“We care less than before about having a family vault”

How do contemporary developments in the family change our view of burial?

Let’s first describe the model we inherit. We must return to Napoleon’s imperial decree on burials in 1804: municipalities must have a cemetery where their citizens receive an individual grave with their name, and the use of a coffin becomes obligatory. The State takes its place in the organization of the world of the deceased. Even today, the choice of place of burial is regulated by public authorities: for most of us, we bury our dead where we are told. The family vault is therefore not the majority model.

We are also experiencing the sociological movement towards a more individualistic society. We worry less than before about having a family vault or cemetery. The latter is no longer the only place where we remember the deceased. We refer to it less, because we cultivate this memory differently, in a more individualized way. Furthermore, our notion of family is changing: it is not just a question of blood. Emotional ties come first. It becomes legitimate to say that we are not affected in the same way by the death of this or that member of our family. Friends take on an increasing role.

Is our representation of the afterlife also evolving?

Under the influence of ecological concern, the image of “return to the earth”, present in the Christian tradition, is reinvented: my body becomes useful for repairing the earth, regenerating it. The natural life that it can nourish gives meaning to my death and constitutes a form of survival.

Through these developments, do we find any constants?

There are two major invariants regarding death in human cultures. The first is that a death causes violent shock and disorder among the living. It cannot be avoided or prevented. The rite is then a way of containing it. The second is that we must organize the separation between the dead and the living. Every society puts its dead at a distance: it is in some way necessary. This border is, however, porous, and its understanding varies according to contexts and times.

However, intermediaries are always needed to accompany this separation of the living from their dead. In our secularized society, it is the healthcare, mortuary and funeral professions that assume this function. Between the death, the funeral toilet, the preparation of the body, its transport, the organization of the ceremony and the burial or cremation: it is no longer the families or religious representatives who mainly accompany the deceased on this journey, but rather professionals.