A Step Back in Time - Images

I came across some images I found on the Library of Congress website. 

 
Library of Congress (n.d.). Harris & Ewing Collection. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hec/item/hec2013012414/

• Creator(s): Harris & Ewing, photographer
• Date Created/Published: [1922]
• http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hec/item/hec2013012414/  

 

• Creator(s): Harris & Ewing, photographer
• Date Created/Published: [1925]

Library of Congress (n.d.). [Funeral]. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hec/item/hec2013015135/ 

In our history, we would hold the viewing/wake at home in the front parlor room. During that time it was referred to as "the death room". The Ladies Home Journal in 1910 declared the "Death Room" as no more and as a result,  the 'parlor' would be known as the "Living Room". 

 
Paranormal Geeks Radio: 2013-04-21. (2013, April 23). Retrieved December 10, 2013, from http://paranormalgeeksradio.blogspot.com/2013_04_21_archive.html

death and dying

During the course of my research, I encountered many issues. I struggled to find information regarding 'mortuary rituals' for the 20th century and how they have changed. I checked out books from the library and searched for information on the Kent Library online databases as well as various websites such as Funeral Home websites.  I have also learned that I am not a very good 'blogger'. I am not one who likes to put personal thoughts out into the worldwide web for all to see and I am still not too comfortable with discussing the subject of death. Since I have never maintained a blog before, I'm not 100% sure how this is supposed to work. ( I realized that some of my posts just stayed in draft mode unseen instead of published to view) 
Anyways... lets move on to death. 
 One article I stumbled upon by author Stella Mary O’gormann states that in the first half of the 20th century, our society had lost sight of the importance of rituals associated with death and dying and of the need for appropriate death education.We found ourselves unable to cope with the inevitability of death.


During the 20th century , history shows that the doctor is taking more of the lead and interposing himself between the patient and death. By the middle of the 20th century, we begin to acknowledge the fact that health has become a commodity undermining the unique spiritual and intellectual strength of humans which enables them to rise to the challenges of dying and death. the patient is no longer able to set the scene for his own death and nor can the professionals( doctors,etc) who have taken control of life and death agree amongst themselves what actually constitutes death. Individuals in our past typically died at home, but then we see a transition of individuals dying in institutions such as hospitals. We then see a movement of hospice care and some are brought back home to die. Some family and friends/neighbors often feel unwelcome and uncomfortable especially in intensive care units in hospitals to visit the person about to die.

Several contemporary authors seem to agree that western affluent societies are unable to look upon death and rituals as a right of passage to be compared with birth, coming of age, marriage and even retirement

Death and dying are no longer a family affair as it has been taken over by doctors and other medical personnel. After death, it is the funeral director that arranges for the preparation of the body, resorting to all the technology of the day so that the corpse ( the deceased) looks as 'natural' as possible for the wake/viewing. 

Death is not something that we typically talk about in our society today.Our society has endangered health by being unable to discuss death due to uncomfortableness. Fear of death and unresolved grief can cause issues such as anxiety, depression and even physical disease. Nowadays, cremation seems to be a clean and and an accelerated way of avoiding the horrors of physical decay and the cost of an expensive gravestone. It has become an alternative to the traditional funeral service.

O’gorman, S. (1998). Death and dying in contemporary society: an evaluation of current attitudes and the rituals associated with death and dying and their relevance to recent understandings of health and healing. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 27(6), 1127-1135. 

grave site and gravestones

the burial service will sometimes follow the funeral service right afterwards. The funeral procession, which is the hearse, followed by immediate family and then the other others, will drive from the place of the  service to the burial site (grave site).  the burial does not always follow the funeral service immediately and it could take place at a later time. 

The use of pallbearers which was traditionally men who were close relatives or close friends of the deceased, would carry the casket from the chapel of either a funeral home or church to the hearse, and from then from the hearse to the grave site for the burial. I have not witnessed the use of pallbearers at the funerals I have been to over the past few years. The funeral home workers quietly took the body out of the room of the funeral home and put the body in the hearse themselves and drove to the grave site.
 
The ritual of lowering the casket in front of mourners of the deceased has disappeared over time. I had not thought about this much until this assignment. Having attended a few funerals over the past years, I did not witness the body being lowered into the ground. This was done after the service at the grave site was completed once everyone departed. 
Family members and friends no longer dig the grave themselves and then later toss the dirt back on the casket to help bury it. This is now done by cemetery workers 

 

The form of gravestones evolved from large monuments to gravestones that were smaller flush markers during the late 1800s and the early 1900s. There was a  pronounced shift during the 1920s that was reflecting American responses to the  losses of World War I and the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. 
Financial conditions also directly affected the  decisions regarding materials used.  Trends revealed that granite gravestones gradually replaced marble in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and financial struggles during the 1907 Bankers' Panic and the Great Depression were also a factor in requests for less expensive marble and metal grave markers.


Ufema, J. (1990). INSIGHTS ON DEATH & DYING. Nursing, 20(1), 

photo:
What is a good death? Ritual, whether religious or not, still counts | Matthew Engelke | Comment is free | theguardian.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/may/14/good-death-ritual-religious 

Mallios, S., & Caterino, D. (2011). Mortality, Money, and Commemoration: Social and Economic Factors in Southern California Grave-Marker Change During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. International Journal Of Historical Archaeology, 15(3), 429-460

Not your average funeral anymore

The funeral is transforming as Americans have begun thinking 'outside the box'. Funerals were once all about black and mourning, but now people are changing how they want to say goodbye to their friends and family. Gone are the days of funerals with the weepy, organ-heavy ceremonies. Funerals today are becoming less about mourning the death of someone but has evolved into the celebration of that persons life. The plain pine boxes are being replaced with custom-made caskets that reflect the personal preferences of the deceased. Sometimes the caskets or tombstones depicts the deceased's devotion to Sponge Bob square pants, deep-sea fishing, etc.  In place of traditional hearses that typically lead funeral processions, Harley s or Corvettes have been used instead. Cremations have been becoming a popular alternative instead of the traditional burial. The cremated remains are sometimes fashioned into jewelry, fused into artwork, and stuffed into fireworks for those who want an exit with a real bang. In the past, some made the hair of the deceased into jewelry so using the cremated remains and making them into jewelry is a similar aspect. 

Grave markers were simpler in earlier times. Sometimes just a pile of stones was used to mark the  grave and sometimes a small boulder was carved by a family member with the deceased’s name and date of death. Once commercial stone cutters began making their services, they often used slate because it is softer and easier to work with .






Hall, M. ( 22 Oct 2013). Grave debate over soldier's SpongeBob headstone
retrived 11/30/2013  http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/oct/22/spongebob-cemetery-headstone-ohio-soldier-sister/
Takeuchi Cullen, L., Bonesteel, A., DeQuine, J., Ressner, J., Dale, S., & Whitaker, L. (2003). What a Way to Go. Time, 162(1), 88. 

Ashes to Ashes TIME Video

Cremation of human body Video

Cremation

Scholars have generally agreed that cremation most likely began during the early Stone Age around 3000 B.C
In North America, there had only been two recorded instances of cremation before 1800.  The real start began in 1876 when Dr. Julius LeMoyne built the first crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania.
 The second crematory opened in 1884 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and was owned and operated by a cremation society.  Some of the forces behind early crematory openings were Protestant clergy who desired to reform burial practices and the medical profession was concerned with health conditions around the early cemeteries.

Crematories began to come about in places such as Detroit, Los Angeles, Buffalo New York, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. By 1900, there were about twenty crematories operating. By the time Dr. Hugo Erichsen founded the Cremation Association of America in 1913, there were fifty-two crematories within North America and over 10,000 cremations that took place within that year.
In 1975, the name changed from the Cremation Association of America  to the Cremation Association of North America. The purpose was to be more indicative of the membership composition of the United States and Canada as well. By 1957, there were at least 425 crematories and nearly 150,000 cremations preformed

By the year of 1999, there were 1,468 crematories and 595,617 cremations, a percentage of 25.39% of all deaths in the United States. 
By the year of 2009, there were over 2,100 crematories and over 900,000 cremations, and 36.84% of deaths in the U.S. were handled through cremation, a percentage that is expected to grow to over half of deaths by the year of 2018. 

Why people began to favor cremation

In a national survey respondents expressed the following reasons for their preference to be cremated.

• To save money (24 percent)
• To save land (17 percent)
• Personal preference (11 percent)
• Simplicity and convenience (9 percent).

Other reasons listed included: concerns for the environment, cold-weather constraints, and ease of transportation to distant burial sites. This information came originally from (Cremationist 2000, 36(1):25). but I found this info at http://ncsu.edu/ffci/publications/2003/v8-n1-2003-january/fa-1-cremation.php



I found this table on the  Cremation Association of North America website

I found a cremation video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHBaCZ3slis

Another interesting video I found on YouTube from TIME http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stVvCeVy3Sw

( different posts included with the videos)


Cremation Association of North America (n.d.). History of Cremation - Cremation Association of North America (CANA). Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.cremationassociation.org/?HistoryOfCremation

Cremation Association of North America (n.d.). Industry Statistical Information - Cremation Association of North America (CANA). Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.cremationassociation.org/?page=IndustryStatistics

Goetting, Marsha A., and Claire DelGuerra. 2003. Cremation: history, process and regulations. The Forum for Family and Consumer Issues 8(1). Retrieved December 1, 2013 from http://ncsu.edu/ffci/publications/2003/v8-n1-2003-january/fa-1-cremation.php

Cremation of human body [Video file]. (2013, December 1). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHBaCZ3slis

TIME (2013, June 17). Ashes to Ashes [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stVvCeVy3Sw