engleski

Death, bodies, funerals and bereavement in times of COVID-19 pandemic

Short abstract: Epidemics and pandemics as global crises transform social life and challenge people to confront difficult choices. Preventive and protective measures used in pandemics and epidemics to reduce the spread of the disease significantly influence everyday life. COVID-19 emerged in December 2019 and one of the most distressing aspects of the pandemic is enforceable physical distancing from dying people, whether at home or in institutions. This includes guidelines regarding handling bodies, organizing funerals, and burials affected dying, death, and mourning. Geography, social inequity, ethnicity, and religion shape the way people reconcile their obligations to the dead with the constraints placed on them. Therefore, there were numerous and significant challenges in the process of death, dealing with death and bereavement during epidemics and pandemics. Long abstract: Epidemics and pandemics as global crises, transform social life and challenge people to confront difficult choices. COVID-19 emerged in December 2019. Due to its rapid spread to many countries around the world, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on March 11 2020. One year later, in 2021, the pandemic is still here, and despite the discovery of the vaccine, is not abating. Since COVID-19 is highly contagious, countries have implemented public health measures to limit contact with infectious individuals and to reduce the spread of the disease. One of the most distressing aspects of the pandemic is enforceable physical distancing from dying people, whether at home or in institutions. Guidelines regarding handling bodies, organizing funerals, and burials affected dying, death, and mourning. Regardless of country or culture, the ritual of holding a funeral for the deceased has been changed and in some countries, the option to hold a funeral has been revoked. Lockdowns and restrictions, that prohibited larger gatherings and proposed social distancing, altered the way that people grieve, commemorate, and remember their dead. Geography, social inequity, ethnicity, and religion shape the way people reconcile their obligations to the dead with the constraints placed on them. Mourners responded differently, some adapted to the new rules by modifying the grieving process and inventing new practices (creating new rituals, innovative solutions, and alternative forms of memorialization), while others tried to resist or found forms of opposition to changed funeral practices and subversion of given regulations. The lack of known rituals, traditions, and grieving practices caused feelings of insecurity and even guilt among the bereaved. The panel we propose seeks to create a platform for sharing results of interdisciplinary research on the impact of 21st- century epidemics on dying and death practices in different regions of the world. The panel welcomes research that highlights the practices and innovative coping strategies developed during epidemics and pandemics.

death ; funerals ; bodies ; COVID-19 ; pandemics

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