Summary of "The Embalming of Mr. Jones" Essay

“Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” is an essay written by Jessica Mitford. She creates a clear replica of the funeral industry in her essay. She explains about how the funeral directors do not consult the kin of the deceased before the process. The goal of Mitford is to share many of the practices of the funeral industry, and show how barbaric they are.The tone of the essay is to inform people about the process, from the deceased first arriving to the morgue until the end of the funeral service. She discussed about the embalming and the industry in her essay.

In general, when a member of the Amish community dies, their body will be embalmed. Unlike most of the more conservative religions, the Amish believe in using both arterial embalming (The process of injecting chemicals into the arterial system of the body) and visceral embalming (The process of injecting chemicals into the viscera or organs). In most modern circumstances, the Amish family will use an English funeral home (There are VERY few Amish funeral home) for the preservation of

During the first eight days, the participants gathered and prepared the bodies for the reburial. Relatives of the deceased took out their remains, and the corpses, in various degrees of putrefaction. Flesh and skin were removed from the corpses and the bones were individually cleaned. They were wrapped again in another set of beaver furs. Generally women carried out this task, and any sign of revulsion was traditionally discouraged. Wrapped in fur packages, the bones were returned to the homes of relatives, where a feast was held in memory of the dead. Gifts and offerings were placed next to these packages, and visitors were welcomed and treated generously. This was a time to feast, and gather the food and offerings to be used for the main burial event. The village leader announced when all families should transport the bodies. The journey to the new site was often long and was a time for public mourning, punctuated by sharp cries of the participants. When the chief decided and everyone was present, all would gather around the burial pit for the main ceremony. Whenever the relatives of the deceased have food, skin, and other goods to properly honor the deceased. At the same time the namesake of the dead are clothed from head to foot and showered with presents. The feast occurs only at irregular intervals of several years. It is by for the most important event in the life of the Alaskan

Burial rituals are discussed in this page of notes. There is a blanket wrapped around the body and a “nice silk handkerchief” placed on the face, blankets are then put all around the body to make sure it stays warm. They did not use a coffin but dis put boards around the body in similar fashion, however, they did not use nails. It also appears that there was interest by one of Harrington’s informants to see a white funeral/burial because she “wanted to see how whites fired corpse.” This tells of their burial practices and that they have an interest in how other people are burring their dead.

No one can escape death. It’s one of so few unavoidable certainties in our lives and has held an important position in every human culture since time immemorial. Of course, this position has is different from culture to culture, and shifts over time. This is particularly evident in western culture. The shift is discussed at length in two essays: “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” by Jessica Mitford, and ‘The Fear of Dying’ by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Both explore different aspects of these themes – Mitford’s essay being deconstruction of a the uniquely North American process of embalming, and Kübler-Ross’ being an indictment of the clinical depersonalization of contemporary western attitudes toward death. Each utilize many different tools as writers, such as rhetorical modes. Rhetorical modes they share are exemplification, description, and compare-and-contrast.

1. Watch “The Undertaking” where this video examines a family who works in the funeral industry as a window into American feelings on death and dying. Then, respond to the following questions: How do funeral rituals describe by the Lynch family show our cultural values about death and dying? How would a sociologist create a research question to systematically evaluate the claims that the Lynch family makes about death and dying? The funeral industry arguably exists to serve micro-level relationships, consoling individuals who have just lost others central to their social existence. How is the funeral industry connected to institutions at the community and

The history of ceremonies for care of the dead goes back as far as 60,000 BC when the Neanderthals used flowers and animal antlers to decorate the dead. Embalming originated in 4000 BC with the Egyptians but was uncommon there until 3400 BC. Embalming was first introduced in to the US by Dr. Thomas Holmes (1817-1900)

At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people.

Through a little research on the internet, a website called “Bodies Revealed” informed me of the process used to preserve the bodies, which is known as “polymer preservation.” The bodies that are used first are embalmed according to standard procedures and perfused with a preserving agent to prevent the normal tissue decay that takes place after death. After the body is embalmed, a trained dissector prepares it, or a part of it, according to predetermined guidelines. Because of the degree of difficulty involved in dissecting a full body specimen, it can take several months to complete. If the dissector is working with individual organs, they can be prepared much more quickly. After the dissection is complete, the specimens are thoroughly rinsed in cold running water, which removes as much of the preserving agent as possible. Rinsing a full-body specimen can take up to one week to finish. After the rinsing, the specimen is ready to be dehydrated. They dehydrate the specimens by placing it in acetone, which acts to replace all of the tissue water present in the specimen. The specimen is then impregnated with a mixture of liquid silicone polymer and a crosslinker. The polymer hardens during a curing process, which leaves a dry, odorless specimen that doesn’t decompose. I had the

The body is cleansed, washed thoroughly from head to toe (Taharah). The faces of the deceased are not allowed to face down out of respect for the deceased. The body is then dried, everything is done by the members of the Burial Society and they also dress the deceased in a

Embalmers have a long list of daily tasks, along with very precise legal guidelines as to how to handle the deceased. These tasks include: washing and disinfecting bodies to prevent deterioration and infection, removing fluids and gasses from the body and injecting it with chemicals to preserve it, washing and arranging hair and cosmetics, and using plaster of Paris of wax to restore the appearance of the bodies after injury. The typical hours and days embalmers are required to work in a weekly schedule are Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., though they are not limited to this schedule. some embalmers are required to be on-call, or may cover weekends. This career may be found in any city, as death occurs in all environments. In fact, even our own little Webster County has two funeral homes of it’s own. This work would be performed indoors, in special laboratories, due to the special equipment required to perform the daily tasks of an

Today the society is looking for ways to ease life and to find solutions for problems which oppress our lives and make it hard to live through. Because of many reasons, the traditional burials in this century are becoming a problem. (Prothero,2001). The fact that they cover a lot of land to build cemeteries and other things that are attached to these traditional burials is enough for us to search for a practical solution. About a century ago the term "cremation" was unknown to many people. It is believed that it began to be practiced during the early Stone Age and still exists today. Since that time cremations have been made all

Every individual experiences the act of death, and most persons experience the death of someone they know of. Whether family, kin, or someone infamous, the living deal with the process of dying. Anthropology seeks to understand the universal process of death ritual and how different cultures deal with death differently. An anthropologist can extract social values of a given culture, past or present, from how death ceremony is practiced. Such values could be regarding political hierarchy or an individual’s status in a society, and about a culture’s spiritual or religious faith. By exploring death ceremony in ancient Egypt, contemporary Hindu death practice in India, and current North American funerary rites, it can be illustrated that

In the funeral world there are a lot of different styles of funerals. For example, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic funerals. Both very different, but at the same time they have several things in common. In funerals there is an abundance of things to compare and contrast. We will be looking at different ways the notification of death is handled in both of these religions, removal, embalming, dressing/casketing, visitation requirements/rituals, and interment or cremation.

Funeral ceremonies were extremely elaborate, especially for upper class citizens. Funerals had five parts in Ancient Rome; the procession, the cremation and burial, the eulogy, the feast, and the commemoration. Ceremonies began closely after death, as soon as all necessary preparations were made. At the home, the deceased’s body would be washed with warm water and then anointed. If the deceased person had held office, a wax impression of his features would be taken. Next, the body would be dressed in in a toga with all the regalia of the rank he was allowed to wear. Incense would be burned and pine woul dbe places outside the door to signify death in the house. In early and late times, when burial was more popular than cremation, a coing would be placed in between the teeth of the deceased, as payment for Charon, the ferryman of the underworld. These rites were simplified in poorer funerals, as well as done by a family member. However, for the rich, an undertaker, or designator, would do so().