Lest we forget, funerals really are the social event. Consider the February 1990 funeral of publisher Malcolm Forbes. The mourners included ex-President Richard Nixon, actress Elizabeth Taylor (who sat in front pew with the ex-President), Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, Hell's Angels cyclists, Barbara Walters, Joan Rivers, David Rockefeller, Ann Landers, Mrs. Douglas MacArthur, former New York City mayor Edward Koch, and 1,700 others. What other social occasion can bring together such a collection of individuals?
HOW, SOCIOLOGICALLY, WOULD YOU EXPLAIN THIS CUSTOM?Up until the early 18th century, both American Northerners and Southerners observed the English custom of
the deceased's family providing each of their funeral guests with a black scarf, a mourning ring, and a pair of black
gloves--or at least as many of these that they could afford. In 1721, laws
were passed limiting such gifting to the six pallbearers and the officiating
minister. |
Rituals are condensed forms of experiences, tips of icebergs of meanings and social mechanisms for transformations.
These enactments of cultural belief systems go beyond mere ceremony, as Victor Turner noted when defining
ritual as "prescribed formal
behavior for occasions not given over to technological routine, having
reference to beliefs in invisible beings or powers" (From Ritual to
Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play, p. 29) that preserve the structures
of both self and society. In rite-of-passage rituals, of which funerals are a type, old
used-up selves are shed so new ones can be instilled. With
increasing individualism and profoundly different times, traditional rituals may
no longer "work" and thus we see the rise of do-it-yourself
funerals.
Resources on funerals & their social functions
THE FUNERAL INDUSTRY
As previously developed, death in developed societies has become hidden
from everyday life. In the United States and other developed countries,
death and the dying process are largely institutionalized, and bereaved
families pay strangers to transport, sanitize, reconstruct, clothe and
dispose of their dead members. These are employees of the estimated $15 billion a
year (as of 2001), increasingly
consolidating American death care industry. The major players (in
order): Service
Corporation International, Alderwood
Groups, Stewart Enterprises,
StoneMor, and Carriage
Services.
As of 2000, there are more funeral homes (23,000, serving the 2.32 million deaths each year) than nursing homes (17,000, serving 1.6 million residents) in the United States. That means that each of these curiously-labeled "homes" attends to roughly the same number of "cases": 94 residents on average per nursing home and 101 post-nursing home residents per funeral home. Funeral industry stocks have consistently produced some of the highest returns of any industry over the past few decades.
Concurrently , this industry has received considerable criticism, most notably in Jessica Mitford's 1963 classic, The American Way of Death . (See also U.S. News & World Report's March 23, 1998 cover story "The Deathcare Business: The Goliaths of the funeral industry are making lots of money off your grief", Suzi Parker's January 12, 2001 Salon article "Get Your Laws Off My Coffin!", and perhaps listen to NPR's "The Funeral Industry" with Karen Leonard, Mitford's research assistant.) Allegations that its practitioners have taken unwarranted advantage of those in the throes of grief have led to Congressional hearings, new trade practices rules from the Federal Trade Commission, and undercover sting operations staged by various consumer groups. Industry regulation varies considerably, as noted in the GAO's August 2003 report, "Death Care Industry: Regulation Varies across States and by Industry Segment." Cemeteries have entered into the funeral service competition and, unlike funeral homes, are not covered by the 1984 Federal Trade Commission Rules requiring itemized price lists.
However, there is evidence that new understandings
are emerging between the industry and a more informed public. For instance,
check out the Funeral
Ethics Association, whose purpose, according to its Constitution, is
"to provide the public and the profession with a balanced forum for
resolving misunderstandings and to elevate the importance of ethical practices
in all matters related to funeral service."
Class dynamics produce an interesting twist in our
tale of cultural death-denials. Funeral directing is of few state-recognized
professions that provides upward mobility for those who, by chance of birth,
are often thwarted in their attempts to achieve professional respect. This
status has been hard won, deriving from over a century of attempts in the
United States to expand and to legitimate its occupational purview, to
establish its craft as a "science".
Cross-culturally, it is often the lower classes that were typically assigned
to handling the dead, such as the Eta of Japan or the Untouchable in India.
But the so-called "Dismal Trade" of eighteenth century England
was to evolve into a host of thanatological specialists seeking social
recognition and status: embalmers, restorers, morticians, and some even
calling themselves "grief experts".
There can be little question that the embalmed
body is the cornerstone of this industry.
Without it there would be no need for all of the accoutrements for "viewings":
slumber rooms, elaborate coffins, or funerary apparels. Thus it is in the interest of
th
The cremation industry is, not surprisingly, becoming increasingly
differentiated. There are companies, for instance, that will
turn cremains into jewelry. Eternal
Reefs will "Turn your Loved One's Ashes into a Living Coral Reef."
Space Services Inc.,
formerly Celestis, will launch one's remains
into space!
To give the industry and its product historical
legitimation,
the National Funeral Directors Association
commissioned Robert Habenstein and William Lamers (1955). Their book, The History
of American Funeral Directing, reviews the history of funeral practice in Western
civilization from ancient Egypt on, and was required reading for years in mortuary colleges.
(Tour the National Museum of Funeral History
in Houston.) The Web of
Time has two articles on the industry's history and its products: Julian W. S. Litten's
"Going in
Style-The Coffin: Its Place in Social History," and Richard Akerman's
"Picture Perfect: A
Cast-Iron Case." See also John L. Konefes and Michael K. McGee's "Old
Cemeteries, Arsenic, and Health Safety."
e
industry for Americans to believe that a funeral without a body is like a marriage
ceremony without the bride or like a baptism without an infant. Cremations often mean
no open casket ceremonies. In our own class surveys,
students preferring burial were well over twice as likely to approve of "lying in state" than
those preferring to be cremated. Now, with more than one out of five deceased
Americans now being cremated (with rates being projected to increase to nearly one-third
by 2010--click here to see state rates) is it not
interesting to see casket companies writing
about cremation? (It should come as no surprise that such serious matters
invite humor and parody, such as funeralguy.com
with "a lighter look of the world of funerals, cemeteries, death and
the death care industries...") For a history of this means of body
disposal in America see Laura
Miller's review of Stephen Prothero's Purified by Fire in Salon.com.
The Internet Cremation Society bills
itself as "the number one visited cremation site in the world." 
Other "insider" resources from the industry:
I guess it was to be expected: one can now receive online
funeral service consulting and make wholesale casket purchases from Zwisler Brothers "Tomorrow's
Cradle", ClassicMemorials.com,
and Funeralitems.com
. Frugalfuneral.com out
of Portland, OR, claims to have the only listing of funeral prices on the
web. Another funeral planning service, one targeting web-savvy, professional
Boomer males, is Funerals to Die
For--"discover how much fun making your arrangements can
be." To secure tomorrow's funeral at today's prices on the web,
go to Cooperative
Funeral Service in Great Britain.
With industrialization came mass production--and mass consumption to move the glut of goods. With the service orientation of postindustrialism has come the customization of goods and services. Enter Perpetua, Inc., one of whose funeral homes fashions various realistic settings for the final farewell, including "Mama's Kitchen."
Another predictable phenomenon that has come to be is the electronic funeral. Claiming up to be the first funeral home to broadcast a live funeral is Fergerson Funeral Home. Funeral-Cast also presents online services and has a directory of recent services for replay. A new dimension of electronic memorials comes from Forever Network, where the Hollywood elite, such as Rudolph Valentino, and common folk are immortalized in text, photographs, and movies.
WARNINGS AND GUIDES FOR THE CONSUMER
In 1992, the National Funeral Directors Association held its 111th meeting here in San Antonio. A straw vote was taken of its members' preferences for U.S. President that year. Bush was favored by nearly two-thirds. One mortician said the votes were swayed by funeral directors' concerns about Clinton's plans to more heavily tax Americans making over $200,000 annually more. "Who in the hell doesn't make $200,000 anymore?" he said.
There are a number of reasons why funeral homes have one of the lowest failure rates of any business and why the funeral industry produces one of the highest stock returns of any American industry. (And, to boot, funeral homes are not required by federal law to file their financial statements with the SEC.) Certainly one reason for the industry's success involves Americans' death denials, often preventing any decision-making until death occurs. Further, there is a profound ignorance about funerary services and products, which include such costs as embalming (which, contrary to popular opinion, is not normally required by law), funerary apparel, usage fees for "slumber room" and chapel, a burial plot, the grave liner, marker, newspaper obituaries, and the opening and closing of the grave. As I wrote in Endings: A Sociology of Death and Dying:
When one enters a funeral home one enters ill prepared, for this is not a K-Mart or dentist office, places for which one has prior experience and knows "the game." One does not take a number nor pushes a cart down aisles. Nor does one see samples of the quality of work done. Instead, one enters at the mercy of a receptionist, who announces to the staff that another performance is to begin and to "get into role." The prospective customer, unfortunately, knows neither the cues nor the script. She is then introduced to her funeral director. As Turner and Edgley (1975:384) note, "the change of titles from `undertaker' to `funeral director' has been perhaps the largest single clue to the dramaturgical functions the industry now sees itself as performing. He is indeed a `director,' controlling a dramatic production."
To make the drama more interesting, recall that this new player is not oneself. Often a significant other's death has just occurred and one has begun feeling the most awesome of emotions: grief. Experiencing feelings that perhaps have never before been felt before and entering the bereavement role, for which one may have no performance expectations, one meets the man who "knows" about such things, the funeral director. Our new widow is then led to a private "counseling" room, a diploma-filled office looking much like that of any health care professional.
To counter the high cost of dying (average funeral costs now exceed $5000), several funerary reform movements have arisen. Among the most successful are the memorial societies that have sprung up around the country. These groups promote simple services and basic products, such as cremation, no embalming or viewing, and inexpensive wood caskets. They negotiate with area funeral homes to provide their members economical memorial services.
Check you local phone book to find the memorial society in your area (don't expect to find it listed under "Funeral" in your Yellow Pages). Even if one does not exist locally, one can still receive the benefits of one by joining the Funeral and Memorial Societies of America, Inc.. 6900 Lost Lake Road Egg Harbor, WI 54209-9231 (414) 868-3136
For those in the San Antonio area, contact The San Antonio Memorial Society at (210) 341-2213. In Houston, upon recommendations of the national society and to make it easier to look up in the Yellow Pages, the name is now Funeral Consumers Alliance of Houston.
Reacting against the funeral industry's control over mortuary ritual, some individuals
seek to return control to families. Included in their agenda are home funerals
(including home preparation of the deceased, which is legal in all states but
New York, Louisiana, Indiana and Nebraska) and green burials. See Nancy
Rommelman's "Crying
and Digging: Reclaiming the Realities and Rituals of Death" (Los
Angeles Times, Feb. 6, 2005).
