Deathscapes, erasures and posthumous identities: a comparison of cemeteries in Denmark and Cyprus.

This is a study of deathscapes at the margins of Europe, Denmark and Cyprus, focusing on cemeteries in the respective capitals of those two countries. By employing comparison and situating the emergence of cemeteries within the two societies' different socio-historical trajectories, we challenge key...

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Published in:Mortality Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 37 - 53
Main Authors: Papadakis, Yiannis, Willert, Trine Stauning
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Feb2024
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        10.1080/13576275.2022.2101095
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        atl: Deathscapes, erasures and posthumous identities: a comparison of cemeteries in Denmark and Cyprus.
      aug:
        au:
          Papadakis, Yiannis
          Willert, Trine Stauning
        affil:
          Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
          Independent Researcher
      su:
        Denmark
        Islands of the Mediterranean
        Death & psychology
        Sociology
        Practical politics
        Public spaces
        Interment
        Religion
        Comparative studies
        Real property
      sug:
        subj:
          Death & psychology
          Sociology
          Practical politics
          Public spaces
          Interment
          Religion
          Denmark
          Islands of the Mediterranean
          Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers
          Lessors of Other Real Estate Property
          Comparative studies
          Real property
      keyword:
        Capitalism
        cemetery
        Cyprus
        religion
        social democracy
        Capitalism
        cemetery
        Cyprus
        religion
        social democracy
      ab: This is a study of deathscapes at the margins of Europe, Denmark and Cyprus, focusing on cemeteries in the respective capitals of those two countries. By employing comparison and situating the emergence of cemeteries within the two societies' different socio-historical trajectories, we challenge key assumptions on cemeteries put forth by historians and sociologists related to cemeteries' inexorable secularisation and the democratic prerogative of everyone, not just the elites, to their posthumous presence as named individuals. Specifically, we show how in Denmark's case the predominance of social democracy entailed a preference for erasure in communal, anonymous graves rather than the posthumous presence of all as named individuals. In Cyprus instead, the rise of an 'ethnarchic' religious-orientated state hindered the secularisation of cemeteries. Moreover, the symbolic focus of graves in Cyprus has not been on the atomised individual subject but on the family. These dynamics have given rise to different challenges: emptying out in Copenhagen's cemeteries and overcrowding and expansion in Nicosia. Consequently, cemeteries have also come to be conceptualised in different ways: as sites of real estate in Cyprus and as public spaces in Denmark.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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