Embracing Deathivity: The Exploration of Modern Deathscape through Death Activities in Contemporary Bangkok
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61462/cujss.v54i2.3013Keywords:
Deathway, Deathscape, Modern death, Deathivity, Deathertainment ManipulationAbstract
A distinctive feature of modern society is the death-denying society, where decisions about how someone dies often fall into the hands of medical professionals and religious institutions. This article adopts the theoretical framework proposed by Tony Walter, positing that each society has its unique "deathway," influenced by local factors and historical backgrounds. The investigation of deathways specific to each locality is therefore significant. In this article, I investigate the deathscape of Thai society, encompassing a multicultural rooted and collective death culture foundation. I also explore how Thais embrace activities related to death topic in modern urban areas; which are Death festivals, the exhibition of art sculpture about death, the cemetery walk tour, and cafes with a death theme. These observations aim to underscore the significance of embracing "deathivity" among urban dwellers, reshaping the perception of death through the power of digital technology and publicly accessible expressions of death. Finally, I will point out the pattern of interacting with modern death, which is the arrangement or learning about death through the experience of individuals. Another meaning is the attempt to find meaning and value in life, leading to the embrace of death that appears as a transformative space. This space consists of two parts: one is the space for internal growth, and two is the space for transforming the landscape of death into a new way of socializing, challenging, and questioning death.
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