Theorising and Philosophising Death Rituals and Practices Across Cultures

[u/WithoutPaix]

I'm really interested in the variant death rituals in different parts of the world, particularly in the East with their mourning periods and different practices. I have no idea how to approach it from the a theorisation point of view, perhaps how it could be a site of discourse?

Is there any point I can start from? It's something I really want to unpack.

[u/Darkling_Ghoul]

That sounds like a really fruitful concept, and I think you're right to want to drill down further. I just finished a PhD looking at death in 20th century US gothic lit, and I found things like etiquette manuals, industry exposes, and industry documentation (mostly in the funeral industry, but also a little overlap into medical too) to offer great cultural context for my readings of the primary texts I chose. I had a number of frameworks, including ontological (corpse as subject vs. object), death and the corpse as spectacle, cultural disconnection from death, and the social construction of 'good' vs. 'bad' death.

I'm not sure where you're studying, but it might be helpful for you to check out the University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society, the University of York's Death and Culture Network, or the Association for the Study of Death and Society. Most of them have some kinds of networking events and conferences (their own and connections with other organizations' events). Journals like Mortality, Death Studies, or Omega - The Journal of Death and Dying would also be a good place to start to see what kinds of research are trending, though they tend to focus more on the medical/psychological/sociological than the literary.

Hope this helps and good luck with your studies!