Funeral Culture

Contemporary forms of living and dying in Swaziland cannot be understood apart from the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, according to anthropologist Casey Golomski. In Africa's last absolute monarchy, the story of 15 years of global collaboration in treatment and intervention is also one of ordinary people facing the work of caring for the sick and dying and burying the dead. Golomski's ethnography shows how AIDS posed challenging questions about the value of life, culture, and materiality to drive new forms and practices for funerals. Many of these forms and practicesnewly catered funeral feasts, an expanded market for life insurance, and the kingdom's first crematoriumare now conspicuous across the landscape and culturally disruptive in a highly traditionalist setting. This powerful and original account details how these new matters of death, dying, and funerals have become entrenched in peoples' everyday lives and become part of a quest to create dignity in the wake of a devastating epidemic.

Formele contemporane de a trai si de a muri in Swaziland nu pot fi intelese in afara de pandemia globala HIV / SIDA, potrivit antropologului Casey Golomski. In ultima monarhie absoluta a Africii, povestea a 15 ani de colaborare globala in tratament si interventie este, de asemenea, una dintre oamenii obisnuiti care se confrunta cu munca de ingrijire a bolnavilor, moarte si ingropare a mortilor.