Life's end: Ethnographic perspectives

Second-Line Parades: A Trauma-Informed Response to Grief

New Orleans is no stranger to trauma. The Crescent City has a vast history of environmental calamities and oppression. Yet, New Orleans is renowned for its "joie de vivre"-or "love of life." Specifically, this community is known for its unique practice of second-line parades. Researchers have noted the healing power of second-line processions, but none have analyzed the practice and psychology of this ritual through a trauma-informed lens. The aim of this conceptual paper is to begin the conversation, rather than deliver hard fast conclusions, on the potential therapeutic function of second-line parades in response to grief. Relevant literature is presented to illustrate second-line parades, trauma theory, and to provide evidence that the therapeutic effects of second-lining may, in part, be explained by trauma theory. This paper concludes with remarks on conceptualizing the second-line funeral as a sophisticated trauma-informed approach to grief and a note for future research.

Cognitive behavioral counselling in post abortion grief: A randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Abortion is can led to certain psychological problems that may decreased self-esteem, and concerns about future fertility. Abortions have multiple psychological consequences such as grief, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of cognitive behavioral counseling intervention on women in post-abortion period.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This research was a randomized, controlled trial study that was conducted on 168 women during the post-abortion period at the Khalill Azad Center of Larestan (Iran), where the women were selected randomly from February 2019 to January 2020. Data were collected using post-abortion grief questionnaire. All women in the post-abortion period answered the perinatal grief scale questions at the beginning of the intervention, immediately after the intervention and three months after the end of the intervention. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with time and group were used to evaluate the effect of intervention.

RESULTS

By using repeated measures ANOVA, the comparison of the mean score of grief in the two groups indicated that the scores decreased over time and it was lower in the intervention group. The mean score of grief between the intervention and control groups at the end of the intervention was 67.59 ± 13.21 and 75.42 ± 12.7, respectively (P < 0.001). Mean post-abortion grief score in the intervention and control groups three months after the intervention were 59.41 ± 13.71 and 69.32 ± 12.45, respectively (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

According to results of this study, it can be concluded that the use of cognitive behavioral counselling can reduce post-abortion grief intensity or prevent the occurrence of complicated grief. Therefore, this method can be used as a preventive or therapeutic approach to control post-abortion grief and other psychological disorders.

Culture and grief: Ethnographic perspectives on ritual, relationships and remembering

This introduction to the special issue on Anthropology and grief explores the contributions of an ethnographic approach to the interdisciplinary study of grief. After a brief overview of previous anthropological research, we identify key themes emerging from this global collection of case studies: the benefits of long-term fieldwork in nuancing the complexity of grief and complicating cultural narratives that surround it; the ways in which emotional aspects of grief are shaped by cultural norms and by the manner of death; and the relationships between the living and dead, including ontologies of the dead and culturally sanctioned forms of remembering and forgetting.

Microbial Intimacy

In this article, we highlight how COVID-19 has transformed, is transforming and may transform into the future human intimacies. This, we argue, is an appropriate focus for anthropological investigation particularly. We posit a scaler approach to the anthropological study of the transformation of intimacy in COVID-19, embracing multiple levels from human relations with microbes through to human relations with deities. Furthermore, we offer examples of the overlaps between the ways in which intimate relationships at small and large scales are conceptualised, especially metaphorically.

A critical rejoinder to "Life's End: Ethnographic Perspectives"

This article stands as a response to Goodwin-Hawkins and Dawson's (2018) article "Life's End: Ethnographic Perspectives" which was published in this journal as an Introduction to a Special Issue of ethnographies about end of life. We address three interwoven fallacies promoted in "Life's End." First, we begin by challenging the authors' central contention that there is no "rigorous body of anthropological work on the issue of dying." We then problematize the authors' conflation of anthropology and ethnography. Finally, we deconstruct their argument that there is an "anthropological aversion" to the study of dying stemming from the inherent "intimacy" of ethnographic methods, as well as their assumption that there is something uniquely emotionally challenging about studying dying. We argue that in framing their Introduction to ethnographies of dying as largely one of absence, Goodwin-Hawkins and Dawson ignore a rich history and diversity of research. In challenging the authors' obfuscation of our subdiscipline, we offer as a corrective a wide range of examples taken from a substantive canon of ethnographic research spanning almost 70 years. We conclude with a broader call for slow academia to ensure that important scholarly contributions are not erased from memory and history rewritten.

An expressive-arts-based life-death education program for the elderly: A qualitative study

This study endeavors to investigate how healthcare workers, equipped with expressive arts methods, could foster life-death education for the elderly. Forty-nine older adults aged 60 or above joined a 10-session expressive arts-based life-death education program that was led by social workers equipped with expressive arts methods. An ethnographic research approach, with a post-treatment focus group (n = 17), was conducted with the participants. The results showed that expressive arts methods could enhance reorganization of life experiences, promote dealing with ambivalent emotion regarding life-death issues, improve communicating life-death issues with family members, and induce ideas to prepare for death.