Society is always evolving. Sometimes one change or advancement in a society will cause other changes to take place. These changes or consequences can be either positive or negative ones. The purpose of Sandy Hingston’s article “The Death of the Funeral Business” is to describe the current way society is changing one of its most sacred rituals. It analyzes the rituals associated with death and discusses how we are altering these most sacred rituals to fit into today’s technologically-based lifestyle. The author proposes that society’s use of advanced multi-media has caused us to stray from the personal value of actual face to face communication. She seeks to open the eyes of the reader by discussing some of the consequences of using this high …show more content…
The author tells the story of a news columnist’s experience between her mother’s funeral, which was a traditional catholic funeral where there was meaning to the entire service, the place of the service, the pastor that was talking and the place of burial. It was like a reunion with value and purpose. Months later, for an aunt’s funeral that was completely opposite, cremation was chosen. A pastor did the service as a favor since her aunt did not belong to a church. The service was more like a party, loud, with pictures, posters and party music. The niece describes taking a bag of her aunt’s ashes home and putting them in a desk drawer. It gives us the idea when comparing the two that some funerals are not following the respectful, honoring of the dead but yet making it into a party. No one is really using that time to mourn the …show more content…
In the middle of the article, author Sandy Hingston describes the current situation by saying, “It signals a cataclysmic shift in how we think about our bodies and ourselves. (2). The word cataclysmic gives the description of something bad, unwelcome or violent; therefore she is implying that the way society is changing is in a negative manner. She also uses the word “detritus” in an example she gives. “Detritus” would describe the pieces that are left when something breaks. She uses this word in the middle of the article and I believe she uses it to add to her ideas that we do not honor the dead like we used to by visiting graveyards and such. It is passed up just like any forgotten, old area on the street. It emphasizes that we are so hooked on new technologies that we forget some of the basic old
In digging the day of the dead a distinction between Dia de los Muertos and Halloween is made, the purpose, to highlight the differences and showing the importance and significance of Dia de los Muertos. This ethnography begins by loosely describing Halloween in American culture, it is described as a day where “children dress up as grotesque corpses” and a celebration empty of historic or cultural significance and knowledge. The author Juanita Garciagodoy, later goes on to describe Dia de los Muertos in a romanticized way, by statin that the dead “are not forgotten or excluded from recollections, prayer, or holidays because they are no longer visible” Garciagodoy then goes on to tell a heartfelt story about a couple one holding on to tradition,
Tuesdays with Morrie is a book about and old college sociology professor who gives us insight not only on death, but also on other topics important in our lives like fear, marriage, and forgiveness while in his last days being on Earth. Using symbolic interactionism I will analyze one of Morrie’s experiences; while also explaining why I chose such an experience and why I felt it was all connected. Seven key concepts will be demonstrated as well to make sure you can understand how powerful Morrie’s messages truly are. The one big message I took from Morrie was to learn how to live and not let anything hold you back
While they have been recently popping up throughout the Western world, they do demonstrate cultural norms through the materials left behind at the memorial site; often times, they replicate structures similar to ones at old gravesites, RIP, messages on tombstones and recitals like those at traditional funerals. In this sense traditional represents a memorial and funeral in a religious setting. These new memorials often times do not find meaning in religious settings after a sudden and tragic death has occurred. Proxemics in this case is displayed by the surviving families feeling that their loved ones death spot belongs to them; identity is constructed through the items left behind. To the ones left behind, they do not want the death to go unnoticed and want to connect to the last place a loved one was alive. They feel empowered to do so through the tragic event that has occurred there. After such tragedy has happened, a common public place spaces become a private place of tribute. Whether is it through pictures, personal messages or a cross, the items left behind reflect how the deceased influenced his or her surviving friends and family. The difference becomes more evident when it done through a civil body ...
Deaths were a form of social event, when families and loved ones would gather around the bed of the dying, offering emotional support and comfort. Myth, religion, and tradition would combine to give the event deeper meaning and ease the transition for all involved. The one who was dying was confident in knowing what lay behind the veil of death, thanks to religious faith or tradition. His or her community held fast to the sense of community, drawing strength from social ties and beliefs. (“Taboos and Social Stigma - Rituals, Body, Life, History, Time, Person, Human, Traditional Views of Death Give Way to New Perceptions" 1)
Throughout the novel death is portrayed as normal, something not too worry about. An example of this is shown when the director takes the students through the facility, “Bernard, whispering, made an appointment with the Headmistress for that very evening, ‘from the Slough Crematorium. Death conditioning begins at eighteen months. Every tot spends two mornings a week in a Hospital for the Dying. All the best toys are kept there, and they get chocolate cream on death days. They learn to take dying as a matter of course’”(109). The portray death to children as relaxing and fun so they do not fear or get sad about deaths of a loved one. Another example of this is shown when the director talks about how everyone dies when they are sixty. The world state does this because when the are sixty they do not want to work or play their expensive games. During their life the always look you, they are fit, and healthy. The people in the world state see not having too grow old as a luxury. They see the elderly as gross, fat, disgusting creatures with growths and blemishes. Both of these views are highly contrasted with what the concepts of love and marriage are like in the world today. People view death as a new beginning. We believe that when we die our spirits go on into either heaven or hell based on our actions. This makes us strive to do good in the world so we would be compensated for our actions. Another example is that People view old age. As children we are taught to love and respect the elderly because the give the next generation values and morals to help guide their lives. We all honor the elderly with medical assistance and holidays made to celebrate
We are looking closely at the product of cremation. When taking the time to examine current trends concerning the job of marketing cremation in the Untied States of America in the new millennium, it is impossible to do so without coming across some very fascinating facts. (See appendix) Before exploring these facts and statistics, it should be noted that before the time of Christ (before the Common Era) it was customary for people to be cremated. Greek people felt that because a death occurred something evil, or bad must have been within the remains of the ounce living person. It only made sense to burn the evil or bad elements that caused the death to occur.
Technology changes the way we mourn the dead. When someone passes away, it is posted on a social media website almost immediately. Technology is beginning to take away the emotion that occurs when someone passes away. Instead of people driving to a relative’s house, they are on their smartphone or computer to tell members of their family that someone has passed away. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, society is technologically driven in such a way that people no longer respect the distinction between life and death and would rather spend their time with technology instead of their families.
Death – the mystifying master of non-discrimination; something that touches all of humanity in the most melancholic ways. Typically as a whole, instead of embracing our inevitable demise, society fears death. Society is what makes death “mystifying”. Despite the fear of the unknown, people often have questions about death – yet most people don’t like to talk about it, let alone be around it willingly. Furthermore, very few people actually pursue their questions and/or curiosities about death. Those who do are a rare few that we can’t help but question their choices sometimes. In her memoir, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory”, Caitlin Doughty recounts the early beginnings of her fascination of all things macabre, as well as career as a mortician with a lighthearted – yet dark – humorous view that somehow lifts the veil of death and what happens to “us” (i.e. our bodies) after death, as well as the practices of morticians and funeral homes.
While reading the essays that my peers wrote about “The Death of the Funeral Business” by Sandy Hingston I was able to come up with the conclusion that my style of writing is very different than others. We were all writing about the same article but we all took different directions while writing our analytical response paper. My peers and I took a very small detail of the article and we analyzed it to show the purpose of Hingston. The fact the we were all able to find a small detail of the article that most of us missed is quite amazing. Sometimes when we read something we are so distracted that we skip through very small but important details. Out of the four samples that I read the one I liked the most was the second one. When I first started
Sylvia Grider. “Public Grief and the Politics of Memorial.” Anthropology Today (London), June 2007, 3-7. Print.
Rather than mourning the death of the departed, the Day of the Dead celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drinks, and activities held for three days before the souls of the dead return to their graves. A customary ritual that the majority of people do is to have “Ofrendas” or food placed outside the home as a hospitable gesture for the dead spirits. Even though the food is consumed after the celebration, may people assume that the food lacks essential and nutritional value since the souls of the departed take the spiritual essence out of the “Ofrendas.” Another tradition that people perform during the Day of the Dead is the cleaning and decorating of graves of deceased family members. Furthermore, one of the most distinguishable symbols used during the celebration of the Day of the Dead is the sugar skull. Even though sugar skulls are used to decorate the gravesite of the departed, the skull serves as the personification of death. Unlike other
The feast of the dead was a mortuary custom of the Wyandot people. It was a time of both mourning and celebration for the Wyandot people. This custom involved the unearthing or removal of relatives who had passed away from their initial graves and reburying them in a final communal grave. Many Wendats stood at the edge of an enormous burial pit. As they stood there, they held the bones of their deceased friends and family members. The bones that they held had been scraped and cleaned of corpses that had decomposed on scaffolds. Before dropping the bones into the pit they waited the signal of the master of the ritual. After the signal has been giving they can finally place the bones of their loved ones in the pit a...
Even though some don’t realize the distinctiveness of Victorian mourning customs, they were extremely unique. Mourning could last from two years to the rest of your life. Men’s mourning was much less harsh, and they weren’t expected to conform perfectly, yet all women, regardless of social class, were. Mourning clothing was one of the most important aspects of mourning. And it was seen as “the last token of respect and affection which [one] could pay the dead” (“The Hour of Mourning”). Warehouses were even created to keep up with new mourning fashion. Some might consider different kinds of Memento Mori creepy, but at the time it was a prevalent way to memorialize their loved ones. Some might find the so called “cult of death” disturbing, but it was a superstitious society’s way of honoring the dead.
and The Giver have very different ways of honoring the dead. In the U.S., funerals are held or ashes are spread after a death from injury, sickness or old age. In The Giver ceremonies of release are held after release. Release is death by lethal injection. The U.S. in the same way as The Giver, both honor the dead. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy said “It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” Both communities agree that honoring the dead is an important step in moving on. To repeat, The U.S. holds funerals or spreads ashes while The Giver holds a ceremony of release.
Loading up the diving equipment, reaching the summit of that mountain, jumping out of planes, sailing to other islands and visiting third world countries. Slowing oneself down, and asking what decision have I made to do with myself if the adventure did not go as planned? I proceeded with an explanation on how cemeteries are more of a landfill than a peaceful place for myself with my family. Having their understanding meant the world to me. I explained that [THESIS] Bio urns are a great way to reduce pollution from coffins [THESIS]. Also known as the green burial movement. After all the talk they began to change their minds on how they wanted to be laid to rest.