The Secularisation of Ritual: Funerals and Burials

Abstract

In Britain, about 600 000 people die each year, which means that this number of bodies must be disposed of. In virtually all societies, the irreducibly physical and unpleasant business of disposal is conducted according to rituals deriving from religious beliefs about the eternal destination of the departed — the two cannot but be linked. In this and the next chapter I will describe how modern Western nations dispose of their dead — typically by cremation in a high-tech crematorium, or burial in a commercially or municipally owned cemetery. The reasons for modern methods of burial and cremation and associated funeral rites have partly to do with the body — urbanisation has greatly increased the number of bodies to be disposed of in very confined areas, rendering traditional modes of burial unacceptable. And there are reasons to do with the soul — religious changes in Europe, including secularisation, have radically altered attitudes to the dead. Today, even though a priest is likely to officiate at the funeral, the actual business of disposing of the body and many of the rituals surrounding this have passed into secular hands. This means that people today dispose of their dead within a substantially secular frame, and I will conclude the chapter by asking in what ways this is likely to affect their beliefs about life after death.

When the journey to the after-life contains no risks for the dead, there need be no particular care about their dispatch, packaging or travel insurance.

(Jupp, 1993, p. 71)