The coffin question: death and materiality in humanist funerals

Engelke, Matthew (2015) The coffin question: death and materiality in humanist funerals. Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, 11 (1). pp. 26-48. ISSN 1743-2200

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Abstract

In this article I explore the attitudes of humanist celebrants in England to the presence of the coffin at the funerals they conduct. For these celebrants, who are members of the British Humanist Association, the coffin is something that can disrupt the integrity of “the immanent frame.” Throughout the course of the article, I relate this concern to questions of materiality and material culture, arguing, in line with a growing number of others in the human sciences, that we cannot understand secular formations without attention to its embodied and material dimensions.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfmr20
Additional Information:	© 2015 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Library of Congress subject classification:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GT Manners and customs
Sets:	Departments > Anthropology Research centres and groups > Centre for the Study of Human Rights
Projects:	RES 000-22-4175
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Date Deposited:	16 Jul 2015 10:50
URL:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/62739/

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