Episode 2: Dusk

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Episode Summary:

This episode explores the deathscapes (culture)

What is death if not witnessed? Their intrigue bring Daud and Sabrina to explore how COVID-19 has affected burial practices, and how, in turn, it affects the religious people who handle the funerals now. In reflecting these changes, we explore how mourning the dead is part of our cultural consciousness.

Episode Details:

Picking up from the previous episode, Daud continues his search to understand the changes brought about by Covid- 19. Despite the fact that those who passes, do so, alone, why then is grieving communal ? This episode continues Daud's exploration of Covid- 19 deaths from the perspective of those handling the deceased and their personal observations on the importance of communal grieving and the deathscape. The deathscape which refers to the spaces where death has touched and where the rituals and practices in relation to deaths, occur (Maddrell & Sidaway, 2016). Daud becomes even more intrigued by how grieving is unburdened by religious rituals (Jones, 1986).

However, these rituals were usually done in places of worship, funeral homes or even at burial sites, but they are now constrained within virtual spaces as a result of Covid-19's infamous physical distancing (Rawlings et al, 2022). What significance does spaces have to the experience of grieving? And how does this change then impact the ritual practices themselves? In the process of figuring out the answers to these questions, Daud inadvertently thinks about his own position and is left with a revelation he is unable to handle alone. Hence, he seeks out a person he knew that could perhaps understand him, and can answer his qualms best.

Find out more in the episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2kN2sv47jUIuEjbI9sY13t?si=W4x642_FQL6DvK1-hoYcTQ

Special Thanks:

1. Pastor Sean Prasad (guest speaker)

Watch Pastor Sean's introduction below:

Listen to the PREVIEW below and check out our instagram: @inthemourning

References:

• Maddrell, A., & Sidaway, J. (2016). Deathscapes: Spaces for Death, Dying, Mourning and Remembrance (p. 150). Routledge.

• Jones, R. (1986) Emile Durkheim: An Introduction To Four Major Works. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., pp.115-155.

• MacNeil, A., Findlay, B., Bimman, R., Hocking, T., Barclay, T., & Ho, J. (2021). Exploring the Use of Virtual Funerals during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review. OMEGA - Journal Of Death And Dying, 003022282110452. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228211045288

• Rawlings, D., Miller-Lewis, L., Tieman, J. (2022) Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Funerals: Experiences of Participants in the 2020 Dying2Learn Massive Open Online Course. Omega (Westport). doi: 10.1177/00302228221075283.

• John, M. (2020). Albert Camus in the time of coronavirus. The Week. Retrieved 28 March 2022, from https://www.theweek.in/leisure/society/2020/04/17/albert-camus-in-the-time-of-coronavirus.html.

• Ali, I. (2021). From Normal to Viral Body: Death Rituals During Ordinary and Extraordinary Covidian Times in Pakistan. Frontiers In Sociology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.619913

• Khoo, L. S., Hasmi, A. H., Ibrahim, M. A., & Mahmood, M. S. (2020). Management of the dead during COVID-19 outbreak in Malaysia. Forensic science, medicine, and pathology, 16(3), 463–470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-020-00269-6