Context of Mourning During the Pandemic: Spaces, Rituals, Outgoings, and Survivors

Omer Canpolat and Hatice Yaprak Civelek ()
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Omer Canpolat: Ministry of National Education, Pendik Sabahattin Zaim Iho, Istanbul, Turkiye
Hatice Yaprak Civelek: Anadolu University, Open Education Faculty, Department of Sociology, Eskişehir, Turkiye

Journal of Economy Culture and Society, 2022, vol. 65, issue 65, 81-104

Abstract: This research deals with the experiences of people who lost relatives during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ways they understand and cope with death, and the sad picture they create through space and rituals. Qualitative data was composed based on narratives gathered with indepth interviews with 15 volunteer participants who reside in Kocaeli and have socio-economic, cultural, ethnic, religious, and age-based differences. The focus was on pandemic-reported deaths and the locations, rituals, and human feelings and experiences associated with these deaths. Narratives from a group of participants who lived at the threshold between death and life during the pandemic showed that religious beliefs, spiritual values, and solidarity are still crucial in dealing with the resulting decimation. They deeply conveyed the loneliness and intensity of pain based on adverse economic effects, particularly the increase in poverty, the deciduous knowledge and opinions that create uncertainty about the virus, the lack of a sense of coming together and solidarity created by rituals. The changing sadness and understanding in the face of someone else's death, the marginalization of individuals caught in the pandemic, the utilitarian contributions of today's people and societies in the emergence of pandemics are remarkable issues. The phenomenological approach was taken as a guide for the methodological process–theoretical fiction touching the pandemic and death. An argument was developed mainly using sociological and anthropological approaches.

Keywords: Death; Sociology of Death; Pandemic; COVID-19; Places; Rituals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ist:iujecs:v:65:2022:65:1:p:81-104

DOI: 10.26650/JECS2021-998811

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