The funeral service for John Doe was held Sunday, January 19, 2014 in a rural Northeast Florida community. The service was scheduled for three o’clock in the afternoon after the regular church service. The observer arrived in the church at 2:30 p.m. The note taking began at 3:20 p.m. and was ended at 4:58 pm.
Purpose of the Observation
The deceased was a thirty-seven year old African American male. He was an unmarried father of three young children. John Doe was not an acknowledged Christian and was not a member of a church. The focus for the observation is to observe the practices of an African American service for a non-church member (non-professed Christian). The question to be considered is: What are the funeral rituals of a non-professed Christian, African American in today’s society?
Problem/Phenomenon of Interest
Traditionally, funerals are a “cultural universal” having played an important part in most ethnic groups. With the changing cultural patterns being found in today’s society, some believe that many traditions formerly practiced by different groups are being lost. However Hazell (2013), reports that “descriptions of contemporary African-American funeral and mourning customs illustrate the persistence of traditional customs despite time and circumstance” (para.4). She further reports that traditionally, a church funeral was not held for non-Christians, rather their services were held at the funeral home. This observation is a framework for studying the current ethnographic phenomenon of the African American funeral and its current customs related to presume Christianity (“being saved”) of the decease and the grieving family.
Selection of Setting
The nature of the observed event dictated the setting to be used. There ...
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... researched and studied, its structure and function became more intriguing especially as a part of the African American tradition. Several funeral-related issues had appeal as focus for the observation. Other than the selected focus, the observer was also strongly pulled toward considering the support given the young children of the deceased during the service.
Works Cited
Hazell, L. (2013). Cross-cultural funeral service rituals. Retrieved from http://www.funeralwise.com/customs/cross-cultural-funerals/#sthash.OeUEeixE.dpuf
Kawulich, B. (2005). Participant observation as a data collection method. Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(2). Retrieved from http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0502430
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Being a careful observer. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
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Membership into these organizations is moderately priced at a $25-40 range. This fee will provide lifetime membership in a local organization as well as membership into the Funeral Consumers Alliance. This membership may be transferred to another funeral society at no additional costs, so that a member may move from the area where they originally applied, and still be able to use the services somewhere else. When asked, a funeral society informs an inquiring mind that the fee is necessary for the cost of mailing and printing of educational materials as well as the continuum of the non-profit organization, as well as the costs of funding conferences available to members.