Getting Dirty With Death Loss: Enduring the “Dirty Emotions” During the Earthquake in Turkey

The study aims to demonstrate how death work, driven by religious motivations in Turkey, transforms into a stigmatized and polluted form of emotional labor during earthquakes. Attempting to integrate the concept of “dirty feelings” with death ethnography, the study focuses on how the emotional burden arising from contact with dead bodies intensifies the challenges of this labor. Employing a qualitative research design, the study combines participant observation and in-depth interviews with religious personnel assigned to earthquake zones by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA). It discusses the factors contributing to this process of pollution and devaluation and examines how death work contaminates individuals in modern society. The study's originality and contribution to the literature reveal how the emotional suppression required to maintain perceived authority and fulfil their responsibility during disasters generates a sense of contamination for religious personnel.