Funeral Customs of African Americans and American Jews :: essays research papers fc

Funeral Customs of African Americans and American Jews The loony bin of death disturbs the peace of the living. This unsettling fact of life has proven to be a rich source of inspiration for human efforts to find order in disorder, meaning in suffering, eternity in finitude. Religion, culture, social structures, the vitality of these primal elements of communal life depends upon ritually putting the dead body in its place, managing the relations between the living and the dead and providing explanations for the existence of death. - Gary Laderman - 2003A run pot is an accurate description of Americas cultural diversity. everywhere across the country many people from different countries and cultures start migrated to the linked States. Some form subcultures or communities while others are dispersed and isolated. oer time, many of the ceremonies and traditions, such as funerals, associated with a particular culture have been influenced by or mingled with Euro-American usage, cau sing people to loose touch with the stage setting of their own traditions. For sample, some conform to American burial customs and play along secular attitudes about bereavement, which tend to underestimate the power of grief and the fix of loss. This is particularly true with younger generations born in the United States. Also, K uniquely American is the mass use of embalming, as it is the base of the American economic funeral industry. (Mitford V 1998, Introduction) However, many prideful people keep the traditions and customs of their indigenous cultures alive, retaining their distinct ethnic or religious traditions. This paper testament compare the similarities and differences in funeral practices between two large populations and sub-cultures of the United States African Americans and American Jews, and also how American influences have affected their traditional funeral customs.In the past, when a person died no one asked, When should we schedule the funeral? or How freq uently would you like to spend on a casket? Members of the community simply appeared and began preparing the body for burial and the mourners would provide comfort to the bereaved. Death itself has become something of a stranger because it used to be that death was an everyday occurrence of life, for example people did not live as long, higher infant deathrate rates, etc. People usually died at home, surrounded by love ones. Funerals, like weddings, were not invitational events, but community-wide gatherings. But today, it is possible to stress the age of forty without ever attending a funeral or see a house of mourning.