Maija Butters, Finland
Maija K. Butters is a cultural anthropologist working in the doctoral program of History and Cultural Heritage at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
She teaches on death cultures and rituals in various religious and cultural traditions’ and her dissertation study is on contemporary death and dying in Finland. In this ethnographic study, she focuses on the various cultural means that terminally ill people employ in order to handle their mortality.
She has written on the metaphysical meaning of aesthetic experiences in the face of death, and currently she is exploring rituals and ritualization around dying patients in hospital and hospice surroundings. Her dissertation also includes a discussion on contemporary care system and healthcare politics in Finland.
Maija is involved with hospice education and she lectures on culturally and religiously sensitive patient care in hospitals and at medical conferences. Previously she has published on Buddhist art and Tibetan culture and she has also written on the embodied experiences of becoming a mother. Various philosophical and anthropological themes’ such as embodiment, rituals, aesthetics, suffering and joy are close to her heart.
Email: maija.butters@helsinki.fi