Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T00:33:12.153Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Between Death and Funeral: Mortuaries and the Exploitation of Liminality in Kwahu, Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Sjaak van der Geest
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay describes (1) how mortuaries changed the Akan funeral culture of Ghana and (2) how that converged with the interests of relatives and hospital managers. Such a development would not have been possible, however, (3) without the money provided by well-to-do relatives staying abroad. Mortuaries enable relatives to stretch the liminal period between death and funeral as long as they want to while they prepare everything for a grand funeral. For hospitals, this new fashion means an attractive extra source of income, as the mortuary is more lucrative than its medical services. My observations derive from anthropological fieldwork in Kwahu, Ghana.

Résumé

Cet essai décrit (1) comment les morgues ont changé la culturefunéraire akan au Ghana et (2) comment cette évolution a convergé avec les intérêts des familles et des directeurs d'hôpitaux. Une telle évolution n'aurait cependant pas été possible (3) sans l'argent fourni par les membres aisés de la famille résidant à l'étranger. Les morgues permettent aux familles d'étendre la période liminale entre le décès et les obsèques le temps nécessaire pour préparer des obsèques grandioses. Pour les hôpitaux, cette nouvelle mode est synonyme de source appréciable de revenus supplémentaires, la morgue étant plus lucrative que les services médicaux. L'article tire ses observations de travaux de recherche menés à Kwahu (Ghana).

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 76 , Issue 4 , November 2006 , pp. 485 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arhin, K. 1994. ‘The economic implications of transformations in Akan funeral rites’, Africa 64 (3): 307–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arhinful, D. K. 2001. ‘We Think of Them’. How Ghanaian migrants in Amsterdam assist relatives at home. Leiden: African Studies Centre.Google Scholar
de Witte, M. 2001. Long Live the Dead! Changing funeral celebrations in Asante, Ghana. Amsterdam: Aksant.Google Scholar
Gilbert, M. 1988. ‘The sudden death of a millionaire: conversion and consensus in a Ghanaian kingdom’, Africa 58 (3): 291–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godelier, M. [1982] 1986. The Making of Great Men. Male domination and power among the New Guinea Baruya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hertz, R. [1907] 1960. Death and the Right Hand. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, R. and Metcalf, P.. 1979. Celebrations of Death: the anthropology of mortuary ritual. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kaufman, S. R. and Morgan, L. M. 2005. ‘The anthropology of the beginnings and ends oflife’, Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 317–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T. M. 1989. ‘Death and the Asantehene: a historical meditation’, Journal of African History 30 (3): 417–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, B. 1998. ‘The power of money: politics, occult forces and Pentecostalism in Ghana’, African Studies Review 41 (3): 15–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miescher, S. F. 1997. ‘Becoming a Man in Kwawu: gender, law, personhood and the construction of masculinities in colonial Ghana, 1875–1957’. PhD dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston.Google Scholar
Noret, J. 2004. ‘Morgues et prise en charge de la mort au Sud-Bénin’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 44 (04): 745–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelto, P. J. 1973. The Snowmobile Revolution: technology and social change in the Arctic. Menlo Park, CA: Cummings.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion and Art in Ashanti. London: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Scott, J. C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak. Everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Selier, F. J. M. 1976. Kiboets, Gezin en Gelijkheidsideaal. Een sociaal-wetenschappelijke bijdrage tot kennis van het gezin in een communale samenleving. Assen: Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Turner, V. 1967. The Forest of Symbols. Aspects of Ndembu ritual. Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
van Gennep, A. [1918] 1960. The Rites of Passage. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
van der Geest, S. 1980. ‘The image of death in Akan Highlife songs’, Research in African Literatures 11 (2): 145–74.Google Scholar
van der Geest, S. 1984. ‘Death, chaos and Highlife songs: a reply’, Research in African Literatures 15 (04): 583–8.Google Scholar
van der Geest, S. 2000. ‘Funerals for the living: conversations with elderly people in Kwahu, Ghana’, African Studies Review 43 (3): 103–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Geest, S. 2002. ‘“I want to go!” How older people in Ghana look forward to death’, Ageing and Society 22 (1): 7–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Geest, S. 2004. ‘Dying peacefully: considering good death and bad death in Kwahu-Tafo, Ghana’, Social Science and Medicine 58 (5): 899–911.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van der Geest, S. and Finkler, K. 2004. ‘Hospital ethnography: introduction’, Social Science and Medicine 59 (10): 1995–2001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van der Ploeg, J. D. 1999. De Virtuele Boer. Assen: Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Yankah, K. 1984. ‘The Akan highlife song: a medium of cultural reflection or deflection?’, Research in African Literatures 15 (04): 568–82.Google Scholar
Zaman, S. 2005. Broken Limbs, Broken Lives: ethnography of a hospital ward in Bangladesh. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis.Google Scholar