Read complete books and articles on: Funeral Customs

Funeral Customs - rituals surrounding the death of a human being and the subsequent disposition of the corpse. Such rites may serve to mark the passage of a person from life into death, to secure the welfare of the dead, to comfort the living, and to protect the living from the dead. Disposal of the body may be by burial, by conservation (see mummy), by cremation, by exposure (see Parsis), or by other methods. Funeral ceremonies have certain common features: for example, the laying out of the corpse; the watching of the dead, of which the wake is a standard example; and the period of mourning with the accompanying ceremonies.

Disposition of the Corpse

Preparation of the corpse is usually most elaborate in the case of burial (see coffin; embalming), but it is a general practice to wash and clothe the body. Many of the observances connected with death recall the rites of passage associated with other life crises. The body is then taken to a resting place, sometimes only temporarily. It may be laid on a scaffold, to await later cremation, or it may be buried until the flesh has rotted away, after which the bones are exhumed for a second burial. Such secondary burials are quite common in traditional societies. All of these customs derive from a belief that the soul remains in this world for a brief period before departing for the next. Final disposition of the corpse implies final disposition of the soul, and the mourners have certain ritual obligations toward the deceased until then. In the past, the spirit of the deceased was regarded by certain peoples as potentially both harmful and helpful. Attempts to discourage it from returning and disturbing the living were made by placing near the corpse such foods and personal possessions as would help the spirit during its journey and equip it for the other world. As the social and economic status of the deceased was often reflected by the quality and quantity of their burial goods, the systematic analysis of funerary remains can provide archaeologists with an important means of investigating the social organization of an ancient culture.

Religious Customs

Funeral customs have traditionally varied by religion. In Buddhism, death is prepared for through meditation, and death itself is viewed as a rebirth. Once dead, the body is washed, rituals are performed over it, a wake is held, and then it is typically cremated. Christian custom has changed from an earlier period where a funeral was treated as a joyous occasion to one where it is a time for mourning. In the Roman Catholic Church, the body is prepared for burial, usually by embalming; this is followed by a requiem Mass and burial; additional Masses may be conducted periodically over the next year. Protestant churches usually hold one ceremony, followed by either burial (the usual form) or cremation. Hindu ceremonies are closely tied to a belief in reincarnation. Thus an elaborate set of rituals is conducted, mostly by relatives, to ensure a proper rebirth. Islamic ceremonies include washing and preparing the body, prayers, reading from the Qur'an, and placing the body on the right side facing Mecca for burial (cremation is not practiced). Early Judaism, with perhaps the simplest of all ceremonies, included a prayer service, washing the body and wrapping it in linen, followed by a funeral banquet.

Bibliography

See E. Bendann, Death Customs (1930, repr. 1969); R. Hertz, Death and the Right Hand (tr. 1960); R. W. Habenstein and W. M. Lamers, The History of American Funeral Directing (rev. ed. 1962) and Funeral Customs the World Over (rev. ed. 1963); R. Huntington and P. Metcalf, Celebrations of Death (1979).

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Funeral Customs

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

International Handbook of Funeral Customs » Read Now
by Kodo Matsunami. 204 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

This handbook explores the current cultural and religious customs concerning death, burial, and mourning in countries throughout the world, and covers all the major religions. At present there are more than 190 independent countries in the world, and the funeral practices in each are closely related...
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This handbook explores the current cultural and religious customs concerning death, burial, and mourning in countries throughout the world, and covers all the major religions. At present there are more than 190 independent countries in the world, and the funeral practices in each are closely related to the culture, history and geography of the country concerned. Matsunami examines the ways people living around the world deal with the death of a loved one, and what kind of post-morten arrangements are made. In doing so, he provides a better understanding of the world's cultures by viewing people's individual and collective behavior when it comes to funeral customs.
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2.

Death and Bereavement across Cultures » Read Now
by Pittu Laungani, Colin Murray Parkes, Bill Young. 264 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

All societies have their own customs and beliefs surrounding death. In the West, traditional ways of mourning are disappearing, and though science has had a major impact on views of death, it has taught us little about the way to die or to grieve. Many who come into contact with the dying and the...
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All societies have their own customs and beliefs surrounding death. In the West, traditional ways of mourning are disappearing, and though science has had a major impact on views of death, it has taught us little about the way to die or to grieve. Many who come into contact with the dying and the bereaved from other cultures are at a loss to know how to offer appropriate and sensitive support.Death and Bereavement Across Cultures , provides a handbook with which to meet the needs of doctors, nurses, social workers, counsellors and others involved in the care of the dying and bereaved. Written by international authorities in the field, this important text:*describes the rituals and beliefs of major world religions*explains their psychological and historical context*shows how customs change on contact with the West*considers the implications for the futureThis book explores the richness of mourning traditions around the world with the aim of increasing the understanding which we all bring to the issue of death.
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3.

The Last Passage: Recovering a Death of Our Own » Read Now
by Donald Heinz. 300 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

Is death merely the cessation of life? Are our final years simply a wearing out of the body? Are hospitals and funeral homes--the bureaucratic machinery of death--capable of handling the profound spiritual dimension of dying? In The Last Passage, Donald Heinz offers wise answers to these questions...
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Is death merely the cessation of life? Are our final years simply a wearing out of the body? Are hospitals and funeral homes--the bureaucratic machinery of death--capable of handling the profound spiritual dimension of dying? In The Last Passage, Donald Heinz offers wise answers to these questions in a book that urges us to "recover a death of our own" and to view our final years as a fulfillment, a "last career." Despite the recent spate of books on death and dying, death remains a fact our culture tries desperately to ignore. In other times and in other cultures, preparing for death was seen as an important spiritual task--perhaps the most important task of our lives. Heinz argues that we can reconceive of death, reinvest it with meaning, and save it from becoming a meaningless biological event. Seeking appropriate models for such a reconstruction, Heinz offers a fascinating overview of the many ways death has been envisioned and ritualized throughout human history, from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to 15th century Christian ars moriendi--manuals on the art of dying--and from Jean Paul Sartre to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. He also surveys the more recent contributions of psychologists, anthropologists, cultural critics, and death awareness advocates, whose efforts have largely failed to integrate death into a larger human story and the larger human community. Finally, Heinz shows us how we might create rituals through the use of music, visual arts, dance, drama, and language that would enable us to approach death with reverence, as the spiritual consummation of our lives.
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4.

Deeply into the Bone: Re-Inventing Rites of Passage » Read Now
by Ronald L. Grimes. 384 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

"There is no other book even remotely like this. "Deeply into the Bone" is an exceptional, imaginative book on the topic of rites and the shaping of human life. Grimes is one of the few people who ably combines scholarly disciplines and perspectives with firsthand narratives, literary essays, films...
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"There is no other book even remotely like this. "Deeply into the Bone" is an exceptional, imaginative book on the topic of rites and the shaping of human life. Grimes is one of the few people who ably combines scholarly disciplines and perspectives with firsthand narratives, literary essays, films and observations of general culture. He is unquestionably a first-rate author and thinker, and this is an unquestionably magnificent book."--Lawrence Hoffman, author of "Covenant of Blood"
""Deeply into the Bone "is guaranteed to change our minds about ritual. Using a global and ethnic array of rites new and old, Grimes shows that contrary to popular belief, the ritual marking of life passages is anything "but" universal. By teaching us how to think comparatively we see that rites of passage are enduring rituals not for their uniformity, but because they serve as cornerstones for cultural and spiritual creativity and innovation."--Madeline Duntley, College of Wooster
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5.

Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America » Read Now
by Stephen Prothero. 266 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Just one hundred years ago, Americans almost universally condemned cremation. Today, nearly one-quarter of Americans choose to be cremated. The practice has gained wide acceptance as a funeral rite, in both our private and public lives, as the cremations of icons such as John Lennon and John F...
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Just one hundred years ago, Americans almost universally condemned cremation. Today, nearly one-quarter of Americans choose to be cremated. The practice has gained wide acceptance as a funeral rite, in both our private and public lives, as the cremations of icons such as John Lennon and John F. Kennedy Jr. show. "Purified by Fire tells the fascinating story of cremation's rise from notoriety to legitimacy and takes a provocative new look at important transformations in the American cultural landscape over the last 150 years.
Stephen Prothero synthesizes a wide array of previously untapped source material, including newspapers, consumer guides, mortician trade journals, and popular magazines such as "Reader's Digest to provide this first historical study of cremation in the United States. He vividly describes many noteworthy events--from the much-criticized first American cremation in 1876 to the death and cremation of Jerry Garcia in the late twentieth century. From the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era to the baby boomers of today, this book takes us on a tour through American culture and traces our changing attitudes toward death, religion, public health, the body, and the environment.
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6.

The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead » Read Now
by Bryan J. Cuevas. 328 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

In 1927, Oxford University Press published the first western-language translation of a collection of Tibetan funerary texts (the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo) under the title The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Since that time, the work has established a powerful hold on the western popular...
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In 1927, Oxford University Press published the first western-language translation of a collection of Tibetan funerary texts (the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo) under the title The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Since that time, the work has established a powerful hold on the western popular imagination, and is now considered a classic of spiritual literature. Over the years, The Tibetan Book of the Dead has inspired numerous commentaries, an illustrated edition, a play, a video series, and even an opera. Translators, scholars, and popular devotees of the book have claimed to explain its esoteric ideas and reveal its hidden meaning. Few, however, have uttered a word about its history. Bryan J. Cuevas seeks to fill this gap in our knowledge by offering the first comprehensive historical study of the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo, and by grounding it firmly in the context of Tibetan history and culture. He begins by discussing the many ways the texts have been understood (and misunderstood) by westerners, beginning with its first editor, the Oxford-educated anthropologist Walter Y. Evans-Wentz, and continuing through the present day. The remarkable fame of the book in the west, Cuevas argues, is strikingly disproportionate to how the original Tibetan texts were perceived in their own country. Cuevas tells the story of how The Tibetan Book of the Dead was compiled in Tibet, of the lives of those who preserved and transmitted it, and explores the history of the rituals through which the life of the dead is imagined in Tibetan society. This book provides not only a fascinating look at a popular and enduring spiritual work, but also a much-needed corrective to the proliferation of ahistorical scholarship surrounding The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
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7.

Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity » Read Now
by Jon Davies. 246 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

In Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity , Jon Davies charts the significance of death to the emerging religious cults in the pre-Christian and early Christian world. He analyses the varied burial rituals and examines the different notions of the afterlife. Among the areas covered...
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In Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity , Jon Davies charts the significance of death to the emerging religious cults in the pre-Christian and early Christian world. He analyses the varied burial rituals and examines the different notions of the afterlife. Among the areas covered are:* Osiris and Isis: the life theology of Ancient Egypt* burying the Jewish dead* Roman religion and Roman funerals* Early Christian burial* the nature of martyrdom.Jon Davies also draws on the sociological theory of Max Weber to present a comprehensive introduction to and overview of death, burial and the afterlife in the first Christian centuries which offers insights into the relationship between social change and attitudes to death and dying.
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8.

Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages » Read Now
by Bonnie Effros. 272 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

A history of the discovery and interpretation of medieval burials in Gaul (what would eventually become France).
9.

Death in the Victorian Family » Read Now
by Pat Jalland. 464 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

This engrossing book explores family experiences of dying, death, grieving, and mourning in the years between 1830 and 1920. So many Victorian letters, diaries, and death memorials reveal a deep preoccupation with death which is both fascinating and enlightening. Pat Jalland has examined the...
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This engrossing book explores family experiences of dying, death, grieving, and mourning in the years between 1830 and 1920. So many Victorian letters, diaries, and death memorials reveal a deep preoccupation with death which is both fascinating and enlightening. Pat Jalland has examined the correspondence, diaries, and death memorials of fifty-five families to show us deathbed scenes of the time, good and bad deaths, the roles of medicine and religion, children's deaths, funerals and cremations, widowhood, and mourning rituals.
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10.

Death, Religion, and the Family in England, 1480-1750 » Read Now
by Ralph Houlbrooke. 445 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Both the interest and importance of the social history of death have been increasingly recognized during the last thirty years. Here, Houlbrooke examines the impact of religious change on the English "way of death" between 1480 and 1750. He discusses relatively neglected aspects of the subject, such...
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Both the interest and importance of the social history of death have been increasingly recognized during the last thirty years. Here, Houlbrooke examines the impact of religious change on the English "way of death" between 1480 and 1750. He discusses relatively neglected aspects of the subject, such as the death-bed, will-making, and last rites. He also studies the wide variety of commemorative media and practices, and is the first to describe the development of the English funeral sermon between the late Middle Ages and the 18th century. Houlbrooke shows how the need of the living to remember the dead remained important throughout the later medieval and early modern periods, even though its justification and means of expression were altered.
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11.

Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England » Read Now
by David Cressy. 641 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

From childbirth and baptism through to courtship, weddings, and funerals, every stage in the life-cycle of Tudor and Stuart England was accompanied by ritual. Even under the protestantism of the reformed Church, the spiritual and social dramas of birth, marriage, and death were graced with elaborate...
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From childbirth and baptism through to courtship, weddings, and funerals, every stage in the life-cycle of Tudor and Stuart England was accompanied by ritual. Even under the protestantism of the reformed Church, the spiritual and social dramas of birth, marriage, and death were graced with elaborate ceremony. Powerful and controversial protocols were in operation, shaped and altered by the influences of the Reformation, the Revolution, and the Restoration. Each of the major rituals was potentially an arena for argument, ambiguity, and dissent. Ideally, as classic rites of passage, these ceremonies worked to bring people together. But they also set up traps into which people could stumble, and tests which not everybody could pass. In practice, ritual performance revealed frictions and fractures that everyday local discourse attempted to hide or to heal. Using fascinating first-hand evidence, David Cressy shows how the making and remaking of ritual formed part of a continuing debate, sometimes strained and occasionally acrimonious, which exposed the raw nerves of society in the midst of great historical events. In doing so, he vividly brings to life the common experiences of living and dying in Tudor and Stuart England.
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12.

The Funeral Casino: Meditation, Massacre, and Exchange with the Dead in Thailand » Read Now
by Alan Klima. 311 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The Funeral Casino is a heretical ethnography of the global age. Setting his book within Thailand's pro-democracy movement and the street massacres that accompanied it, Alan Klima offers a strikingly original interpretation of mass-mediated violence through a study of funeral gambling and Buddhist...
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The Funeral Casino is a heretical ethnography of the global age. Setting his book within Thailand's pro-democracy movement and the street massacres that accompanied it, Alan Klima offers a strikingly original interpretation of mass-mediated violence through a study of funeral gambling and Buddhist meditation on death.The fieldwork for the book began in 1992, when a freewheeling market of illegal "massacre-imagery" videos blossomed in Bangkok on the very site where, days earlier, for the third time in two decades, a military-controlled government had killed scores of unarmed pro-democracy protesters. Such killings and their subsequent representation have lent force to Thailand's transition from military control to a "media-financial complex." Probing the ways in which death is marketed, visualized, and remembered through practices both local and global, Klima inverts conventional relationships between ethnography and theory through a compelling narrative that reveals a surprising new direction available to anthropology and critical theory.Ethnography here engages with the philosophy of activism and the politics of memory, media representation of violence, and globalization. In focusing on the particular array of tactics in Thai Buddhism and protest politics for connecting death and life, past and present, this book unveils a vivid and haunting picture of community, responsibility, and accountability in the new world order.
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13.

Ghosts and the Japanese: Cultural Experience in Japanese Death Legends » Read Now
by Michiko Iwasaka, Barre Toelken. 140 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

The authors show that everyday beliefs and customs, particularly death traditions, offer special insight into the culture of Japan.
14.

Mourning and the Making of a Sacred Symbol: Durkheim and the Lincoln Assassination, in Social Forces » Read Now
by Barry Schwartz. 22 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...This article shows how extraordinary funeral rites elevated Lincolns political status...Reverend Briggs ( 1865 ) declared in his funeral eulogy that Lincoln would "be...
15.

The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead » Read Now
by J. G. Frazer. 495 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...accused. 1 Again, similar beliefs and customs in regard to what we should call natural...the crime to some individual, and the funeral obsequies are scarcely concluded...
16.

The Fear of the Dead in Primitive Religion » Read Now
by Sir James George Frazer. 204 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...the enemies of mankind. The funeral rites of the Chukchis abound...observes that some of their funeral ceremonies "would appear to...ghosts that the elaborate funeral...