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Spálit a hotovo? " Pohřeb bez obřadu" očima pozůstalých / Burn it and that's it? "Funeral without a ceremony" from the survivors' perspective

In the past couple of years, Czech press has repeatedly reported on the ascending number of funerals without any ceremony. Among the interpretations of the approximately 30% share of this kind of funeral were high level of secularization, disintegration of social bonds and the modern denial of death. The present thesis offers a change of perspectives and focuses the analysis of the phenomenon "funeral without a ceremony" on the acteur perspective. Based on the analysis of ten semi-structured interviews, the author 1) indentifies the motivations, attitudes and situational factors that build up the respondent's legitimations of the decision for a funeral without a ceremony; and 2) systematically analyses and interprets the ritual practices and symbolic action (ritualizations), which the respondents report in relation with the death of a close one. A detailed analysis of the respondents narratives shows, that a funeral without a ceremony organized by a certified undertaker does not necessarily mean that the death is devoid of ritual, framing it in a way meaningful to the respondents. In a final remark, the author discusses the application of Tony Walter's ideal types of approach to death (Walter 1996) and concludes that while current death and funerary practice in the Czech Republic appears to...

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:313990
Date January 2012
CreatorsGajdoš, Adam
ContributorsSpalová, Barbora, Grygar, Jakub
Source SetsCzech ETDs
LanguageSlovak
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess

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