Doctoral Dissertation Research: Processes of State Administration in Caring for the Isolated Deceased

这项由该奖项资助的研究将调查当代城市生活中一个鲜有研究的方面：当人们匿名死亡时会发生什么。个人曾经死在几代人的家里；死亡由大家庭网络哀悼，亲属、朋友和邻居举行葬礼。人类学家记录了世界各地的这种葬礼制度，并发现它们的可变性提供了一个镜头，通过它来理解不同社会和文化的可变性。这个项目的问题是，既然家庭规模更小，地理上分散，对待死亡的方式有什么不同？当越来越多的人独自生活在城市里时，死者会发生什么？葬礼仪式会发生变化吗？关于亲属关系和社会关系的变化，这些变化告诉了我们什么？当国家介入这个高度亲密的领域，照顾死者的身体、财产和记忆时，这是标志着国家权威的简单扩展还是国家官僚机构角色的重大转变？这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于理解全球趋势对城市生活的广泛影响。该项目将记录和分析国家及其承包商网络在埋葬美国城市中与世隔绝的死者方面所扮演的角色。普林斯顿大学人类学博士生索菲亚·皮内多-帕多赫将在纽约市公共行政官员办公室进行这项研究，她将在卡罗尔·格林博士的指导下进行这项研究。公共行政长官是一个城市机构，当个人在没有遗嘱、家庭或其他继承人的情况下去世时进行干预。该机构的工作是确保死者的遗体得到安葬，并负责任何财产和资产的分配和清算。Pinedo-Padoch女士将在公共行政长官办公室以及协助该机构的公共和私人承包商网络内开展参与者观察研究。她还将进行档案研究和采访，从头到尾追踪个人死亡案例的样本，记录国家活动的整个过程和成为其影响的个人。这项研究将对国家日益频繁地作为死者监护人的工作进行全面的描绘，阐明死亡在一个变化的当代城市世界是什么样子，以及这揭示了当今社会和文化生活的哪些方面。

The research funded by this award will investigate a little studied aspect of contemporary urban life: what happens when people die anonymously. Individuals once died in multigenerational homes; deaths were mourned by extended family networks and funerary rituals were observed by kin, friends, and neighbors. Anthropologists have documented such funerary systems all over the world and have found that their variability provides one lens through which to understand the variability of the different societies and cultures. This project asks, how is death treated differently now that families are smaller and geographically dispersed? What happens to the dead when more people are living alone and in cities? Do funerary rituals change and what do these changes tell us about shifts in kinship and social relations? When the state intervenes in this highly intimate sphere, caring for the body, property, and memory of the dead, does this signal a simple extension of state authority or a major shift in the role of the state bureaucracy? This research is important because it will contribute to understanding the wide-ranging implications of the global trend to urban living.The project will document and analyze the role of the state and its network of contractors in laying to rest the isolated dead in an American city. Princeton University anthropology doctoral candidate Sofia Pinedo-Padoch, under the supervision of Dr. Carol Greenhouse, will carry out the research at the Public Administrator's office in New York City. The Public Administrator is a city agency that intervenes when an individual dies without a will, family, or other heirs. It is the agency's job to ensure a decedent's body is laid to rest, and to attend to the distribution and liquidation of any property and assets. Ms. Pinedo-Padoch will conduct participant observation research at the Public Administrator's office, as well as within the network of public and private contractors that assist the agency. She will also carry out archival research and interviews to trace a sample of cases of individual deaths from beginning to end, documenting the full process of state activity and the individuals who become subject to it. The research will produce a comprehensive portrait of the state's increasingly frequent work as caretaker for the dead, illuminating what death looks like in a changed, contemporary urban world, and what that reveals about social and cultural life today.