Natural Burial and the Death Positivity Movement
- Green/natural burial, and death positivity, have become topics of public discourse in the last several years, pushing back against the norms of the last 100 or so years. While not the same movement, the two are intertwined. Both reframe understandings of death, social meaning of corpses.
- Green burial argues for a more ecological approach to burial, specifically moving away from embalming and concrete vaults.
- Still manifests with some bureaucratic/capitalist limitations
- Green Burial Council – certifies cemeteries, funeral homes, and product manufacturers as being “environmentally friendly” – working within current system
- Individual responsibility for ecological consumption – stays within realm of capitalism, doesn’t aim for systemic change
- Palus, 2014, “How to be Eco-Friendly When You’re Dead”
- Death positivity is broader, advocating for a less bounded and more personal approach to deathways. Leaders in the death positivity movement (such as Caitlin Doughty, founder of the Order of the Good Death, and author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) press for (1) Less separation of the living and the dead; (2) More individual, hands-on experiences with corpse care; (3) Increased dialogue about innovative options for corpse disposition (Order of the Good Death 2016)
- See increased exposure to and experience with death as a positive, life-enhancing thing – much like the need to be more engaged with nature, avoid sedentary lifestyles – being in nature makes us happier, and thinking about and relating closely to death makes us happier
- The green burial and death positivity movements reflect current discourse about human-nature relations.
- Sustainability goals – aiming to “fix” current system to be more ecological; green capitalism
- Parallel to green burial – keep current system in place, with regulations and certifications to guarantee some level of “green”
- Continues commodification, capitalistic system
- Questioning of and resistance to current system – connect/parallel with social ecology
- Social ecology as a system of study and thought that considers ecological problems as social problems first; social ecologists advocate for participatory democracy at municipal level as way to develop more agency for individuals and communities, develop methods of actual self-governance (not representative), local control of resources, etc. (Eiglad 2015)
- Parallel to death positivity – advocating for more agency in the dying and death care process, questioning the need for a credentialed, professionalized system
- [quote from Doughty 2014 about not needing death professionals for a lot of things – other than embalming, cremation, not much that you actually need someone else to do]
- [reference to some of the main pages on Order of the Good Death]
- [quote from Doughty 2014 about not needing death professionals for a lot of things – other than embalming, cremation, not much that you actually need someone else to do]
- Parallel to death positivity – advocating for more agency in the dying and death care process, questioning the need for a credentialed, professionalized system
- Social ecology as a system of study and thought that considers ecological problems as social problems first; social ecologists advocate for participatory democracy at municipal level as way to develop more agency for individuals and communities, develop methods of actual self-governance (not representative), local control of resources, etc. (Eiglad 2015)
- Sustainability goals – aiming to “fix” current system to be more ecological; green capitalism
- Connect this section with Tsing’s ideas somehow?
