Michael Jindra

Across Africa, funerals and events remembering the dead have become larger and even more numerous over the years. Whereas in the West death is normally a private and family affair, in Africa funerals are often the central life cycle event, unparalleled in cost and importance, for which families harness vast amounts of resources to host lavish events for multitudes of people with ramifications well beyond the event. Though officials may try to regulate them, the popularity of these events often makes such efforts fruitless, and the elites themselves spend tremendously on funerals. This volume brings together scholars who have conducted research on funerary events across sub-Saharan Africa. The contributions offer an in-depth understanding of the broad changes and underlying causes in African societies over the years, such as changes in religious beliefs, social structure, urbanization, and technological changes and health.

Michael Jindra is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and a visiting research scholar in the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. He has published in journals such as Africa, Sociology of Religion, Anthropological Forum, and Society and has also contributed chapters to a number of books. His current research focuses on the connection between lifestyle diversity, culture, and inequality in the US.

Joël Noret is Assistant Professor of anthropology at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He has been conducting fieldwork in southern Benin since the beginning of the 2000s. His publications include the co-edited special issue of Gradhiva, Mémoire de l'esclavage au Bénin (with Gaetano Ciarcia, 2008), his monograph, Deuil et funérailles dans le Bénin méridional. Enterrer à tout prix (Brussels, 2010), and Mort et dynamiques sociales au Katanga (with Pierre Petit, Tervuren-Paris, 2011).


“This collection is of great benefit to scholars and students across a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, development studies, economics, history, religious studies.”
Rebekah Lee, Goldsmiths, University of London

"Funerals in Africa is an excellent volume. Based on outstanding original research the collection shows how social and economic changes in Africa are illuminated through the analysis of burials, mortuary rites, mourning and remembrance. In this collection encounters with world religions emerge as the key theme. Death and burial are therefore employed to illuminate classic debates on conversion, reformism and local-global religious tensions. Highly recommended for anthropologists and historians and a major contribution to African studies."
David Pratten, Director, African Studies Centre, Oxford University

Purpose – In this article, we examine the historical and cultural
foundations of Nordic states’ strong contemporary social indicators to understand whether their successes can be replicated in other contexts.
Design/methodology/approach – We draw on a range of academic literature to frame a comparison of two regions’ cultural and theological roots, identifying contrasts to make arguments about prescriptions for contemporary welfare policy.
Findings – We find Nordic history contributes to a duty-based culture with strong cohesion and social trust. These cultural norms make palatable welfare policies with strong activation measures, while the US model prefers to avoid the latter because of its strong cultural orientation to rights and autonomy.
Social implications – To mitigate differences between the Nordic states and other cultural contexts, policymakers seeking to replicate Nordic welfare successes should consider welfare programming that combines stronger activation policies with oversight and relational components that mitigate gaps in social cohesion. Originality/value – We uniquely bring together the literature on comparative welfare policy and on religion and culture to understand the precursors of contemporary attitudes and their implications for welfare policy prescriptions.

There has been a significant shift among antipoverty nonprofits toward what we call Brelational work,^which involves working with clients over time on life changes. Some scholars discuss this, often in negative terms, as part of a broader neoliberal trend. We argue that relational work is an important and unavoidable part of ongoing efforts against poverty and homelessness. We also discuss the broader theoretical context that make scholars suspicious of this kind of antipov-erty work, and argue for a multifaceted approach to poverty that includes attention to relational work and the agency of clients.

Social class is one aspect of a broader diversity that we argue is crucial to understanding issues of food and poverty. While much attention has been given to the structural forces of the American food system that link poverty to food insecurity and obesity, little  attention has been paid to cultural issues mediating food and poverty, despite the recent growth of the field of “food and culture studies.” Indeed, most social issues involve the  interactions of social forces at three levels: structures, cultures, and persons, or as others
put it, “macro,” “meso” and “micro.” Any initiatives designed to address eating and health issues and why they differ across categories such as race and class cannot be just individualistic but must understand the entire sociocultural context of food habits. Other chapters in this volume often highlight structural issues, while we focus on the diversity of how people live, including their lifestyles and the mediating role of culture. This also means understanding the major issue of the relation between individual motivations and structural constraints.