Special Issue CONNECTIVE HISTORIES of DEATH
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THANATOS v o l . 9 2 / 2 0 2 0 Special Issue CONNECTIVE HISTORIES OF DEATH THANATOS v o l . 9 2 / 2 0 20 Special Issue: CONNECTIVE HISTORIES OF DEATH Suomalaisen Kuolemantutkimuksen Seura Ry:n hallitus 2020–21 / The Finnish Death Studies Association (FDSA) was Finnish Death Studies Association Executive Board 2020–21 founded in March 28, 2011 by scholars interested in the field of thanatological research. The aim was Puheenjohtaja / Chair to create an organization that could facilitate an Ilona Pajari, docent of social history, VTT, University of Jyväskylä interdisciplinary public dialogue about death and ([email protected]) dying in the Finnish society. The purpose of the association is to advance Finnish death studies and Varapuheenjohtaja/ Vice-Chair professional education, to create synergy between Karoliina Käpylehto, TM, doctoral student, Education, University of Helsinki ([email protected]) Finnish and international professionals and researchers, and last but not least, to promote Sihteeri / Secretary discussion about researching, studying and working Elisa Morgan, TK, Theology, University of Helsinki in the field of death and bereavement research. ([email protected]) The FDSA hosts a website and an open access Taloudenhoitaja / Treasurer online journal through which the association offers Anna Huhtala, FM, doctoral student, History, Tampere information about future events both in Finland and University ([email protected]) abroad, and publishes research articles, book reviews, research reports and other texts concerning Tiedotusvastaava / Communications the vast and colourful field of death studies. To find Heikki Rosenholm, FM, doctoral student, Cultural Production out more about the FDSA and to join, please visit and Landscape Studies, University of Turku ([email protected]) our website: www.kuolemantutkimus.com. Hallituksen jäsen / Board member *** Kaarina Koski, FT, docent of folkloristics, University of Turku Thanatos is a biannual open access multi- ([email protected]) disciplinary peer-reviewed online journal published by the Finnish Death Studies Association (FDSA). Hallituksen varajäsenet / Deputy Board members Thanatos consists of research articles, research Inka Laisi, VTK, Sociology, University of Helsinki ([email protected]) reports, book reviews, columns, and seminar Anja Terkamo-Moisio, TtT, Nursing Science, University of reports. The primary publication language is Eastern Finland ([email protected]) Finnish, but we accept manuscripts also in Swedish and English. Thanatos does not charge any Thanatos toimituskunta/ Thanatos Editorial Board publication fees, but all proofreading costs are the responsibility of the author(s). Vastaavat päätoimittajat / Editors-in-chief Thanatos follows the guidelines of the Finnish Ilona Pajari ([email protected]) Anna Ilona Rajala ([email protected]) Association of Scholarly Publishing and the Advisory Board on Research Integrity (TENK) and Päätoimittajat / Editors-in-chief vol. 9 2/2020 has been granted the right to use the label for peer- Samira Saramo & Marta-Laura Cenedese reviewed scholarly publications by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV). Each research Toimituskunta / Editorial board article marked with the peer-review label goes Anna Liisa Aho ([email protected]) through a review process in which at least two Maija Butters ([email protected]) Anna Huhtala ([email protected]) external and independent experts evaluate the Kirsi Kanerva ([email protected]) rigour and contribution of the article. Thanatos Kaarina Koski ([email protected]) aspires to advance dialogue between scholars and Saila Leskinen ([email protected]) professionals, and to broaden discussions about Timo Uotinen ([email protected]) death, dying and bereavement that cross traditional Kannen kuva / Taitto / Layout scientific boundaries. Thanatos welcomes all ideas Cover image based on Timo Uotinen for publications and for future special issues. For poster by Malla Lehtonen contact details and access to all previous Thanatos www.thanatos-journal.com © Suomalaisen Kuolemantutkimuksen Seura Ry. issues, please visit www.thanatos-journal.com. ISSN 2242-6280 THANATOS v o l . 9 2 / 2 0 20 Special Issue: CONNECTIVE HISTORIES OF DEATH C o n t e n t s : Introduction Samira Saramo & Marta-Laura Cenedese Connective Histories of Death………..…………………………………………………..………… .3 Articles Povilas Dikavičius Somber Celebrations: Funeral Processions and Civic Community in 17th century Vilnius……………………16 Arnar Árnason & Sigurjón Baldur Hafsteinsson A Funeral for a Glacier: Mourning the More-than-human on the Edges of Modernity………….…………………46 Gian Luca Amadei A New Urban Modernity? George Bernard Shaw’s Written Recollection of His Mother’s Cremation............72 David Harrap & Emily Collins Spiritual Care and the Artes Moriendi…………………………………………………………..100 Jacqueline Holler Hope, Fear, Sorrow, and Rage: The Emotions of Death and Dying and the Ars Moriendi in Early Colonial New Spain………………………………………………………….128 Poem Immanuel Mifsud Excerpts from Daqsxejn ta’ Requiem lil Leli / A Modest Requiem for Leli ………155 Connective Histories of Death has been made possible by support from the Academy of Finland (Grant 308314), Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, and Kone Foundation. THANATOS vol. 9 2/2020 © Suomalaisen Kuolemantutkimuksen Seura https://thanatosjournal.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/saramo_cenedese_introduction.pdf INTRODUCTION Connective Histories of Death Samira Saramo Migration Institute of Finland Marta-Laura Cenedese Turku Institute for Advanced Studies Death connects. Its inevitable yet unknowable nature has intrigued and compelled people across time and place. A confrontation with death—be it the loss of a loved one or our own mortality—is a certainty that awaits us all. The presence of death has recently, again, connected people worldwide in new ways, as we face the growing global death toll caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being the “great common denominator,” death can be hard to pin down. While the feelings and actions evoked by death vastly vary, being shaped by intersectional factors ranging from the intimate to the structural, death, nonetheless, induces feeling and action. While death can be destructive, its impact can also clearly be seen in the ways it has motivated the constructive. Death creates and re/shapes meanings, relationships, spaces, and practices. The articles in this special issue have evolved out of presentations at the February 2020 “Histories of Death” International Symposium held at the University of Turku. The idea for this publication, much like for the symposium, was to see what types of connections, overlaps, and disparities may arise when historical studies of death across places and centuries are considered together. Rather than framing this collection as a work of comparative history, we see this as the forging of a connective history. Following the conceptualization of Marianne Hirsch, this issue takes “different starting and WWW.THANATOS-JOURNAL.COM ISSN 2242-6280 3(161) THANATOS vol. 9 2/2020 © Suomalaisen Kuolemantutkimuksen Seura reference points” but “aims to think divergent histories alongside and in connection with each other” (Hirsch 2012, 21). The potential of such an approach is great, as “connective reading…moves between global and intimate concerns by attending precisely to the intimate details, the connective tissues and membranes, that animate each case even while enabling the discovery of shared motivations and tropes” (Hirsch 2012, 206). By bringing together these articles, we aim to make connections between some of the many feelings, places, and experiences that intersect death. In recent years, we have seen an exciting expansion of death and grief focussed dialogue, publication, and programming that has connected academic death studies, death care professionals, and the public in new, meaningful ways. These articles and the preceding “Histories of Death” symposium, as part of Samira Saramo’s Academy of Finland funded postdoctoral project “Death and Mourning in ‘Finnish North America’,” are a response and offering to these developments, to consider more fully the historical trajectories that have led us to this point. At the symposium, each panel was concluded with a paper that brought the theme to the present day. Such an approach successfully facilitated discussion about change and continuity, and made connections between participants’ historical research and lived experiences. This special issue, likewise, offers such bridges to readers. Our understandings of death come with long and complex histories, shaped by culture, place, time, power, and identities. By explicitly connecting the study of histories of death with the rich, interdisciplinary field of death studies, we further our understanding of how meanings of the “good death” are continuously constructed, negotiated, and contested, and the ways intersectional social factors—class, migrant background, religion, sexuality, gender, and even non/humanness, among others—shape access to mourning and “dying well.” By bringing together research with rather different starting points, the articles collectively encourage us to see the connective histories of death. The following explorations and analyses reveal varied and interwoven traditions, ideologies, and institutions that have shaped our experiences. They initiate a dialogue about the different ways people have approached dying, death, and mourning from personal,