Cemetery as a welfare service

An ethnographic study of the influence of the cemetery for everyday vitality in rural area

Abstract

We discuss the cemetery as the last local service in rural areas provided by public policy. We study the importance of cemeteries for rural everyday vitality and ask, how cemeteries can be used to read broad social changes, such as the development of the welfare state. Our methodology combines a historian's way of approaching village services, including cemeteries, through written sources, following their temporal arc, and a social scientist’s approach to study the changes in the welfare state's service structure through rural villages and village cemeteries, using interviews and observation data. Along with vitality and economic livelihood, we understand vitality more broadly as the vividness of the everyday. Our case examples are Martonvaara village in Polvijärvi municipality and Petravaara village in Tohmajärvi municipality. The village cemetery is an inconspicuous place of activity. It unites and brings together the villagers in many unpredictable ways, and it cannot be taken away according to contemporary legislation.