Death Style follows Life Style
Cultures, ceremonies and demands are changing
We live in a time of self-presentation. Personality shows and private, self-proclaimed superstars increasingly populate our TV screens. They are an expression of an increasing individualisation and a need to publicly display one’s personality.
There is a growing tendency, which we call pharaonisation effect, for people to plan their own farewell during their life or even display it in public. The first internet burials have already been published, where the users were allowed to participate in the death and burial of complete strangers …
We can smile patronisingly at all these phenomena or we can take the need behind them seriously: the general desire to maintain individuality and a maximum of personal freedom – also with regard to one’s own death and far beyond it.
In our study we therefore did not only look at the extreme manifestations of current international trends, we also studied very different cultures in their approach to death, bereavement and burial.
The Crematorium of the Future consequently should be a place where people can mourn individually – regardless of their culture, religion, origin or social class.
We live in a time of self-presentation. Personality shows and private, self-proclaimed superstars increasingly populate our TV screens. They are an expression of an increasing individualisation and a need to publicly display one’s personality.
There is a growing tendency, which we call pharaonisation effect, for people to plan their own farewell during their life or even display it in public. The first internet burials have already been published, where the users were allowed to participate in the death and burial of complete strangers …
We can smile patronisingly at all these phenomena or we can take the need behind them seriously: the general desire to maintain individuality and a maximum of personal freedom – also with regard to one’s own death and far beyond it.
In our study we therefore did not only look at the extreme manifestations of current international trends, we also studied very different cultures in their approach to death, bereavement and burial.
The Crematorium of the Future consequently should be a place where people can mourn individually – regardless of their culture, religion, origin or social class.
