ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the case of 29-year-old Esther Holden from Lancashire (UK) who, in 1905, was nearly buried alive. The case horrified Britons. Holden’s near-fate not only led to major debates about the difficulties of diagnosing death, but also the role of “shrouding women,” male physicians, and a new, very diverse group of specialist funeral professionals. Why did the fear of being buried alive periodically excite social panics in Britain during the nineteenth century, and why did such terrors recede in the early decades of the twentieth century? Although the medicalization of death (including its removal from domestic spheres) offers important explanations for anxieties around death’s finality, this chapter also argues that the mystery of death cannot be understood without paying attention to gender and class uncertainties.
