Hw 48 - Family Perspectives On The Care Of The Dead - Comment this.

For this assignment, I interviewed my aunt and my uncle. The questions that were asked to them were very basic, such as "What comes to mind when you think about the care of the dead?", "How do you think the world around you treats the dead?", "Do you agree with their tactics? Disagree? Why/Why not?". My aunt's answers were the "mainstream" answers you would expect from most people. The reason for this assumption is because, when I asked her about her initial thoughts on the care of the dead, she responded, "I think about funerals, burials, and cremation". My uncle on the other hand, responded with much more knowledge on the isolation of the dead. His initial thoughts on the care of the dead were based around the opinion that, no one wants to be reminded of dead people. The isolation of cemeteries, and the uncomfortableness associated with talking about the dead is a result of his opinion.

When digging deeper in to my aunts perspectives on the care of the dead, I realized her common, expected answer is due to ignorance. There is no way to learn about the care of the dead in an average school, or television program. Deeper independent research usually has to be done in order to learn more about the subject. My aunt is a prime example of someone who has not been informed on the subject, she has witnessed a burial, funeral and the result of a cremation, however; she wasn't exposed to the subject enough to analyze it.  The social and medial isolation of the care of the dead leads to ignorant claims and opinions about it.

In the case of my uncle, from personal experience I know that he independently researches topics after watching a national geographic program on television. During the interview he mentioned that he watched an episode of National Geographic's "Taboo" in which they looked at tribal rituals on burying the dead. My uncle than thought back to that episode of taboo and came up with the connection between tribes from third-world countries, and society around him, that if other people around the world can openly exhibit rituals for the dead, why can't we? His exposure to learning about the care of the dead led him to his perspective. Overall, I believe that in the case of my aunt and uncle, it is the amount of knowledge on the topic of care of the dead, that leads to varied perspectives.

Some questions these interviews led me to wonder:

- Does religious beliefs play a role in the way people handle the dead?

- Does isolating the dead from society decrease the amount people think about it?

- What if, there were cemeteries on every few blocks within the city that were as common a sight as a McDonalds?

HW 46 - Initial Thoughts On The Care Of The Dead

My experiences around the care of the dead are limited, however ; one moment that stands out in my mind when thinking about this topic is, a funeral I attended as a young child. A very close family friend passed away from a heart attack and the funeral that was held for him was the first funeral I have ever attended. As a 5 year old child, my first thoughts were, Why is his body here for everyone to see? Why would anyone want to see him in this condition? It was a very confusing concept to me.

It was from this memory that I made a significant observation. During his death, my entire family lied to me and said that he died from being burnt while cooking, as if to cover up the truth about dying. The entire subject of caring for the dead seems to be something too "sacred" for just anyone to be aware of. It is kept isolated from normal society. As a 5 year old child it was kept a secret from me, and even now as a 17 year old young adult, I know little about the process after a person has died. I hope from discovering more during this unit that I gain more insight and learn more about the care of the dead.

HW 44 - Comments on other people's project

To Stephen G.

Stephen, the pros and cons that you mentioned were very influential. The statistics of home birth vs hospital births particularly were well thought out and analyzed. The information you had on the hormonal/mental advantages of home births was interesting to me.


To Evan D.


Evan, I found your speech very influential, and the fact that you were able to interview a midwife at St Luke's Hospital is something that shows you put effort in to it. Also, I found it extremely interesting how the midwife responded to your question on nightmarish practices at hospitals with a "it all has a purpose if it is needed".


To Jessica C.


Jessica, To agree with Rigel, I found it very interesting that your project was based on abortion because, the topic in itself is something that we didn't really touch on as a class. Bringing that in to your project made me think more about what if my own family chose to have an abortion? What if certain family members ceased to exist? Your project made me ask myself those questions. Good job.