In “Disposal of the Dead”, Kroeber arranges a cross cultural comparison of different cultures, and by doing so Kroeber aims to understand why cultures take on a variety of strategies in the treatment of the deceased. As a result of Kroeber’s research among the aborigines of California and incorporating information from other cultures, Kroeber found that cultures varied within themselves and other surrounding cultures in regards to their burial procedures. Therefore, Kroeber concludes that there is a lack of consistency in the different burial methods among cultures that should process similarities. As a result, Kroeber compares the disposing of the dead among these cultures as economical and material entities like matters of fashion. However,
“The Cremation of Sam McGee,” by Robert Service, is a humorous poem about a man named Sam McGee, who succumb of the wicked cold in the Yukon. Sam requests his friend Cap to cremate (to burn a dead body), him so he will stay warm in the afterlife. In the poem Service takes a step into the grim nature of death, and makes it humorous. Service’s ways of directing the humor into the very serious topic of death, is magnificent. In the text you will also receive lines including rhyme, tone, and imagery put into the category of death.
Dead?" AlterNet. In this article, Frankie Colmane looks into how dead bodies are treated in the United State even after Mitford's expose of the funeral industry was published. The article takes both a philosophical and scientific issue with the procedure of embalming sighting proven negative effects to human beings and the environment. Colmane shows that even though people are aware of the malfeasance and misappropriations of the funeral industry following pieces like Mitford's, very little has changed. Therefore problems that have been discussed in earlier works should not be forgotten. Rather they should be continually brought up until the issue is solved. During the 1800s, embalming became common practice because the dead family member would lie in state within the home for a period of days or weeks until it would be buried (Colmane 2010). The article shows the duplicity such as when "funeral directors were arguing forcefully against charges that their mediation between the living and the dead translated into social obstruction that barred the stricken from facing death with maturity, realism, and honest" (page 2). This article will be used to illustrate that things have not changed with funereal practices despite the publication of Mitford's essay.
Burying individuals have impacted the people of ancient Hawaiians greatly. As in other cultures, recognizing a deceased person played a key role in the ancient society, whether it was a strong leader or a stranger. This was no different for the Hawaiians, as death was a matter not taken lightly. Even though emotion is common while observing burial, native Hawaiian had taken it to another level. “Relatives or close ones to the deceased person would tear away hair, knock out teeth with a stone, scar their skin, or even cut off an ear, especially if the high chief had passed” (Fullard-Leo). However, Hawaiians also saw a significance when a relative had been
Mankind’s history of burial practices and funeral customs are as old as civilization itself. There is no specific way to planning a funeral. Every civilization and culture has provided for their dead in different ways. Religion and personal beliefs play an important role in the burial practices and funeral customs of a given culture or civilization. Furthermore, each civilization and cultured ever studied have three things in common: some type of funeral rites, rituals, and ceremonies; A sacred place for the dead; and memorialization of the dead. As far back as the time of Christ, burials have been noted to take place. In time burial and funeral customs have become very distinct, interesting and
In this paper, we will discuss the different death rituals performed in different cultures. We view death rituals from Native Americans, Africans, those of the Chinese decent, and endocannibalism from the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea. Death is universal to all people in every culture. Responses to how one deals with death and dying differ greatly. Death rituals are usually based on beliefs. This can come from religion, history, language, and art.
At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people.
In a traditional American burial, bodies are embalmed with many preservatives, encased in coffins that intensively consumed natural resources, and buried in areas that can be easily forgotten. In the film, Joe Sehee, the founder of the Green Burial Council, attended a funeral-industry convention. At the convention, it became apparent that some supporters of the traditional burial is focusing on the business side and not the main purpose. In this past week reading assignment, the corpse in the GARDEN by Peter Thorsheim, talks about the closure of the London burial grounds. Given the high cost of urban land and London’s rapid population growth, even small sites could contain an enormous number of bodies.
Today the society is looking for ways to ease life and to find solutions for problems which oppress our lives and make it hard to live through. Because of many reasons, the traditional burials in this century are becoming a problem. (Prothero,2001). The fact that they cover a lot of land to build cemeteries and other things that are attached to these traditional burials is enough for us to search for a practical solution. About a century ago the term "cremation" was unknown to many people. It is believed that it began to be practiced during the early Stone Age and still exists today. Since that time cremations have been made all
Every individual experiences the act of death, and most persons experience the death of someone they know of. Whether family, kin, or someone infamous, the living deal with the process of dying. Anthropology seeks to understand the universal process of death ritual and how different cultures deal with death differently. An anthropologist can extract social values of a given culture, past or present, from how death ceremony is practiced. Such values could be regarding political hierarchy or an individual’s status in a society, and about a culture’s spiritual or religious faith. By exploring death ceremony in ancient Egypt, contemporary Hindu death practice in India, and current North American funerary rites, it can be illustrated that
In the funeral world there are a lot of different styles of funerals. For example, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic funerals. Both very different, but at the same time they have several things in common. In funerals there is an abundance of things to compare and contrast. We will be looking at different ways the notification of death is handled in both of these religions, removal, embalming, dressing/casketing, visitation requirements/rituals, and interment or cremation.
Cremation and burial services are among the most common choices for American post-mortem body disposal (NFDA, 2017). Though the population of the United States is continuing to grow, observing increases in funeral rates, the number of active funeral homes has significantly decreased within the past ten years (NFDA, 2017). This could be due to the extreme shift in American practices, from a traditionally religious population to a more environmentally aware and loosely religious society (Fleming, Farquhar, Brayne, Barclay, 2016; Pew Research Center, 2015). Because of the general shifts in the prioritization of traditional practice, funeral homes should be better equipped -especially in cremation services- to suit the needs of the evolving disposal preferences of all demographics through observation of holistic
Part A: The story “The Premature Burial” teaches us that to overcome our fears we must face them. He shows this by first explaining his fear of being burred alive(heebie jeebies like crazy). Explaining that he had a condition called catalepsy witch caused him to appear dead for up to months. Then he tells how nothing he tried would cure his fear not even his friends “most solemn promises” or “most sacred oaths” could he be contented. Then he tells how one day he believed his fear had come true. He says “I could no longer doubt that I reposed within a coffin at last.” He tries to get out but cant seem to find a way out, and all the precautions that he had put in place to keep him from being trapped if he was actual barred alive were no where
There is strong evidence and beliefs that indicated the Neanderthal group in Europe and Western Asia were the first hominids to bury their dead. Additionally, anthropologist had found that Neanderthals of the time, were located their buried bodies that were accompanied with meat animal bones, flower and object tools like stone that were made of percussion flaking. The Neanderthal adorned the grave with flowers, something we still do in the modern world and this represents the beauty of the Paradise. The fact that, the use of meat and animal bones is because the Neanderthals were omnivores and eating animals were a form of their protein diet. In the same way, this ritual that’s still in use in a lot of countries, like Mexico that celebrates the day of the soul by bringing food to the commentary Regarding the use of tools that were supposed to protect them from dangers after their resurrection or rebirth, because this is a form of belief in the afterlife. So, the proof of this belief was because anthropologist found these ancient tools in their discovery, as well some
Although, there are very many versions of your body being taken care of after death, being cremated is a quick way to handle a deceased body, it’s convenient for everyone involved there are many different ways and options of how someone would want to be cremated, therefore cremation is the superior method of a deceased body.
African culture demonstrates a strong connection with deceased person, and believes that only a correct burial will bring a dead person peace. People in Africa strongly believe in spiritual life, thus their main goal during burial ceremonies is to address a spirit of a deceased person. An African funeral begins with removal of the body from home, which is done through a previously made hole in the wall of the home. Africans remove a dead body through the hole, instead of a door, to confuse a spirit and make sure that a spirit of a deceased person will not return back home, as a hole in the wall is immediately closed after removal of the body. In effort to confuse a spirit even more, they place thorns and sticks in a zigzag pattern along the way as body being taken to the place of burial.