Funerals and Religious Modernity in China

Modernity in China has involved the establishment of religion as a separate sphere of life, rapid urbanization, and the rise of the profession of funerary work. This paper examines the intersection of these three trends. On the one hand, the professionalization of funerary work takes place outside o...

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Publié dans:Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Auteur principal: Kipnis, Andrew B. 1959- (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Brill [2019]
Dans: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B China / Modernité / Urbanité / Funérailles / Religiosité
RelBib Classification:AD Sociologie des religions
AG Vie religieuse
KBM Asie
Sujets non-standardisés:B 商業化
B Modernity
B 城市化
B 專業化
B 喪葬
B Funerals
B Urbanization
B commercialization
B Professionalization
B 現代性
Accès en ligne: Volltext (Verlag)
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Résumé:Modernity in China has involved the establishment of religion as a separate sphere of life, rapid urbanization, and the rise of the profession of funerary work. This paper examines the intersection of these three trends. On the one hand, the professionalization of funerary work takes place outside of religious institutions. It involves the commercialization of funerary work, the separation of the spaces for funerary ritual from the spaces of everyday life, and the need for professionals in a context where death itself is separated from the dynamics of living. On the other hand, because life itself is sacred and death vividly poses questions of the meaning of life, funerary ritual takes on a sacred tone and religious elements enter the proceedings no matter how nonreligious the professionals and the bereaved claim to be. The dynamics of religious modernity, or “the religious question in China,” involves the simultaneous compartmentalization of religion and the breaking of the boundaries between the religious and the nonreligious. These dynamics are at the heart of contemporary, urban Chinese funerals.
ISSN:2214-3955
Contient:Enthalten in: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22143955-00602006