Thanatos Vol3 1:2014 Death and Internet
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lorem ipsum dolor 7. heinäkuuta 2014 THANATOS vol. 3 1/2014 THEME ISSUE Death, mourning and the internet: death cultures in web environments Editorial Board Editorial board members Ilona Pajari Maija Butters Anna Ilona Rajala Editor-in-chief Kirsi Kanerva Johanna Sumiala Anna Haverinen Kaarina Koski Layout & cover Saila Leskinen Anna Haverinen FINNISH DEATH STUDIES ASSOCIATION SPRING 2014 Contents Editorial: Haverinen, Anna: Editorial – the digitalisation of death culture(s). p. 5–8. Articles: Giaxoglou, Korina: “R.I.P. man…u are missed and loved by many”: entextualising moments of mourning on a Facebook Rest In Peace group site. p. 10–28. Heathcote, Anthony: A grief that cannot be shared: Continuing relationships with aborted fetuses in contemporary Vietnam. p. 29–45. Waagstein, Astrid: An exploratory study of digital legacy among death aware people. p. 46–67. Research reports: Faro, Laurie M.C.: Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands and the Jewish Monument Community: commemoration and meaning. p. 69–81. Georges, Fanny: Post mortem digital identities and new memorial uses of Facebook: Analysing the memorial page creators’ identity. p. 82–93. Shavit, Vered (Rose) & Tzezana, Roey: Online Legacies: Online Service Providers and the Public – a Clear Gap. p. 94–110. Reviews: Gotved, Stine: Research Review: Death Online - Alive and Kicking! p.112–126. Gray: The Memory Remains: Visible Presences within the Network. p. 127–140. Huttunen, Laura: Srebrenica burial ceremonies on YouTube: Remembering the dead and the missing in a contested political situation. p.141–148. Kruzan, Kaylee P.: New Media Use in Mitigating Existential Fear. p.149–160. Mukherjee, Ishani & Griffith Williams, Maggie: Death and Digi-memorials: Perimortem and Postmortem Memory Sharing through Transitional Social Networking. p.161–172. Book reviews: Haverinen, Anna: Tieteen kääntämisen sietämätön ihanuus. p.174–178. Pajari, Ilona: Vanhaa suomenruotsalaista kuolemankulttuuria. p.179–180. FINNISH DEATH STUDIES ASSOCIATION SPRING 2014 Finnish Death Studies Association The Finnish Death Studies Association (FDSA) was founded March 28th 2011 in Helsinki by scholars interested in the field of thanatological research. The aim was to create an organization that could create a more public interdisciplinary dialogue about death and dying in Finnish society. The purpose of the association is also to advance the domestic death studies and professional education, create synergy between Finnish and international professionals and researchers, and last but not least, to promote discussion about researching, studying and working in the field of death and bereavement research. With the website (www.kuolemantutkimus.com) and open access online journal (www.thanatos.-journal.com) the association wishes to provide information about future events both in Finland and abroad, publish articles, book reviews, research reports and other texts concerning the vast and colorful field of death. More about membership from our website. Thanatos is a peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary and a scientific web-journal published by the Finnish Death Studies Association. We publish twice a year a journal that consists of articles, short and long research reports, book reviews, columns and seminar reports. The primary publication language is Finnish, but we do accept manuscripts in English and Swedish as well, however, the costs of proofreading are the responsibility of the author. The journal is peer-reviewed, which means we use fellow scholars in determing the potentiality of the manuscript for publication. Thanatos aspires to advance dialogue between interdisciplinary scholars and professionals working in the field of death and dying. The association welcomes all ideas for publications and for future theme issues. We are aiming for more broader discussions over the traditional scientific boundaries and to enhance a more holistic way of dealing subjects such as hospice care, suicide, bereavement, materiality around death and dying, aging, (im)mortality and so forth. Join us: www.kuolemantutkimus.com. Board 2014-2015 Ilona Pajari, historian, Dr. of Social Sciences, Department of History and ethnology, Chairwoman University of Jyväskylä. (ilona.pajari(a)jyu.fi) Jussi Jalonen, Dr. of Philosophy, military historian, School of Social Sciences and Vice-chairman Humanities, University of Tampere. (jussi.jalonen(a)uta.fi) Anna Liisa Aho, Dr. of Health Sciences, Adjunct Professor, School of Health Sciences, Secretary University of Tampere . (anna.l.aho(a)uta.fi) Anna Haverinen, M.Phil., PhD student, Digital Culture, University of Turku. Financial manager (anna.haverinen(a)utu.fi) Kirsi Kanerva, MA, PhD student, Cultural History, University of Turku. Members of the Board (kirsi.kanerva(a)utu.fi) Riikka Miettinen, M.Phil., PhD student, University of Tampere. (riikka.miettinen(a)uta.fi) Vice Members of the Board Mikko Kallionsivu, Dr. of Philosophy, literature, University of Tampere (mikko.kallionsivu(a)uta.fi) www.thanatos-journal.com, ISSN 2242-6280 3(45) FINNISH DEATH STUDIES ASSOCIATION SPRING 2014 editorial www.thanatos-journal.com, ISSN 2242-6280 4(45) FINNISH DEATH STUDIES ASSOCIATION SPRING 2014 Thanatos ISSN 2242-6280, vol.3 1/2014 © Suomalaisen Kuolemantutkimuksen Seura Ry. https://thanatosjournal.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/haverinen_editorial4.pdf Editorial – the digitalisation of death culture(s) Anna Haverinen University of Turku, Finland A memorial blog, memorial YouTube video, memorial event in World of Warcraft, headstone erected in a virtual world such as Second Life, memorialised profile page in Facebook, a virtual candle flickering on a two-dimensional webpage… All these examples are currently flourishing online and creating a technologically mediatised death culture, which is now transforming the practices and rituals of death rituals on a global level. (Haverinen 2014b; on mediatised rituals see also Sumiala 2014.) In this spring issue of Thanatos, we portray a wide collection of on-going research from across the globe. Digital technologies – or as in this case mostly internet applications – are being appropriated in various ways to mourn and honor the memory of loved ones and in coping with the difficult emotions caused by loss and bereavement. The current internet1, the Web 2.0, can be described as social since the most popular websites currently used focus in the self-produced content of individuals who share pictures, moments, memories and stories of their everyday lives. Experiences related to death – both as a social and cultural moment – are also produced in various ways, such as in the abovementioned memorial websites, memorial videos, memorialised profile pages and shrines in virtual worlds. In this context, the social internet provides solace and comfort despite geographical or time distances, as well as a private space to explore social and cultural taboos, such as abortion or suicide. Memorials (online) symbolise all places of memory and remembrance (Haverinen 2014b; Tilley 1994). Although many online spaces are initially created for socialising, distribution of knowledge and even play and fun, many service providers have acknowledged the fact that their users are dying, and their intimates want to either access, download or memorialise the content left behind. For example, Facebook, the most popular social networking website, created the memorialization request2 in 2009 when one of the developers had to face the death of a Facebook friend. In gaming 1 See more Suominen et al. 2013. 2 See https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/?id=305593649477238. www.thanatos-journal.com, ISSN 2242-6280 5(45) FINNISH DEATH STUDIES ASSOCIATION SPRING 2014 communities and virtual worlds the developers have either created specific areas for memorialisations (such as Linden Memorial Park in Second Life), or build in-game tombs and memorials for significant gamers by request (such as the memorials in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft). (Haverinen 2014a; Gibbs et al. 2012.) These memorials (or often even tombs) resemble the spontaneous memorials of the offline world, which are often erected to traffic accident victims, and also the public memorials in graveyards such as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which do not contain the physical body of the deceased, but an idea of that person. They are cenotaphs, mental tombs and symbols of an individual being remembered and their community. Memorials polarise a sense of community through the rituals practiced on the memorials. (Azaryahu 1996; Doss 2006; Santino 2006; Davies 2011; Sumiala 2013; Haverinen 2011; 2014b, 202.) In the previous issue of Thanatos Sumiala and Hakola (2013) already stated, that the development of death culture (the industrialisation, urbanisation and individualisation) has changed the way people mourn and honor dramatically, but currently, we are on the brink of a new change, where the privatised death has become increasingly more public. The media and the internet have been playing their own part in this change, where the private everyday is being published and produced publicly in various ways, and from which social media applications are flourishing. When we posted the call for abstracts before Christmas 2013, I did not expect we would receive such a large amount of submissions from across the globe, but fortunately I was pleasantly surprised. During spring 2014 the first Death Online conference was also arranged – which I could unfortunately not attend, but enviously followed the fantastic tweets of