Embalming By Jessica Mitford Analysis

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.

After reading, The Embalming of Mr. Jones by Jessica Mitford, I was in shock about the whole process that happens hour after death. Previously, when I heard about embalming I thought they basically just cleaned the body up and dressed them up for the casket showing, but now that I know what actually happens I’m a little grossed out. The body shouldn’t be changed so much because you want to see them as you last remember not reconstructed due to the embalming. While the bodies are deceased, I can't help but wonder if they are feeling all of this happening. I feel bad for Mr. Jones and others who have been through the process. I can’t even imagine what it is like for the embalmer, and how they can go through with it.

The process begins where the body is taken into an “ibu”, a tent also known as the “place of purification”. That is where the embalmers wash the body in palm wine and rinse it off with water from the Nile. The next step is when one of the men makes a small cut in the left side of the body and removes the liver, lungs, stomach and also intestines. It is important to remove these internal organs because they are one of the fastest to decompose. These internal organs are then washed and packed in natron, a mineral salt that contains hydrated sodium carbonate. The natron will dry out the organs. The heart is not taken out because Egyptians believed that the heart was the center of intelligence and feeling and the body will need it in the afterlife.

The body is now ready for casketing. Like in any business, there are some special secrets to casketing. According to Mitford, the right shoulder of the body has to be “depressed slightly to turn the body a bit to the right and soften the appearance of lying flat on the back.” Positioning the hands and feet is as important as everything that was done before. There are special rubber blocks that are used for this purpose. Finally, the body is placed in the casket as high as possible, and the mortician gives attention to the last details.

According to an essay written by Jessica Mitford titled “Embalming in the U.S.A” states that the mass population in the United States have lost interest of embalming over the years. She later proves this by saying “not one in ten thousand has any idea what actually takes place and books on the subject are extremely rare to come by”. She later goes on saying that America has made a complete reversal on how the treated the Embalming. In the old days of America it was mandatory for one of the family members of the deceased to stay with the mortician while he carried on his business. Now in these the majority of people cannot stand the sight of blood. As the essay continues Jessica later states how She under stands

The text Burial Rites written by Hannah Kent focuses on the true story of the last woman to be executed in Iceland, her punishment for playing part in the murder of two men. She is sent to wait out her days on the farm of a district officer, Jón Jónsson with his two daughters and wife. Naturally, the family are horrified to have a convicted murderer in their midst. Borne from this, the family refuse to talk to her. A young man, Toti is appointed as her spiritual guardian in the last days of her life, throughout the text, he attempts to redeem her soul by asking her to recount her life.

I was surprised because I never thought that cadavers were used for anything other than being buried, cremated, or for medicine. The most surprising thing that I read was that cadavers were used as art. This surprised me the most because I did not think that cadavers being put in poses on display could be popular or beneficial to people. Seeing all of the different ways that cadavers are used was both interesting and thought-provoking. Simply, the use of cadavers allows one to choose a more rewarding option that will allow him/her to serve and benefit fellow humans not only in life but death as well. After reading the book, I have reconsidered the options available to me when I

The history of ceremonies for care of the dead goes back as far as 60,000 BC when the Neanderthals used flowers and animal antlers to decorate the dead. Embalming originated in 4000 BC with the Egyptians but was uncommon there until 3400 BC. Embalming was first introduced in to the US by Dr. Thomas Holmes (1817-1900)

The mummification process is done in two phases, the first being embalming and the latter being wrapping and burial. There was a special place for embalming to take place known as the ibu. The ibu was called the place of purification. The first thing the embalmers do is to clean his body with aromatic palm wine and rinse it with Nile water. The next step involves removing all but a select few of the internal organs. The process used to remove the internal organs changed over time and varied with the wealth of the body in question. The heart was left in the body because of its necessity as the focal point of mental and emotional stability. The body’s fluids and rags used in this phase are left with the body for its burial. The body is left for a period of

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.

No one can escape death. It’s one of so few unavoidable certainties in our lives and has held an important position in every human culture since time immemorial. Of course, this position has is different from culture to culture, and shifts over time. This is particularly evident in western culture. The shift is discussed at length in two essays: “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” by Jessica Mitford, and ‘The Fear of Dying’ by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Both explore different aspects of these themes – Mitford’s essay being deconstruction of a the uniquely North American process of embalming, and Kübler-Ross’ being an indictment of the clinical depersonalization of contemporary western attitudes toward death. Each utilize many different tools as writers, such as rhetorical modes. Rhetorical modes they share are exemplification, description, and compare-and-contrast.

Sandy Hingston offers many intriguing views of a funeral service from the conventional method of a service in a church and the burial of the deceased to a service that more so relates to a party than a funeral. “The Death of the Funeral Business” also raises many questions to be pondered by the reader. Hingston says, “A societal changeover from burial to cremation is momentous for our culture. It signals a cataclysmic shift in how we think about our bodies and ourselves” (38). The questions that arise from this quote are what parallels may Hingston be trying to draw between the trend in cremation and the way we “think about our bodies and ourselves?” Why may she be trying to develop these connections? These are the questions I will be focusing on and how they relate to what I think the purpose of the article is. I believe the purpose of this article is to show how our generation is changing the way we view death and how the use of technology has greatly impacted the way funerals are done.

Through a little research on the internet, a website called “Bodies Revealed” informed me of the process used to preserve the bodies, which is known as “polymer preservation.” The bodies that are used first are embalmed according to standard procedures and perfused with a preserving agent to prevent the normal tissue decay that takes place after death. After the body is embalmed, a trained dissector prepares it, or a part of it, according to predetermined guidelines. Because of the degree of difficulty involved in dissecting a full body specimen, it can take several months to complete. If the dissector is working with individual organs, they can be prepared much more quickly. After the dissection is complete, the specimens are thoroughly rinsed in cold running water, which removes as much of the preserving agent as possible. Rinsing a full-body specimen can take up to one week to finish. After the rinsing, the specimen is ready to be dehydrated. They dehydrate the specimens by placing it in acetone, which acts to replace all of the tissue water present in the specimen. The specimen is then impregnated with a mixture of liquid silicone polymer and a crosslinker. The polymer hardens during a curing process, which leaves a dry, odorless specimen that doesn’t decompose. I had the

The book is about a dead body. The dead body has been found in the flat of Michelle Doyce a woman with a lot of psychical problems. She can’t see the difference between alive and dead. The corpse is helped by psychotherapist Dr Frieda Klein. First the case is closed, but Frieda isn’t convinced that Michelle Doyce killed the man, she didn’t stop searching and persuade Karlsson the police officer that involved her in the case not to close it.

As a prelude to Corpse posture it can be helpful to release any tension that has accumulated in the neck and shoulders. An exercise that is good for this is rolling the head.