Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism4/1/2015·DOI·Read paper
Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This article explores the role that funerary practices and burial decisions play in the construction of national and political identities amongst<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">M</jats:styled-content>uslim immigrants in<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">G</jats:styled-content>ermany. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with Islamic undertakers, migrant families, and religious leaders in<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">B</jats:styled-content>erlin it argues that the act of burial serves as a powerful means to assert belonging in migratory settings. While local burial laws impact the feasibility of<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">I</jats:styled-content>slamic funerary rites, this article suggests that family ties, ideas about the soil, and feelings of social exclusion play a larger role in shaping burial outcomes than the laws of the dead. By conferring a sense of fixity or permanence to identities that are more fluid or ambivalent in life, determining where a dead body belongs helps demarcate social and communal boundaries.</jats:p>
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