Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

Death, which is an interest of many disciplines such as theology, philosophy, medicine and sociology, is considered as a transition to eternal life in many religions. In this transition period, each society has produced various rituals within the framework of their own beliefs. Societies have either mummified, burned, or buried dead bodies. Funeral ceremonies were held, and tombs were built for the deceased to have a comfortable journey to the next world and various altars were presented to prevent the return of the souls. In traditional societies, performing funeral ceremonies is considered a social duty necessary for the relatives and families of the deceased. This task was performed through mutual assistance in the form of social support. However, in today's modern societies, making funerals is left to professional companies. Since people do not know the post-mortem process, they experience feelings such as fear, shudder, surrender, the idea of salvation, and the search for meaning. However, within the framework of death, there are many activities such as making a will, washing the dead or putting on make-up, saying goodbye to the dead, condolences to the relatives of the deceased, and mourning after death. 

Death has produced unique spaces. These places are certainly shaped according to time, society, and culture. Therefore, it is known that cemeteries are a particular view of the social and cultural dynamics of communities. These spaces also reflect attitudes towards death and indirectly convey information about the social structure and its organization. From another point of view, these spaces, as cultural landscapes, were also used to build a social order. However, the evaluation of cemeteries as a mirror of society affects people to lead their lives more carefully and consciously.

Death especially is a subject of medicine and religion. Today, there are many professions related to death. Doctors, intensive care workers, ghassals (dead washers), imams, lawyers, undertakers, and municipalities also provide death-related services. Municipalities include activities related to death. One of these activities is burial. In cemeteries, burials are carried out by gravediggers. For this purpose, in the cemetery, those who prepare the grave for burial do their job such as taking the dead bodies to the grave with their relatives, positioning the body and head in the necessary direction, and covering it with elements such as stone or wood to protect it from the soil, throwing soil to close the grave, putting the stones, and cleaning the surrounding of the grave.

In this study, we tried to determine how the gravediggers make sense of their work, how people describe their work, and how their work affects their family and social lives. The study was carried out within the framework of the phenomenology pattern, which is one of the qualitative research designs. The study group consists of sixteen gravediggers/burial workers working under The Cemeteries Directorate in the Provinces of Bingöl, Elazığ, and Malatya. A semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive analysis technique. The themes classified as a result of this process are as follows: The burial is a dramatic/dramaturgic show, the graveyard is an undesirable business to talk about at diner, the stamp is immanent in the work done, desensitization as an adaptation mechanism, role distance: work left in the cemetery/ work not taken home, spiritual/sacred work.

As a result of the study, we determined that the profession of burial is not perceived at a sufficient level of respect in the eyes of society, that the gravediggers are stigmatized because of the work they do, and they become insensitive to their work over time, they distance themselves from their professional roles in order to continue their daily lives, and they take into account the spiritual dimensions of their work in coping with various difficulties. No independent scientific study could be found in the national area about gravediggers. For this reason, it is necessary to conduct research on the spiritual, social, and professional issues of gravediggers. Postgraduate studies are needed for the formation of the literature in this field.