DEATH STUDIES: I research the handling of the corpses, funerals, grief ane memory of the dead in contemporary society and disasters.
1) "Japanese Tree Burial: Ecology, Kinship and the Culture of Death" Routledge, 2014
Tree burial uses a large forest as a cemetery instead of traditional family gravestones. Each grave consists of a small tree on which a small wooden tablet inscribed with the deceased's name. The book shows how the new practice fits into the development of ecological ideas and how individuals' remains can nourish the earth and rejoin natural cycles. (MORE INFO https://www.routledge.com/Japanese-Tree-Burial-Ecology-Kinship-and-the-Culture-of-Death/Boret/p/book/9781138200333) ;
2) "Death in the Early Twenty-first Century," Palgrave, 2017.
The book demonstrates that mortuary practices are not fixed forms, but rather dynamic processes negotiated by the dying, the bereaved, funeral experts, and public institutions. (MORE INFO https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319523644)
MASS DEATH
This study presents lessons learned from three recent large-scale disasters with high death tolls: the 2011 Tohoku earthquake (15,594 deaths), the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Indonesia (about 160,000 deaths), and the 2003 heatwave in France. The objective is to provide a socio-cultural understanding of mass casualty management, draw "lessons learned" by evaluating successes and failures, design a framework and apply the results. It will also provide recommendations and advice to policymakers, community leaders and other stakeholders in disaster preparedness in Indonesia, France and Japan, including areas threatened by the Nankai Trough and direct urban earthquakes.
Mass Death
This research examines the management of mass death during three recent large-scale disasters: the 2011 Tohoku earthquake (15,594 deaths), the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Indonesia (about 160,000 deaths), and the 2003 heatwave in France. The objective is to provide a socio-cultural understanding of mass casualty management, draw "lessons learned" by evaluating successes and failures, design a framework and apply the results. It will also provide recommendations and advice to policymakers, community leaders and other stakeholders in disaster preparedness in Indonesia, France and Japan, including areas threatened by the Nankai Trough and direct urban earthquakes.
Fukuda, Yu and Boret, S. (2019).Theodicy of Tsunami: A Study of Commemoration in Aceh, Indonesia. In Nabil Chang-Kuan Lin (ed.), Exploring Religio-cultural Pluralism in Southeast Asia: Intercommunion, Localization, Syncretisation and Conflict.
Boret, Sébastien Penmellen and Akihiro Shibayama. (2018). The Roles of Monuments for the Dead during the Aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction,29,55-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.09.021
Boret, Sébastien Penmellen. (2017). People’s Own Grave, People’s Own Life: Identity, agency and memorialisation in Japan, In Boret Penmellen, S. and Long, S. (eds) The Anthropology of Death in the Early Twenty-First Century: Ritual, authority and memory, New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Boret, Sebastien Penmellen. (2016). Towards An Anthropology of Consequence, In Hendry, J. An Introduction to Social Anthropology: Sharing Our Worlds (3rd Edition).
An Anthropological Study of a Japanese Tree Burial: Kinship, Identity and Death. (2013). In Suzuki, H. (ed.) Death and Dying in Contemporary Japan: Shifting Social Structures and Values. London: Routledge.
Associate Editor of the International Journal for Disaster Risk Reduction (IJDRR), Elsevier https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-disaster-risk-reduction ;