Death and Funeral Practices in Aotearoa New Zealand

This book provides a shortform definitive reference text on the landscape and features of Aotearoa New Zealand that underpin its familiar, though country specific, ways of caring for the dead. It provides an account of diverse funerary practices that have taken shape through the various cultures that have settled here.

List of contents

1. Aotearoa New Zealand: An Introduction 2. History, worldviews, governance 3. History of death practices 4. Demographics 5. Legal frameworks for inhumation and cremation 6. The funeral directing industry 7. Organising and holding a funeral 8. Paying for funerals 9. Burial and cremation 10. Crematoria and cemetery provision 11. Death and remembrance 12. In summary

About the author

Ruth McManus is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand, where she teaches and researches sociology and death studies. She is also the inaugural President of the Society for Death Studies, which promotes research and understanding across all areas of death studies with particular reference to Aotearoa New Zealand academic, professional, artistic, and practitioner communities. She has also researched and written on a wide variety of death studies topics, including shipwrecks, disaster memorialisation, the greening of death, and suicide genealogies.
Denise Blake (she/her) is a researcher and educator from Aotearoa/New Zealand. She previously worked at Victoria University of Wellington, teaching health psychology. Denise has worked across community health sectors, including mental health and addiction. Her research addresses issues of identity, Indigenous wellbeing, disaster management, and sustainability.
Jessica Thompson currently works as a freelance Research Assistant, holding contracts with Massey University Psychology Clinic Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the University of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her main interest areas are critical health psychology, gendered healthcare and minoritised groups.

Product details

• Authors: Blake Denise, Ruth Blake Mcmanus, McManus Ruth, Jessica Thompson
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 01.08.2026
• EAN: 9780367752934
• ISBN: 978-0-367-75293-4
• No. of pages: 132
• Series: Routledge International Focus on Death and Funeral Practices
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; Social sciences, law, business > Business > General, dictionaries; Business & Economics / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Death & Dying, Small businesses & self-employed, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Small Business, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Service, Personal & public health, Psychotherapy, Organizational theory & behaviour, Social, group or collective psychology, Small businesses and self-employment, Business mathematics & systems, Medical Sociology, Organizational theory and behaviour, Sociology: death and dying, Personal and public health / health education, Sociology: Death & Dying, Business mathematics and systems