Cremation in Norway: regulation, changes and challenges

Abstract

In this article I explore the development of modern cremation and cremation events in Norway. I focus on the multiple ontologies of cremation events and the relationships between the living mourners and the dead during the gradual transformation of the social person within Christian, secular as well as Hindu traditions in Norway. Within Christian tradition this is a linear process which I intentionally contrast with the predominantly cyclical process within the Hindu tradition. I illustrate how various cosmological, eschatological, soteriological, economic, environmental, as well as socio-political factors regulate and shape the form and content of cremation events and disposal in Norway.