in adult life [1986]), serve to identify common and universal features of the processes of grief and mourning. Correspondence about Arthur Hallam's life and death, and about the exhumation of Rossetti's poems, show how the language with which death and grief is treated in letters, is fraught with difficulties. This thesis establishes a link between the language of fiction, poetry and letters, and between the conventions of expressing sympathetic grief in the form of condolences, and Victorian conventions of funerals and mourning, as found in fiction, letters, art criticism, Dickens' journalism, a publication for undertakers, and in the monuments at Highgate Cemetery. Delineating the fears which faced a condoler, reveals the common awareness that words of comfort can seem useless and empty. It is also seen that in the Victorian age, the conventions of grief and mourning were felt to have separated from the sentiment within. This felt inadequacy had serious implicatlons for the writer of a letter of condolence. This thesis identifies the feeling which many condolers shared: that words of comfort seemed merely comnonplace and formalised, and were therefore unable to convey sincerity, or to mark particularity. That writing cannot fully record the modulations of a voice, or convey action, presents a writer of a letter of condolence with a further difficulty. Words already felt to be commonpLace or conventional, might seem dead on the page, without voice or gesture. This thesis delineates the conventions and conmonplaces of funerals, of mourning, and of letters of condolence, as a problem which is ever-renewed. Close readings of Tennyson's letters of condolence and of 'In Memoriam' are provided, in order to establish how, in particular contrast to Dickens, Tennyson was able to resurrect such comnonplaces. A study of 'Our Mutual Friend' and of Dickens' letters of condolence shows how, Dickens seeks to deny the anguish of grief. Whereas Dickens is confident and certain about his power to condole and about hls views of an after-life, Tennyson is hesitant and reticent. Whereas Dickens seeks to rouse and be heartfelt, Tennyson is cautious.

The political situation in South Africa since the turn of the 20th century was dominated by two main rivalries: the antagonism between the Afrikaners and the British for the power to rule South Africa, and secondly, the rivalry between the Blacks and the minority White (Afrikaner) Government for the oppressive laws embodied in the policy of apartheid. The situation led to an extent where funerals of both Afrikaners and those of the Blacks were politicised against their respective oppressors. As a concerned citizen and student of History, the researcher set out to critically examine the impact of politicising funerals. The result is this mini-thesis, which is an attempt to understand how politics infiltrated into funerals and how politicising funerals affected political structures as well as close family members. The practice of politicising funerals was noticed in the first quarter of the 20th century amongst funerals of Afrikaner leaders. The anti–British sentiments prevailing at the time were implicitly and explicitly expressed in their funerals. However, as the years progressed, the level of politicising funerals lost spark as they became more religious affairs. While the level of the politicisation of funerals for members of the White community reflects a downward slant, the opposite was the case for the Black community. Politicising funerals in the Black community started on a moderate note and gained momentum and intensity as years progressed. The catalysts to gaining intensity were the 1960 Sharpeville massacres, the 1976 Soweto uprising, the establishment of the UDF in 1983 and the so-called ‘black on black’ violence immediately after the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990. The impact of the Soweto uprising became more conspicuous during Robert Sobukwe’s funeral. Helen Suzman and Benjamin Pogrund, being Whites, were removed from the funeral program while Mangosuthu Buthelezi was chased from the funeral itself. This funeral highlights very well the level of politicisation of funerals during the 1970s. The decade 1980 –1990 witnessed a more aggressive and militant manner of politicising funerals. During that decade, funerals were so popularised that they ‘assumed’ the status of political rallies. The new approach in running funerals was not ended with the release of Mandela in 1990, since there were increasing numbers of funerals of victims of the alleged ‘black on black’ violence. One however welcomes the sombre and respectful manner in which the funerals of Oliver Tambo and Andries Treurnicht were held. The researcher holds the opinion that this should be a trend to follow in future. Politicising funerals dominated the 20th century and in the process affected family members negatively, because they were reduced to passive onlookers. / Dissertation (MA (History))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Historical and Heritage Studies / unrestricted

Current cemetery practices can be harmful to public health and local ecologies and be intensive users of resources such as water and energy. However, given their spiritual benefits to mourners and community members, I believe that cemeteries are still justified in their construction for societies that wish to have a relationship with their dead. With a growing and aging population, more spaces will be used to house the dead; I examined how these could spaces benefit the living as well. Cemeteries can be designed within natural systems, both in landscaping and in burial, as well as spaces for communities and explorations of new forms of art and architecture. Using research and my own experiences, I identified and analyzed exemplary cemeteries that benefit their contexts ecologically, socially, and artistically and architecturally. Ultimately, this paper exists as a guide for the development or retrofitting of cemeteries into active, lively spaces.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

This thesis documents mourners’ experiences of funerals in contemporary Britain, and considers the implications of these for an understanding of funerals’ social significance. It represents the first time that experiences of these people, who attend funerals but do not contribute to their planning, have been taken into account in an analysis of funerals in contemporary Britain. The data on which the thesis draws have been generated in collaboration with the Mass-Observation Project, a long-running, large-scale qualitative writing project based at the University of Sussex. Participants in the project are self-identified ‘ordinary people’ who were asked to write in detail about the most recent funeral they had been to, as well as the best and worst they had ever attended. These data were analysed thematically. The thesis argues that the three previously identified ‘authorities’ over death and dying of religion/tradition, professional/expert, and individual/self do not fully account for mourners’ experiences of funerals. By examining the ‘doing’ and ‘displaying’ of family at funerals, the thesis demonstrates that for mourners, the family constitutes a further authority over the funeral. Among other themes, the significance of speakers at the funeral and of mourners’ own authenticity are drawn on to then argue that Davies’ theorisation of funerals as ‘words against death’ needs to take account not only of what is done at funerals but who does it; that funerals are also ‘people and their relationships against death’.

The absense or presence of death in the public discourse has been on the death studies agenda for a long time. Although the tone of this debate was once set by writers who bemoaned the hidden nature of contemporary death and the un-healthy, dishonest modern death ways, recent research has focused on death’s re-emergence into public discourse, not least via mass and social media. This study aims to contribute to the debate by mapping teenagers’ perceptions of death and the process by which they arrive at them. Furthermore, this study looks into religion’s role in this process. This is a relevant aspect considering that the Church of Sweden is still responsible for funeral organization, despite the 2000 church/state split. This mixed methods study combines data from a survey of three upper sec-ondary schools in three different Swedish cities with data from semi-structured interviews with students from each of the three schools. Socialization theory (more specifically death socialization) and unpacked religion are used to analyse what shapes the teenagers’ perceptions of death. The author concludes that alt-hough the teenagers are well aware of the presence of death in media, this pres-ence does not shape the way they think about death. Death socialization instead takes place in the primary group and only in connection to primary group deaths. The religious funeral remains important to the teenagers, but it is disconnected from their personal beliefs and primarily important as a tradition.