Solid and floating burial places. Ash disposal and the constituting of spaces of disposal

ABSTRACT

The study examines how ash-scattering space in public natural areas in Norway is produced. Fieldwork was conducted with 11 Norwegian bereaved people through interviews and visits to the disposal places to study the practices relating to contemporary ash disposal. The article contributes to a more systematic understanding of the spatial interactions between the bereaved and the deceased, while indicating the importance of considering the fluidity of commemorative space which facilitates for an encounter between the bereaved and the deceased. The findings reveal that the scattering of ashes undermines the traditional relation between death and place (cemeteries) and transforms the public place in natural landscapes into commemorative space. Solid places on sea, floating places by the sea and places where the floating soul appears by the sea are produced as commemorative spaces where the ashes are scattered or where a connection to the sea is likely. The data indicates that the space is created in an open-ended process where both the bereaved’s and the deceased’s relation to the ash-scattering site (or the sea) and their experiences of the cemetery institution are mutually important factors. The analysis has been inspired by Henri Lefebvre’s, Doreen Massey’s and Martina Löw’s multidimensional understandings of space as constituted relationality.

KEYWORDS:

• Ash scattering
• public space
• disposal
• commemoration
• cemetery
• natural landscapes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Act relating to burial places, cremation, and funeral (Lov om gravplasser, kremasjon og gravferd. LOV-1996-06-07-32) and Circular P-8/2012: Guidance on matters concerning ash disposal. The circular is intended as a guide for the County Governor’s processing of applications according to section 20, second paragraph, of the Burial Act on ash disposal. The County Governors are to ensure that ash disposal takes place in a decent way and in a suitable place. According to the circular, ash scattering is only allowed on land, in rivers, streams and lakes in areas that a sufficiently remote. Ash disposal on sea will not be accepted if there is much leisure traffic in the area, or there are beaches or a lot of buildings in the area. Furthermore, it is not allowed to establish a private burial place in natural landscape. One of the intentions behind the provision on ash disposal is that the ash should be dispersed in such a way that it is absorbed into nature, and that it cannot be found later.

2. In 2019, 530, in 2017, 520 (3.1% of cremated) and in 2015, 438 cremation urns (2.7% of cremated) were removed from crematoria rather than being disposed of in a cemetery or a church yard (www.askespredning.no).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) [Practices of death: memory, governance, and religion].

Notes on contributors

Ida Marie Høeg

Ida Marie Høeg (b. 1965) is a professor in sociology of religion at the University of Agder since 2015 and guest professor at Mid Sweden University since 2020. She has been researching in the field of sociology of religion and ritual studies for more than two decades. Her research focusses primarily on religious changes with a particular interest in how gender, age, ethnicity, and religious / worldview identity are negotiated and expressed in space (public and private) and ritual actions. Her interest includes religion/worldview and the lifespan, changing the culture of death, religion in public institutions, disaster rituals and emotions, generational change, ethnography and qualitative methods. The findings from her research have been published in various articles and edited collections. Her recent publications are “The flower actions. Interreligious funerals after the Utøya massacre” in Reassembling Democracy Ritual as Cultural Resource, 2020 (Bloomsbury Academic), “Religious Practices in the Framework of Ash Scattering and Contact with the Dead” in Political Religion, Everyday Religion. Sociological Trends, 2019 (Brill). Together with Christensen, Lene Kühle & Magdalena Nordin “Rooms of Silence at Three Universities in Scandinavia” in Sociology of religion, 2018, Youth and Religion, 2017 (The Norwegian University Press) and together with Olaf Aagedal & Pål Ketil Botvar 22 July 2011 – The Public Grief, 2013 (The Norwegian University Press). Høeg is currently working on the relationship between religion and ethnicity on the project Negotiating Jewish Identity: Jewish Life in 21st Century Norway.