Spaces of Death, Places of Memory
Do you think that people also have death-styles just as life-styles? I think yes, death too, has a space in the environment and it has been diversified depending on the embedded believe regarding the afterlife. Memory and hope are common in all approaches yet their forms of manifestation are diversified. In this text, I will try to summarize three approaches of death from “A brief history of death” written by Douglas J.Davies published by Blackwell in 2005.
Location 1: Graveyard and Cemetery
Hope 1: Eternal, Eschatological Forms of Identity
Traditionally, in villages, cities or towns, some areas are arranged for the dead people to allow them to rest in peace. These places inevitably reflect the religious beliefs of the region. Some religions promise an eternal life after death. In this case, hope is closely related to eschatological fulfilment. In other words, burial is the embodiment of the hope that a dead person will be resurrected one day. Several nations which suffered millions of casualties in the First and Second World Wars, has experienced this and built the great big cemeteries as the memorial sites for remembering. Their gravestones also visually express their detailed and ostentatious status. With these places and commemoration rituals, there seems an act of carrying a sign from the past to the future with the present generation.
Location 2. Cremation and Remains
Hope 2. Internal, the Retrospective Fulfilment of Identity
As it is all known, in the cremation process ashes can be collected and buried in a coffin in a church or a memorial monument. Columbariums are the spaces where has specifically been designed for the cremation process in which some have niches to put coffins of the ashes. In the past, ashes were also exhibited by no privacy concern however, now their privacy is also at the agenda. Not always but often, Cremation takes place in quasi-church areas as having some traces from church designs.
Over time, Crematoria has changed its church-like appearance to simpler designed, free from the visual images of all religions. According to this understanding, there is no doubt that there is a change in the belief in the world beyond. In this action, hope has been replaced by memory, which means that the ashes of the dead can be stored for centuries for years anywhere.
But, now the dynamics of memorial sites shift; they no longer benefit from this public frame of significance. Private, personal, even idiosyncratic factors replace established cultural ideas. This suggests that ‘hope’, too, shifts in significance. Fond memory replaces hope. Ashes are not deposited in sure and certain hope of the resurrection but in deep memory and engagement with the past. [ p.122]
Crematorium books become a large collection over time as they are full of written ideas and thoughts from the people coming to visit. Families can copy these texts, take them home and increase the recall process.
Location 3: Woodland Burial
Hope 3. Natural, the Ecological Fulfillment of Identity
This section includes people who do not want to be in graveyards or cemetery, yet only want to be buried in nature. In this context, coffin and even funeral directions vary. In search of natural funerals, new shaped containers and coffins are usually made in the form of shrouds for the body, to let organic material deteriorate more quickly and make them turn back to nature speedy. The issue even goes further by Ecologist pagan named Edward Abbey. He identifies authentic death as being eatable by others. This understanding, unlike the previous ones, centralize natural and ecological fulfilment of Identity. In this understanding, the body is not seen as a representation of Adam and Eve. On the contrary, after falling into this world, man is obliged to be the protector and maintainer of this world.
As a result, it is clear that people’s life-style influences death-style. What lies behind all of these is the hope and memory in different forms. One way or another, people are closely related to death. For some, memories are out there, while for others, they are completely internal.
