Cambridge Scholars Publishing Death on the Move: Managing Narratives, Silences and Constraints in a Trans-National Perspective

This volume explores the different aspects of the management of death, dying and mortality by migrants in Southern Europe, through deconstructing persistent idiosyncratic beliefs, myths, narratives, silences, and constraints. It focuses on migrants from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds in Portugal, Spain and Italy. It also includes reflections on Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, East-Timor and Cuba. The thirteen chapters provide insights into epistemological issues, the trans-national circulation of bodies, spirits and rituals, migration, the placing of the dead and diverse funerary practices and perspectives. Privileging a multi-sited approach to death and migrations, this book draws on oral, archival and published sources to give visibility to populations that often live in liminal structural positions and transient worlds. By exploring the multifaceted dimensions of death and suffering among immigrant populations, it refocuses the debate on migration in Europe and beyond by highlighting under-researched issues such as end-of-life care, mental health, death, burial, cremation, funerary ceremonies and symbols, repatriation and martyrdom. About the Author Philip J. Havik received his PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, and is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (IHMT-UNL), Portugal. His research focuses on public health, tropical medicine, health systems, indigenous medical knowledge and governance in sub-Saharan Africa, and on Portuguese-speaking countries in particular. His recent publications include, in collaboration with Luís Catarino and Maria M. Romeiras, “Medicinal Plants of Guinea-Bissau: Therapeutic Applications, Ethnic Diversity and Knowledge Transfer” in Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2016). José Mapril received his PhD in Anthropology from the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon, and is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal. He is also a Senior Researcher at Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia (CRIA), where he has developed a research project on re-migration, life-course and future among Bangladeshis in Europe. With João Leal, he coordinates, the “Circulation and Production of Places” research group within CRIA. His publications include Secularisms in a Post Secular Age? Religiosities and subjectivities in a comparative perspective (co-edited with Ruy Blanes, Erin Wilson and Emerson Giumbelli; 2017). Clara Saraiva received her PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal, where she is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and Researcher at the Centre for Anthropological Research. Her research focuses on religious transnationalism, the expansion of Afro-Brazilian religions, the anthropology of health and alternative therapies, and ethnography and cultural heritage, in Portugal, Brazil and Africa. Her most recent publications include Experiencing Religion: New Approaches towards Personal Religiosity (in collaboration with Kinga Povedak and Lionel Obadia and José Mapril; 2015).