Dance, Laugh, Drink. Save the Date: It’s a Ghanaian Funeral.
By SAM DOLNICK
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/nyregion/12funerals.html?_r=1&ref=deathanddying
Précis:
Ghanaian funerals are live and vibrant, much different then the traditional funerals that are commonly seen in the US. Some people who attend don’t even know the person that has died, nevertheless the family. These funerals request for donations to the family throwing them, and many times the funeral-throwers make money. Also unlike the funerals Americans are used to, the body is commonly not present at the funeral, as these funerals can take months to plan. It truly is a celebration of the person’s life.
Cyberspace When You’re Dead
By Rob Walker
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/magazine/09Immortality-t.html?pagewanted=1&ref=deathanddying
Précis:
When a person dies, there are many things they leave behind. In this new day in age where we have become obsessive over expressing ourselves via Internet, we leave behind twitters and facebooks, emails and blogs. Now we have to learn what to do with these virtual profiles after we pass on. Some people, who are knowingly towards the end, leave final posts, pictures, ect. for everyone to see. But others, who pass on unexpectedly, have different endings virtually as well. If nobody knows their password, nobody can access their virtual life, so it is left as it was, not to be updated or deleted. There are some programs that can terminate these profiles after you die, and there have been attempts to create cyber-heaven. There is no standard solution to what happens to your virtual self after your real self dies, different people have different answers but the virtual heaven doesn’t exist. Yet.
Analysis:
Both of these articles related to the sociology and history, or the lack of it, of the care of the death. But in different ways. The first Article, about Ghanaian funerals talks about how while our traditional funerals are slow and downbeat, while theirs are truly celebrations of a persons life. I like the way that these funerals are conducted because it isn't about the body, it isn't about costs of caring for the dead person. It is about celebrating the persons life by really celebrating. Partying, dancing and remembering. It isn't like this is a new wave of funerals in this culture either. This is their historical, traditional type of funeral. It just has been updated to meet the present social standards.
The second article was about a new type of the care of the dead. The care of your online profile. It's something that I've thought about and hasn't been answered. This article showed how there are a number of solutions, but no standard. There isn't enough history with it to have a real traditional solution. I think the idea of a "cyber heaven" is cool because then anybody can look back at your life, at least virtually. But at the same time you have to chose what would go in because it could also reveal your personal life that you don't want everybody to know. It can go both ways. It's just interesting that as our technology improves there's more things to worry about when we die.
Interview-
For this research I interviewed Barbra Kinard, administrative assistant at Danjolell memorial homes. The questions I asked were about the most difficult times working in a funeral home and how people go about planning their own funeral if they have nobody to plan it for them.
Her answers were short and to the point, but I think it revealed a lot about how she felt as a person on the inside of this industry.
To answer the question concerning people organizing their own funerals, she explained that it’s actually very common for people to plan their own funeral. That the person who is dying knows what they want more then anybody else, She also explained that people don’t want to give their families any more stress then necessary.
Analysis:
This answer almost seemingly went against the evil funeral home ways I had learned about in Jessica Mitford’s book The American Way of Death, Revisted. The reasoning behind this statement is that in the book, it teaches how funeral directors and other people in the business of death take advantage of the grieving families. If somebody is making their own arrangements they most likely have a clear understanding about what they want. Which makes it a lot harder to manipulate the customer into spending more money. Which led me to think: Why would a funeral home allow this to happen if they make less money off it. I came to two conclusive answers. This first is based off logic, and it is that there is a significant demand for pre-planned funerals, allowing the home to get more business. Also as I explored the Danjolell’s website I found that the funerals can be planned not necessarily paid for until a later point in time. Which would allow for price manipulation.
Other further questions:
Do families ever change the plan of the person who has died?
Is the average costs of pre-planned funerals less then those that are less organized and planned out?
The second question, was asking what the most difficult part of working in the funeral industry is. Her response seemed typical and cliché saying that the hardest part of working in the funeral industry is when she has to work with families of young people that have died. Her reason being that she is a mother and it makes her upset.
Analysis:
While I do not doubt that working with families of the young that have died isn’t difficult, I don’t know how sincere this answer was. It just seems like a very cliché and off the top of the head. I feel like it just seems like a nice thing to say. If you think about it, everybody is the child of somebody, and anybody that has had a child is a mother. My great uncle has buried three of his children already. The way it seems, anytime a parent is burying their kid there is more of an emotional effect. At the same time I realize that with younger people there is always a stronger emotional effect: “They had their whole life ahead of them.” I just feel that she most likely doesn’t know any of these families so it isn’t like she would be affected that much. That there are a lot of hard things in that industry to deal with, and while that may be one, I don’t know if I can agree that this is definitely the hardest.
I feel like that the hardest thing she has to do is trick or manipulate grieving families into giving the home more money then necessary.
Further Questions:
Do you treat these families differently because of the heightened emotional factors?
How would you handle the care of your child if anything happened?
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