Ritual Worlding:Exploring the Self-and-world-making Efficacy of Rituals

Despite extensive research on the functions and meanings of ritual, the question of ritual efficacy remains a topic of debate. This paper explores how the concept of worlding can contribute to the study of ritual efficacy. Based on theoretical literature and qualitative research into cremation and perinatal loss, it proposes that rituals can be understood as worlding practices characterized by an entanglement of virtuality and actuality. In rituals, individuals frame a subjunctive time-space, playfully speculating with multiple experiential realities (what could be) while being anchored in the present (what is). The paper demonstrates that this intricate entanglement is key to the self-and-world-making quality of rituals and is crucial to understanding their efficacy. Furthermore, it shows that the value of the concept of worlding lies in its emphasis on embodied experiences, the active nature of our being in the world, and the recognition of power dynamics. Ritual worlding enables individuals to navigate the ambiguities that accompany life and death

Ritual Worlding. Exploring the Self-and-world-making Efficacy of Rituals

Despite extensive research on the functions and meanings of ritual, the question of ritual efficacy remains a topic of debate. This paper explores how the concept of worlding can contribute to the study of ritual efficacy. Based on theoretical literature and qualitative research into cremation and perinatal loss, it proposes that rituals can be understood as worlding practices characterized by an entanglement of virtuality and actuality. In rituals, individuals frame a subjunctive time-space, playfully speculating with multiple experiential realities (what could be) while being anchored in the present (what is). The paper demonstrates that this intricate entanglement is key to the self-and-world-making quality of rituals and is crucial to understanding their efficacy. Furthermore, it shows that the value of the concept of worlding lies in its emphasis on embodied experiences, the active nature of our being in the world, and the recognition of power dynamics. Ritual worlding enables individuals to navigate the ambiguities that accompany life and death

Advies toelaatbaarheid nieuwe vormen van lijkbezorging

In de Wet op de lijkbezorging is vastgelegd datde lichamen van onze doden een goede bestemmingmoeten krijgen. Toegestaan zijn begraven,cremeren, doneren aan de wetenschap, en inuitzonderlijke gevallen een zeemansgraf.Er dienen zich echter nieuwe technieken aan.Alkalische hydrolyse, waarbij lichamen wordenopgelost in een verwarmde vloeistof, is er daareen van. Gezien deze ontwikkelingen heeftde minister van Binnenlandse Zaken enKoninkrijksrelaties de Gezondheidsraadverzocht een beoordelingskader op te stellenvoor de toelaatbaarheid van nieuwe vormenvan lijkbezorging

Remembering, forgetting and (dis)enfranchised grief in everyday settings in English and Welsh towns: migrants’ and minorities’ translocal and local memories associated with funerary spaces and practices

In this paper we explore migrants' and minorities' memories and memory-making associated with death, funerary and remembrance practices, with particular attention to how this intersects with experiences of migration and/or being part of a cultural or religious minority. The paper examines different spaces including bodies, homes, translocal networks, cemeteries and crematoria, centred on insights from focus groups, biographical and key participant interviews in four medium sized multicultural towns in England and Wales. These case studies afford an exploration of the complex and dynamic ‘ecologies’ of migrant and minority memories and sense of citizenship in relation to death, bereavement and remembrance spaces and practices. Participant accounts highlight memories of past practices, (post)colonial marginalization, disenfranchisement, changes in practices, the strains of transnational grieving, pragmatic compromises and collaborating to improve funerary provision as endeavours of everyday citizenship. These are explored through two broad interlinked themes: firstly, translocal memories of past and evolving funerary and remembrance spaces, customs and practices; and secondly, relationality and autonomy through the choice of where to situate the dead, and implications for associated future memory-making