Social bonds with the dead: how funerals transformed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Abstract

Evolutionary thanatology includes the study of necrophoresis—the removal of dead individuals by the living among social insects. In human societies, ‘necrophoresis' is performed via the funeral ceremony. In pre-modern societies, relatives and local community members helped to conduct funerals. In this way, holding a funeral was a form of mutual help, a social exchange of duty and responsibility essential to individuals. These societies developed systems to ensure the survival of humans as social animals based on mutual trust built over long periods of time within the same community. Contemporary societies are undermining these systems. Compared to funerals in pre-modern societies, holding a funeral in a modern society is a complicated process that requires professionals with specialized knowledge and skills. If people feel they can face mortality without support from relatives or the local community, and that they cannot necessarily expect a future return on the effort invested in community-based social relationships, they may begin to disengage from such relationships. In the context of modernization, the clearest changes in collective funerary behaviours include decreased funeral attendance and the above-mentioned outsourcing of funerary services. As such, it can be said that bonds with the dead changed completely under modernization, especially in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. To establish a sociology of death with a clearer focus on how funeral ceremonies have been affected by modernization, there is a need for research concerned with human behavioural changes regarding the treatment of corpses—that is, a ‘funeralogy'. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate how modernization has complexified the handling of deceased bodies as death-related services have become commoditized and outsourced while, at the same time, local communities are becoming disengaged from their traditional roles in funeral ceremonies. To this end, fieldwork was conducted in several countries. Moreover, data from surveys conducted by the Social Well-Being Research Consortium in Asia in five East and Southeast Asian countries were quantitatively analysed. The findings highlight the modernization of funerals with the outsourcing of funeral services from the perspective of socio-economic development. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.