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...
| Published in: | Review of Religion and Chinese Society |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
[2019]
|
| In: |
Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Year: 2019, Volume: 6, Issue: 2, Pages: 253-272 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
China
/ Modernity
/ Urbanity
/ Funeral
/ Religiosity
|
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | 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 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | 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 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/22143955-00602006 |