Attachment Forever: Environmental and Social Dimensions, Temporal Perspective, and Choice of One’s Last Resting Place

Abstract

Today, people are highly mobile and identify themselves with various places. Mobility affects the decisions that a person makes about his or her final resting place and how his or her remains will be disposed. A semistructured, face-to-face interview is conducted with residents of Paris and Madrid. Data analyses consist of content analysis and correspondence analysis. The choice of corpse disposal method is related to one’s religious affiliation and the spouse’s decision for his or her own disposal method. The choice of final resting place is related to mobility, degree of attachment to the actual place of residence and to one’s birthplace, and parents’ decision for their final resting place. Younger and more mobile people prefer cremation as a burial procedure. Future research should consider how place identity and place appropriation contribute to one’s choice of a final resting place.