Full Description
This text describes how Asante in present-day Ghana shape and give meaning to their funeral celebrations. One could expect a traditional ritual, centred around the extended family and around beliefs about death and ancestorship, to reduce in importance under the influence of modernity, including individualization, urbanization, markey economy and Christianity. The opposite scenario is taking place in Ghana. Funerals are, more than any other ceremony, only gaining more and more in scale and importance. Technological innovations like mortuaries, mass media and electronic apparatus have enlarged possibilities and have given the funeral new dimensions. The large amount of time, effort and money that people spend on funerals is by no means unique for the Asante. Funerals not only reflect transformations in society, they also offer people a space to work out changing social patterns, differences between city and village, lifestyles and cultural preferences, in fact, to stage images of life.
