The Problematic Social Construction of the Presence of Bereaved People in Cemetery; Towards a Grounded Theory

Death has always been an indiscriminate part of human life. In the present study, the main goal is to achieve a deep understanding about the presence of the bereaved people in the cemetery as one of the fundamental influential areas of their life, their actions there and the role of this presence and actions in dealing with mourning; so by designing the grounded theory, we gathered data from the closest relatives of the deceased in the city of Yazd. Therefore, detailed interviews were conducted with the bereaved people who unexpectedly lost their beloved ones at least four month and at most four years before the date of interviews. By analyzing the propositions line by line in three open, axial, and selective coding processes, 24 main categories and one core category were constructed under the name of deconstructive interaction of the bereaved/dead in the cemetery. The central phenomenon of the research was the problematic of the presence in the cemetery to which the bereaved people responded with different strategies. The constructions of life in the cemetery, the spatial substitution mechanism of charity, the presence management and so on were their strategies in response to the central phenomenon. The adoption of these strategies brought them negative and positive consequences such as emotional regulation, intensification of diseases, and compatibility with the epoché of cemetery.