Volunteers and the French public pauper burial: do it yourself?

Abstract

This article analyses what happens to the deceased managed through public means in France. Previous literature on the subject emphasised social categories such as homeless people and theories of sacrifice. Following recent events and the advent of new agents in the field (volunteers), it is time to reconsider the mechanisms at stake. To do so, the article draws on ethnographic fieldwork. It takes into account interaction between agents, individuals and institutions, and describes how they vary locally. Volunteers come with their own varying motivations, hence, adding to possible competitions in the management of pauper burials.

Keywords:

• paupers’ graves
• public burial
• social aid
• public management of death
• communal grounds

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the two reviewers and Tony Walter for their valuable advice on previous drafts. Many thanks to Tom Gaspar for his insight. Finally, I cannot thank my advisor enough, Sophie Duchesne, for all her help through the years of fieldwork and writing this paper.

Notes

1 Many thanks to François Michaud Nérard for this information.