Death and Dying Mediated by Medicine, Rituals, and Aesthetics

Death and Dying Mediated by Medicine, Rituals, and Aesthetics: An Ethnographic Study on the Experiences of Palliative Patients in Finland by Maija Butters

Maija Butters have been awarded the Donner Institute research prize for her thesis Death and Dying Mediated by Medicine, Rituals, and Aesthetics and her study is the book of the month. The thesis is a phenomenological and ethnographic study of the experiences of palliative and hospice patients in Finland. The main question concerns how Finns, who have been diagnosed with an incurable disease, experience and negotiate life, death and dying. The focus is on language, images and rituals related to death – how dying persons meet their own mortality and how the surrounding supports the patients in this situation. The most essential part of the analysis explores the importance of rituals, in the form of practices and activities for patients. In her analysis Butters illustrates how the rituals at the end of life are twofold. There are institutional and medical rituals and personal ritualizations about avoiding death and preparing for dying. The thesis is both thematically and empirically interesting. Even though the topic is heavy the analysis is presented in a factual but understanding way. Butters study is an excellent contribution to anthropological studies of death and meaning making in a secular setting. The thesis is available via the University of Helsinki Helda-database.