Abstract
Funerals have long been of interest to social scientists. Previous sociological work has examined the relationship between individuality, belief and tradition within funeral services, founded on the assumption that public rituals have psycho-social benefit for organisers and attendees. With the introduction of direct cremation to the UK, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on funeral service attendance in 2020 and 2021, critique of this assumption is now needed. Drawing on interviews with recently bereaved people who organised a direct cremation in late 2017, this article illustrates how compromise, control and consistency are key drivers for not having a funeral service. The article argues that a declining importance in the fate of the body and a move towards ‘invite-only’ commemorative events represents a waning need for social support offered by a public, communal funeral service. In turn, this indicates a sequestration, or privatisation, of the contemporary funeral.
Highlights
Funerals and their purpose have long been of interest to social scientists
Since the participants who had chosen a direct cremation were geographically spread across the UK, for ease of administration and due to limited financial budgets for travel, those who organised a direct cremation were matched geographically with interviewees who had arranged a ‘traditional cremation’, which for the purpose of this study was defined as a cremation with a funeral service on the same day
Lesley’s deceased father had already bought a pre-paid funeral plan to finance his whole-body burial in the family grave. After his death it was discovered that there was not enough space in the grave and, after discussion with her siblings, Lesley decided to cremate his body and have his ashes buried in the family grave instead. She and her siblings had assumed their father would have a funeral service at the time of the burial, but as a burial was no longer possible none wanted to attend the cremation nor organise a service at the crematorium
Summary
Funerals and their purpose have long been of interest to social scientists. Numerous theorists have attempted to explain their socio-cultural function, with most concluding that as a public ritual funeral services provide social support and psycho-social benefit to organisers and attendees (see Hoy, 2020). Sociologist Caswell (2011) has examined how personalisation has been, and can be, accommodated within ‘traditional’ Scottish funeral rituals Through their rich ethnographic study of funerals, Holloway et al (2013) have further argued that a ‘good funeral’ incorporates religious and non-religious belief, with consistency between belief and ritual choice(s) critical to the perceived success of the service. Common to these works has been the assumption that there is therapeutic value pertaining to the public and communal nature of the contemporary funeral service (Mitima-Verloop et al, 2019)
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