|
|
|
| CONFLICT, NEGOTIATION AND CONSTRUCTION: THE PROGRESS IN DEATHSCAPES ABROAD UNDER PERSPECTIVES OF CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY |
| YANG Rong1,2, ZHU Hong1, LI Fan2 |
1. School of Geography, Centre for Cultural Industry and Cultural Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China;
2. Center for Land Resources Environment and Tourism Research, Foshan University, Foshan 528000, China |
|
|
|
|
Abstract The deathscapes is a new field in the research of social and cultural geography in the West. A large number of researches in the theme of death have emerged increasingly since 1990 s, the deathscapes research about space and place also draws attention from the "spatial turn" and "cultural turn" in sociology and anthropology. This paper is based on the review on relevant researches of the deathscapes in western(mainly Europe and the United States, Australia, Singapore) social and cultural geography. We attempt to examine the ways in which deathscapes become important bearers of meanings and identities, but also centres of contestation and conflicts. Firstly, we discuss concerned concepts of deathscapes, which focuses on the relationship between space/place and death, mediated through multiple spaces-the body, the site of death, the home, the hospital, the hospice, the mortuary, the cemetery, the crematorium, the memorial, the sites germane to the identity formation of the decreased, and even the virtual spaces of the cyberworld. Central to this line of literature is the argument that landscapes become important mediators between death, meanings and identities.Secondly, from the perspective of space and time in the related studies we discuss the research content, methodology, research area and progress in three groups of concepts: ① Sacred and secular. ② Tradition and modernity. ③ Memory and rebirth.
|
|
Received: 26 November 2014
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2015, Vol. 30 
