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Mortality
Promoting the interdisciplinary study of death and dying
ISSN: 1357-6275 (Print) 1469-9885 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cmrt20
Death, mourning and post-death rituals of elderly
migrants
Bárbara M. G. G. Bäckström
To cite this article: Bárbara M. G. G. Bäckström (2019): Death, mourning and post-death rituals of
elderly migrants, Mortality, DOI: 10.1080/13576275.2018.1559137
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2018.1559137
Published online: 03 Jan 2019.
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Death, mourning and post-death rituals of elderly migrants
Bárbara M. G. G. Bäckström
ABSTRACT
This study focuses on understanding the mourning process in the
elderly and how this is linked to gender, ethnicity and social class,
among Cape Verdean migrants in Portugal. Qualitative interviews
were conducted with 20 older people living in the Lisbon
Metropolitan area. We inquired about the existence of beliefs,
superstitions, rituals and Cape Verdean traditions associated with
death. The way individuals deal with death depends largely on
individual trajectories of living in a group and in certain contexts.
We found a cosmopolitan and an existential vision, corresponding
to the elite group and popular group beliefs, attitudes and
representations.
KEYWORDS
Elderly migrants; mourning
and post-death rituals;
migrants; elderly; death
Introduction
Our theoretical framework is focused on understanding the mourning process in the
elderly, linked to gender, ethnicity and social class among Cape Verdean migrants in
Portugal.
In the first stages, Durkheim and Weber started the discussion about death in their
classical works. For both, Durkheim and Weber, death may be the end of an individual,
but its associated rites and beliefs can be at the heart of the formation or development
of society.
For these scholars, death is primarily individual but associated with collective rites
and beliefs (apud Walter, 2008).
These fields are new for academia since they werestudied in separated in social sciences,
both in dying and death and migration studies. Only after the first-generation of labour
migrants to Europe began to retire appeared the first studies on migrant ageing. After that
started first studies on death and dying amongst migrants appearing around 2000.
Earlier studies on death and dying and migration, have been undertaken from an
ethnographic perspective, focusing mainly on what happens in migrant communities
after a death occurs, rather than describing the preceding transitions involved in dying
(a chronic or disease, for example or a fatal disease like cancer) and end-of-life care
(Hunter & Ammann, 2016). In those studies, migrants reported a preference for funeral
rituals to take place in countries of origin.
Another aspect of death and dying is mourning, seen as a profound life event and for
millennia rituals intended to serve as a form of protection for the conflict of life and death
were created It is maybe the most intense life event that most of us experience (Oliveira &
CONTACT Bárbara M. G. G. Bäckström barbara.backstrom@gmail.com Social Sciences and Management
Department, Universidade Aberta, Rua da Escola Politécnica 147, Lisboa, 1269 Portugal
MORTALITY
https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2018.1559137
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Lopes, 2008), although practices, attitudes to and meanings around death vary across time
and culture (Combinato & Queiroz, 2006; Parkes, Laungani, & Young, 2015;Saraiva,1998).
Here we present some results from a previous research (Bäckström, 2009)onpractices
surrounding death, and on rituals associated with mourning. These are linked to subjective
perceptions about life, health and disease, assumed to be core issues within the theme of
death and ageing. Representations and practices of death and mourning are different when
analysed by gender and social group. Social groups have different visions, connected with
material and cultural conditions of survival and the experience of immigration is a valuable
determinant of attitudes, behaviours and habits related to death and mourning.
Death in cape Verdean migration
Cape Verdeans are still one of the main migrant groups and constitute the older group
of migrants who arrived first in Portugal in the 1970s.
1
They remain a group with
a strong ethnic identity and sense of cultural belonging. Cape Verdeans are the
immigrant group with most elders in Portugal (Machado & Roldão, 2010). All other
immigrants are comparatively recent, having only since 1974–1975 begun to have
some statistical recognition; they include fewer elderly people.
There are numerous beliefs and rituals circulating among Cape Verdeans. In Cape Verde,
religions and beliefs do not have well-defined boundaries, both implying faith. It is, therefore,
necessary to specify the differences between religion and superstition. Linked to religion are
funeral prayers, funeral rituals, commendation of souls, wakes, funerals, and burials (Filho,
1981). Cape Verdeans are very superstitious: this superstition is found in both highly educated
and less educated people. People believe in beings that can bring them good or bad luck, do
good or evil.
In rituals of death, funeral and burial, there are sequential ceremonies, superstitions and
taboos. Numerous taboos surround menstruation, pregnancy, feeding, food, death and
dead people, and even certain words are present. Fears appear in forms linked to
a fantastical world of ghosts, supernatural beings, and mythical figures. Forms of super-
stition and popular beliefs are connected primarily with African tradition. However, sorcery
and witchcraft also link with Portuguese popular culture. For people adhering closely to
these beliefs, death is often attributed to supernatural causes. The collective imagination is
influenced by supernatural figures and there is a strong belief in Spiritism. Witches and
sorcerers are forces of evil while healers work for the good (Rodrigues, 1991).
As with living, dying is not a solitary activity; ties with ancestors regulate relations in
the community and relations of individuals with life, death, health and well-being
(Monteiro, 1988). In terms of cultural celebrations, birth, marriage and death are the
most important family social moments and are culturally rich, celebrated through rituals,
forms of worship and traditional festivities. Rites of passage such as baptisms, wedding
ceremonies, or funerals, are celebrated in grand style, gathering together large groups of
people from the neighbourhood, other neighbourhoods, islands and even countries.
There are several studies on death in migratory contexts in Portugal: One migrant group
with a large representation in Portugal, after Cape Verdeans, are from Guinea Bissau, bringing
an ethnically based culture full of rituals and beliefs. The case of these migrants was studied by
Saraiva (2015) and Saraiva and Mapril (2014), but other studies of Cape Verdean migrants in
Portugal in relation to death have not been identified.
2B. M. G. G. BÄCKSTRÖM
Cycle of life, rites of passage
As observed by Saraiva (1998), in Cape Verde, after death the body is washed, dressed
and placed lying on the bed, where it remains during the funeral, which may or may not
include a night vigil, depending on the time of death. Some more inland areas of the
islands of Santiago and Fogo maintain the tradition of relatives and friends, arriving as
soon as they know about the death to ‘set the treadmill’, an element of African origin
that has the function of relief in this ritual sequence. This term seems to have taken on,
in several areas, a meaning that goes beyond the artefact itself, designating not only
a specific space and ceremony but also the period of ‘disgust’that lasts from death until
about a week later.
The custom of maintaining a treadmill space, as a delimiter of a ritualisation zone
marked by funerary tears, seems to have been followed but is now in disuse in many
areas of the islands. The fundamental role played by women in funeral rituals is common
and is a constant in most societies in relation to ceremonies linked to the life cycle and
encompassing major rites of passage. Considering the life cycle as the expression of
a system of thought and action that conceptualises and structures the fundamental
relations between genders, life and death, nature and culture (Kligman 1988 apud
Saraiva, 1998), women, in their central position in these essential moments of social
life, act as mediators par excellence. After the funeral, the altar is guarded during a week
in which daily Rosary prayers take place and visits are received. Food is available to
those who come. On the seventh day, the altar (treadmill) rises and opens the door,
which was half-closed from the time of death, although visits still continue, especially
during the first month after the death.
Certain elements in Portuguese and African culture are also widespread universal
rituals, emerging in practically all contexts. This is the case with the significance of
commensal and food gifts that link people to deities but also link them together (Leal,
1994 apud Saraiva, 1998). Ostentatious spending enhances the socio-economic status of
the deceased in the post-mortem period, while animal sacrifices perpetuate contractual
relations between spirits of the dead and the Gods, necessary to maintain a good
relationship between the two worlds.
One of the primary concerns of persons linked to the deceased is the need to
guarantee distribution of collective meals to all attending the funeral. Guests cannot
refuse this ritually prepared food, as violating the basic principles of tradition would
result in ostracism (Mendes, 2003). This includes principles of gift-giving and solidarity,
also of sacrifice and collective responsibility. Moreover, the activities build group unity,
recreating the warmth of feast days. Even the burial ceremony becomes a party in which
the absence of joy is sometimes replaced by laughter and the absence of tears. Mutual
help provided includes everything that is useful to the family.
Methods
This study forms part of a larger previous research within a PhD (Bäckström, 2009)where
qualitative methodology was used, with semi-structured interviews to collect the data from
a purposive sample of 20 older migrants in the area of Lisbon. Interviews were transcribed and
analyzed using content analysis. The interview was constructed in order to integrate several
MORTALITY 3
sections of questions considered relevant to the research. Here we will only use questions
about Cape Verdean traditions linked to death. The research questions pertained to traditions
and practices that people draw on while dealing with death, mourning and post-death rituals
connected to Cape Verdean culture.
Participants
The research was conducted with a sample of 20 older men and women belonging to the first-
generation of immigrants from Cape Verde living in the Metropolitan area of Lisbon. The
sample is composed of two socio-economic groups (designated the popular group and the
elite group).
The essential criterion for inclusion was that participants were born in Cape Verde and had
lived there for up to 17 years in order to recruit persons that arrived as adults. The construction
of this sample required heterogeneity of socio-economic status (occupation, educational
background, and income), gender, generation, and the island of origin (among the several
islands of the archipelago).
The construction of social groups
The terms popular and elite are used to distinguish two social groups. The criteria for inclusion
were level of education; professional activity; economic situation (income) and place of
residence. In this study, these terms did not neatly map onto a system of social stratification.
Popular and elite, therefore, identify the operational characteristic variables (educational level,
occupation, income) without designating two structurally distinct socio-economic statuses.
The starting point for the use of these terms was Rodrigues’s(1989) study, which examines the
issue of inclusion of the Cape Verdean community in the host society, particularly in terms of
dimensions of appropriation of space and spatial modes of registration of the community. On
the basis of this study this nomenclature was used to designate one of the groups constituting
our sample, the popular group; thence arose the need to find a term to counter and frame the
other group. The study by Saint-Maurice (1997) about Cape Verdeans in Portugal was drawn
on in adopting the term elite based on her typologies. The author observes that individuals
who have higher qualifications and work in the services sector and as the technical staffmake
up a large part of the elite or dominant group, differentiating it from the so-called ‘economic
migration’or dominated group, which encompasses the most disadvantaged strata in terms of
education, employment and housing.
Sample profile
The sample included the following characteristics:
Table 1. Sample of the popular group
Table 2. Sample of the elite group
Besides being all over 65 years old, some participants were still professionally active.
Incomes and level of education are higher in the elite group.
4B. M. G. G. BÄCKSTRÖM
Recruitment
Selected individuals were contacted through privileged informants and through contact with
Associations linked to the Cape Verdean community, both centrally in Lisbon and in surround-
ing neighbourhoods with the highest concentration of Cape Verdeans. A long period of
preliminary work involved establishing contacts and forming networks so as to identify
individuals who could meet the criteria for inclusion. Contact with Associations and key
informants allowed us to reach participants.
After identifying potential participants, numerous contacts were made. We negotiated in
terms of availability and who had the characteristics required. After explaining the research, we
reached an agreement with these people about their participation in the study, including
recording the interviews, locations and schedules. Interviews were conducted in Associations
or at interviewees’homes.
Analysis
We produced content and thematic analyses of all the interviews. The research and
analytical processes are oriented, on the one hand, to the ethnic-cultural differences of
a migrant community in relation to the host population and, on the other, to the
socioeconomic differences that cut across the groups and the differences between
members of the same group with heterogeneous socioeconomic profiles.
The content analysis was accomplished through a reading of the data in order to
discover thematic categories and response patterns, including coincidences and
divergences.
The purpose of the analysis was not to obtain explanations but to understand how
Table 1. Sample of the ‘popular’group.
Gender Situation Profession
Family income/month
in euros Age Family status Education
Man Unemployed Factory worker 260 65 Married 2 Children Fourth grade
Man Retired Electrician 750 66 Married 2 Children Fourth grade
Man Retired Driver 180 73 Widow 5 Children Fourth grade
Man Retired Carpenter 217 66 Divorced 14 Children Fourth grade
Man Active Asphalt spreader 500 65 Married 3 Children Not go to school
Woman Active Cleaning 320 68 Widow 3 Children Fourth grade
Woman Retired Cleaning 270 65 Widow 1 Children Not go to school
Woman Retired Cleaning 402 72 Single 13 Children Not go to school
Woman Active Sales 1500 65 Single 3 Children Not go to school
Woman Active Cleaning 350 65 Married 3 Children Not go to school
Table 2. Sample of the ‘elite’group.
Gender Situation Profession Family income/month in euros Age Family status Education
Man Active Painter 900 67 Married 3 Children Polytechnic
Man Active Evangelical pastor 1750 65 Married 3 Children Higher education
Man Retired Army officer 2000 67 Married 5 Children Higher education
Man Retired Engineer 7000 66 Married 3 Children Post-graduation
Man Active Lawyer 7000 66 Married 1 Children Higher education
Woman Active Singer 1000 65 Divorced o Children Polytechnic
Woman Active Senior technician 1000 66 Single 1 Children Higher education
Woman Active Senior technician 3000 67 Married 3 Children Master/PhD
Woman Retired Social worker Did not answer 65 Divorced 3 Children Higher education
Woman Retired Senior technician 3500 65 Widow 2 Children Higher education
MORTALITY 5
the interviewees think as social actors, to access ways in which they interpret the world
and understand how they construct the interpretative logics with which they justify their
action.
Results
Death, mourning and post-death rituals
The existence of beliefs, superstitions, rituals and Cape Verdean traditions associated
with death were investigated. As discussed, many beliefs circulate among Cape
Verdeans including, religious faith and superstition. The most well-known is the tread-
mill or altar. In rituals related to death and funerals, people pray and cry for the dead
person for seven days. They cry together and women do the guisa (half crying, half
singing). A ‘treadmill’is set in place, covered by special white cloths with candles and
a crucifix wrapped in a white cloth, removed on the seventh day when these ceremonies
finish (França, 1992).
A tradition recalled by older people required the family to practise this ritual when
someone dies. The elite group describe more traditional death rituals, acknowledging
that today this ceremony is more westernised, but that in both Cape Verde and Portugal,
in the districts of immigrant communities, traditions are still maintained. Individuals
from the popular group report this ritual as a current practice whenever a funeral takes
place among Cape Verdean families. Some answers (4) contradict this, however, arguing
that these customs were in fact maintained by older people, but were abandoned
during the emigration process. Others say that they do not completely agree with the
ritual associated with death, as there seems to be a habit of almost turning it into
a party.
Almost all the participants claim that the custom of the treadmill was once more
frequent than it is nowadays, especially within the islands of Cape Verde. Some (3) report
that they still perform these ceremonies in Cape Verde but that in Portugal it becomes
more difficult because the community is more dispersed. A common practice is to
celebrate the Mass of the seventh day, the first month and the first year after the death.
Some individuals report that they still perform the rituals with the treadmill and altar for
seven days. All agree that birth and death are moments of great solidarity and mobilisa-
tion of family and acquaintances for the event when people travel distances and every-
body cooks (many referring to the presence of food in this event) in order to receive the
family, neighbours and friends who come to pay their respects. There are still those who
seek to move to Cape Verde for this purpose if a family member dies there or, if this is not
feasible, to send money and try to go to the Mass of the first year. However, it is
noteworthy that, according to some, these rituals persist in some neighbourhoods on
the outskirts of Lisbon, where the Cape Verdean community possessing fewer resources is
largely concentrated. It is evident that there are distinctions in the form in which these
rituals are performed, between urban and rural areas, as well as between younger and
older people.
In relation to rituals connected with death, it is clear that this is a particularly
important event among the Cape Verdean families, one which holds them together
and reinforces the feeling of belonging:
6B. M. G. G. BÄCKSTRÖM
We are united in the party and in death, politics are not united . . . The party and death . ..
When a person dies in Cape Verde, people, let’s say, are mobilized and that mobilization
lead, therefore . . . Lead to have strength . . . do a party . . . shall we say, is a way that
I consider happy.
(Man, popular group)Go to the funeral is very important for our traditional life(Man, popular
group).
As noted, the most common ritual is the treadmill, which means watching the dead at
home, always having food and drink prepared to receive visitors, for one or two weeks. It
is a tradition that older people remember, which required the family to practice this
coexistence ritual when someone died, but which today has fallen into disuse among
the diaspora:
There is the treadmill, that is, during certain days (I do not know deeply the culture
from Santiago), all the family go, there is grogue [traditional drink], food, it is almost
a party (man, elite group).
In our land there are very different people from Santiago . . . but it is so when the person
comes from the funeral, to make a coffee, have cake, have bread and then one takes tea and
other coffee. They spend seven days . . . treadmill, they call “rade”in my land. We pray, we
raise the treadmill and then we have a dinner on the seventh day. After Mass we give one
month, Mass one year. . . (Woman, popular group)
There is a ceremony we do with an altar, with a cross, with candles. . . They make the
altar, where people go visiting. . . until the seventh day that the belt is there they are
going to receive visits from the seventh day they take the mat (Man, popular group).
Yet even in the diaspora, many Cape Verdeans try to keep the traditions of the land,
attending the deceased’s house to help set-up the altar according to custom (Peixeira,
2003). Differences were found in statements, experiences, representations and practices
between the popular and elite socio-economic groups (or lower and higher class when
the groups are compared with social classes). Regarding statements and representations,
when people are asked whether traditional habits (in rituals related to death) remain or
change with the immigration process, those who are part of the elite group affirm that
Cape Verdeans never lose their culture. According to them, those cultural practices
persist especially among older people or in communities living in neighbourhoods
with a higher concentration of Cape Verdeans.
The elite group describe the more traditional rituals of death, acknowledging that
today this ceremony is more westernised, but that in both Cape Verde and in Portugal,
in the neighbourhoods of immigrant communities, traditions are maintained.
Popular group participants report the wake dimension of the ritual as it is still
a standard practice whenever a funeral takes place in a Cape Verdean family.
Although data are not disaggregated by the island of origin, it is recognized that
these rituals differ slightly from island to island; in Santiago, they are different from
those of Boavista and Sao Vicente. These rituals are often referred to as more character-
istic of the population of Santiago, the island culturally closest to Africa. As noted,
Santiago is the most African island, being more rural and closed in on itself, in contrast
to the island of São Vicente. These two islands polarize the differences between the
Windward and Leeward groups, containing within themselves specificities of the islands
that they span. The socializing space, socio-cultural capital and religious education of
MORTALITY 7
families also shape the relationship with these cultural practices (Bäckström, 2009; Saint-
Maurice, 1997).
Other responses, which contradict the above assertion, arguing that these habits
were in fact kept by older people, but abandoned with emigration, are provided by
popular group participants who reside in those neighbourhoods. One such interviewee
indicates that a person dying in the family is a disgrace: He would prefer 10,000 times
over to marry his daughter twice than to have a dead person in the family, due to the
huge expense. Having constant visits at home means that you have to have food and
drink for seven days for 300–400 people.
Within the Cape Verdean context, the death ritual claims priority over economic
contingencies and there is an overvaluation of the social dimension, through mechan-
isms such as the symbolic ostentation surrounding each dead person.
Many of them report that this practice persists in Cape Verde but not in Portugal. In
addition, they celebrate the Mass of the seventh day, the first month and first year after
death. Since most immigrants cannot travel to the funeral in Cape Verde, for profes-
sional and financial reasons, mourning is done at a distance or will be done there, after
a year, in order to celebrate the first anniversary Mass of death. Otherwise, they perform
a Mass in Portugal, sending money to say a Mass for the dead in Cape Verde, a year after
the death:
So I always have to send money there . . . If I could go, I would. Because usually when there
is a possibility, we go. But usually when a person dies in Cape Verde, we will have, since the
person is buried . . . those seven days. In ‘86 I received telegram and wanted to go there. [.. .]
Was at work, as requested holidays and do not know why . .. because the money to go there
those seven days, which is what I did? I sent money, provided all the expenses, and then he
died in August and I sent money and did everything, and I tolerated a year working to save
anything, I went there to give the Mass of one year to my father. I was there, giving the
Mass a year to my father, and [. . .] all my brothers. Those who were in America were also
there, we went to Mass for a year with my mother, all live there.
(Man, popular group)
The only next person who died where I had to go and watch the death was my mother.
I had a ticket to the United States . . . they called to say she went to the hospital and then
returned the call to say, look you should come . . . I dropped everything and went. I arrived
at 4 pm and she died at 6 am. . . . We are very attached to our family! I am the younger of my
brothers, my brothers telephone me every day, or I’ll call them to know if we are ok.
(Woman, elite group)
Today in Portugal, when a member of the Cape Verdean community dies, the funeral
ceremony is very similar to the Portuguese, but it is considered very important to
participate. As mentioned, when a family member or acquaintance dies in Cape Verde
and you cannot attend, the appropriate Masses are celebrated in Portugal; people save
up for a year to go to their homeland for the Mass on the death anniversary of the
death. There is thus a close involvement and spirit of voluntary ‘obligation’expressed by
the whole community on the occasion of a death, especially by relatives and neigh-
bours. Some say that ‘in birth and death’we are all there. These are moments that
reinforce solidarity and interdependence, evoking the idea of ‘morabeza’–the relation-
ship between Cape Verdeans.
8B. M. G. G. BÄCKSTRÖM
Comparing by gender, men in the popular group say that this tradition is maintained
with a big ceremony. Men in the elite group comment that the ritual is almost a big
party but that they do not practice it. There are statements such as, ‘Those are traditions
with a joke but do not bring anything more; it is natural that some places still do it’;‘It
exists in Cape Verde but not in my family’;‘But what is it? It has its meaning for them,
not for me’;‘These rituals are not part of my culture’. Looking at the women’s comments,
those from the popular group affirm the existence and practice of rituals involving the
Esteira and preparation of food for the visits. Women from the elite group say that ‘It is
a tradition, a way to have a party and Cape Verdeans living in neighbourhoods around
Lisbon still continue to do it, they have not lost their culture’; or, ‘When someone dies it
is all very western nowadays. There is a neighbourhood in which they hold the Esteira
ceremony’. Comments differ between social groups but not between genders. From the
analysis by gender, it is possible to conclude that death and mourning are experienced
similarly by the men and women in our sample.
Discussion
In relation to death, the rituals of the treadmill are practiced by about half the Cape
Verdeans living in Portugal, both practice and adherence decreasing as the qualifications
of individuals rise. As Gomes says, ‘They are practices arising from superstitions, most
commonly rejected by those with higher levels of education’(Gomes, 1999). The elite
group describes these as more traditional rituals of death and, in the districts where
immigrant communities live, the traditions persist. Individuals from the popular group
reported this ritual as a current practice whenever a funeral takes place within a Cape
Verdean family in Portugal. The majority of participants declared that such traditions and
rituals were once more frequent than nowadays, and that it became more difficult to
perform them in the diaspora because people were scattered.
Social spaces, socio-cultural capital and religious education of families shape relation-
ships with these cultural practices (Saint-Maurice, 1997). Funeral rituals are the last
opportunity to express such ties of belonging, and these can be complicated in
a migration context.
In African culture, the elderly die with offspring at their side and are never put into
homes. Consequently, the desire to return to the country of origin and to age there
stems from the strict connection between the elderly and their families. In another study
(Bäckström, 2009), when we analysed the two generational groups separately, we found
no differences in terms of these particular practices. Similarly, in results obtained in this
study, no differences were found in terms of generations.
In Cape Verde urban areas there is a recent trend to modernity in the funerary rituals.
The degree of adherence to new customs imported from Portugal and, in general, from
the western world, denotes the influence of Cape Verdeans living in Europe and in the
Americas (Saraiva, 1998).
There were some limitations with regard to the technique used, namely some
objectives that were not fully met by the interviewers and issues that were not well
understood by the interviewees. Some respondents did not understand well or rather
did not interpret the questions as we put them, in order to respond to what was
MORTALITY 9
intended by us. Experience throughout the interview work has taught us to adopt the
nuances of language shaped by different types of informants.
Another difficulty encountered during the empirical work was identified as the feeling
that we did not ‘spontaneously’respond in the course of ‘conversations’, and address
themes in a more active and participative way, in terms of reports of practices of others.
The act of emigrating may have triggered a rupture at the level of discourse, but not of
practices. On this issue, we believe that there were probably shortcomings in the
formulation of interview scripts as to eliciting data in which testimonies of other
practices would emerge. This would require ethnographic or anthropological research
with participant observation, to observe actions in the daily life of individuals, to more
precisely capture the behaviours related to death, mourning and associated rituals. We
consider, however, that discourse is already sufficient in itself to understand the way
individuals think about. We know, however, that often people do not tell the truth.
Because it is an uncomfortable subject, they omit or say what they think the other
expects to hear or what they say is ‘the right thing’, in accordance with the norms and
standards of the dominant society. In this way, a feeling of dissatisfaction and unfinished
work emerged which triggered the need to continue researching these dimensions in
the near future, through adopting a more ethnographic methodology, with observation
and follow-up of the actual practices and concrete and real actions of the participants.
Conclusion
With this study, we tried to describe the previous transitions involved in dying. We did
not identify previous studies in relation to death and migration in the case of Cape
Verdeans in Portugal.
Focusing on practices around death, including mourning and post-death rituals
among a group of elderly migrants, has identified that immigrants’cultural background
determines their relationship to death. In this specific context, while they remain in
general a group with a very strong ethnic identity and sense of cultural belonging,
differences in language and practice are visible between the two socio-economic
groups; the way one dies depends on the social class to which one belongs
(Combinato & Queiroz, 2006); thus, variations are more the result of class differences
than ethnic differences (Filho, 1995).
Through an analysis of gender, it was possible to conclude that death and mourning
are moments experienced similarly by men and women. Differences are found between
social groups but not between genders.
Also, we conclude that experience of immigration is a valuable determinant of
attitudes, behaviours and habits related to death and mourning because people tended
to abandon those habits with emigration.
We are dealing with two types of vision; a cosmopolitan and an existential, which
correspond to a perspective that is more articulate and extends to the outer world,
versus a perspective that is more connected to and conditioned by material and cultural
conditions of survival. The first reflects the ideas expressed by the elite group, while
the second corresponds more closely to the representations offered by the popular
group.
10 B. M. G. G. BÄCKSTRÖM
In the world of globalization, migration continues to change the societies and with
the ageing of migrants, life events, such as death, mourning and rituals have become
important issues. However, this topic is still not sufficiently studied and it is necessary to
go further with the field of dying in migration.
Note
1. number of Cape Verdeans living in Portugal in 2012 was 42,857.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
ORCID
Bárbara M. G. G. Bäckström http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5844-3854
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