عنوان

Death on the move: Burial, repatriation, and the politics of belonging among Muslims in Germany

Number

TL49209

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Death on the move: Burial, repatriation, and the politics of belonging among Muslims in Germany

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Osman Balkan

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Norton, Anne

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Pennsylvania

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2016

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

250

Text of Note

Committee members: Green, Jeffrey E.; Laurence, Jonathan; Vitalis, Robert

Text of Note

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-369-51080-5

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Discipline of degree

Political Science

Body granting the degree

University of Pennsylvania

Text preceding or following the note

2016

Text of Note

This dissertation examines what happens to migrant bodies after they die. It demonstrates that the governance of the dead is intimately linked to the construction of the nation and the enactment of sovereignty. Through a comparative study of the mortuary practices of ethno-religious minorities in Germany, it highlights the ways that death structures political membership and identity. By tracing the actors, networks, and institutions that determine the movement of dead bodies within and across international borders, it analyzes how relations between authority, territory, and populations are managed at a transnational level. The dissertation builds on extensive, multi-sited fieldwork conducted in Berlin and Istanbul in 2013-15. Drawing on interviews and participant observation with bereaved families, Muslim undertakers, government officials, religious leaders, and representatives of funeral aid societies, I show how the corpse functions as a political object by structuring claims about citizenship, belonging, and collective identity. I argue that families, religious communities, and states all have a vested interest in the fate of dead bodies. Further, I demonstrate that in contexts where the boundaries of the nation and its demos are contested, burial decisions are political decisions. Focusing primarily on Turkish and Kurdish communities, I show how decisions about where and how to be buried are linked to larger political struggles over the meaning of home and homeland. While burial in Germany offers a symbolically powerful means for migrants and their children to assert political membership and foster a sense of belonging, the widespread practice of posthumous repatriation illustrates the continued importance of transnational ties and serves as an indictment of an exclusionary socio-political order. In both situations, the corpse is central to localizing and grounding political claims for recognition and inclusion. As I show, this is a highly contentious process wherein different factions, including states and civil society organizations, struggle over where dead bodies should go and what they should signify. In highlighting the role that burial decisions play in the negotiation of social, cultural, and political boundaries, this dissertation contributes to a growing body of literature on how the long-term settlement of Muslim immigrants is transforming European societies.

European Studies; Islamic Studies; Political science

Subject Term

Social sciences;Death and bereavement;Immigration and integration;Islamic funerary services;Muslims in Germany;Necropolitics;Transnationalism

Islam, Mazharul

Norton, Anne

Subdivision

Political Science

University of Pennsylvania

Call Number

1868839429; 10195778

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y