Article
Gendered Mourning: A Perspective of Akan Death Culture in Ghana
Death Studies
(2023)
Abstract
Death is the commonest, incomprehensible, and inescapable reality confronting humanity in all nations and cultures. However, cultures vary in their conceptions of death, grieving and mourning rituals. Among the Akan of Ghana, mourning and funeral obsequies are essential cultural and spiritual practices. In this article, we draw insights from our lived experiences and critical literature review to explore mourning and death rituals among the Akan as a stratified cultural system that reflects and reproduces broader gender patterns of masculinity and femininity in Ghana. We discuss the concept and cultural significance of mourning and bereavement practices, and further examine how socio-cultural notions of gender shape mourning and death rituals in Ghana. We argue that, as in many social and economic spaces in Ghana, funeral obsequies and bereavement practices represent sites for enacting and reproducing masculinity and femininity. The deleterious health and psychological consequences for men and women are further discussed.
Keywords
- mortuary rites,
- death culture,
- Akan,
- Akans,
- Ghana,
- Funerals,
- thanatology,
- gender relations,
- mascullinity
Disciplines
Publication Date
Summer July 11, 2023
Citation Information
Stephen Baffour Adjei, Mensah Adinkrah and Anthony Mpiani. "Gendered Mourning: A Perspective of Akan Death Culture in Ghana" Death Studies (2023) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mensah_adinkrah/57/