Hw - 50 First Third of Care-for-the-Dead Book Post

Mark Harris, Grave Matters:A Journey Through The Modern Funeral Industry to A Natural Way of Burial, 2007, Scribner, New York, NY.

Precis: Twelve hours after they'd left Brakertown Memorial Hospital, Jim and Myra Johnson made arrangements for the burial of their daughter Jenny at the Fielding Funeral Home. Tom Feilding, the funeral director greets both Jim and Myra Johnson inviting the couple to a hush receiving room making it more or less comfortable for the family - Fielding doesn't try to console families. The Johnson's tell Feilding that they would like a funeral that is traditional to their catholic backgrounds. A viewing service at St. Matthews. Burial in Holy savior. Feilding tells the Johnson this is possible and gives them the complete detail of a variety of costs ranging from the place they want the burial (Church or funeral home) to the time and length the burial will be. The total costs for options of viewing the Johnson's chose came up to be $12,376. After the burial of their daughter, the Johnson's and the Holy savior oversee the the sealing of the vault which rests on a stand with rails running into the grave.

Quotes:
"The kind of send-off the Johnson's brought into for their daughter likely plays out more than a million times every year in this country...some twenty-seven hundred licensed embalmers like Tom Feilding will wheel a newly deceased family member into their prep rooms and there ply their trade..."(41)

"The funeral industry has taken to calling this final undertaking the traditional American funeral service...Today's typical funeral is but a modern construct, and one that bears little resemblance to the way earlier generations cared for, paid tribute to, and buried their dead."(41)

"The industrial engine beginning to drive the economy made it possible, mass-producing the trappings of the tasteful funeral that could increasingly be had in the growing marketplace of goods and on a workingman's wages. When it came to elaborating on the simple funeral, capitalism and gentility proved a winning combination." (43)

Analysis:
Mark Harris brings fourth a detailed and a precise sequence of what "deciding" a funeral and burial is for the first third of the book. The personal story of the Johnson's and their relationship with funeral director Tom Feilding advocates that Death is a business and is rather costly and is a million dollar industry. Other than briefly consoling the families who have lost a family member, the families are offered alternatives to seek therapy which is providing by the company which you have to pay more and on top of all of that, the fee's and cost of burial for a family member. From the selection of where burials can be to the type of casket a loved one will go six feet deep into the ground, its a big business and it commonly seen every day.

Hw - 48 Family Perspective of The Care of The Dead

Mom:
Question 1: What are some basic views of the Care of The Dead that come to mind?
Well, first of all, the body should be treated and second of all the soul must be respected.

Question 2: What do you think some of the dominant practices are under this kind of topic?

Some of the dominant practices may be having funerals and grievances after someone who has passed.

Question 3: Do you think you do anything different than the practices done in dominant cultures?
No. Only because I feel that practices done in our culture fit with nothing posed out of the regular. I could be wrong though.

Dad:

Question 1: What are some things your family taught you about caring for the dead?
Not really sure or can't remember talking to them about it. But what I can tell you is that in my family after a family member has passed, we make sure to quickly arrange a proper funeral and discuss the burial.

Question 2: What are somethings you do similarly or differently to the practices done in the dominant cultures?
I do not like going to funerals but still do anyway out of respect even though that might contradict. I have never been in one but have witnessed quarrels over who gets to own what after a person has passed.

Question 3: What do you think needs to change in dominant social practices under caring for the dead?
Not sure. But I would like this negative assumption of not going to a burial or funeral to stop.

From these two brief interviews of my parents I can see that they are not phased by it as much and their views on it are of what dominant practices are. Although this may be the case I really liked the part where my father explained how he does not like to go to funerals but because of the pressures in our society to "show respect" it forces people sometimes to do things they may not enjoy. For this case particularly showing respect to the dead. I also noticed that dominant practices in our culture are either similar in some sense because we all treat the dead some way.

Hw - 46 Initial Thoughts on the Care of the Dead

My initial thoughts on care for the dead is bleak. The personal connection is not there but views on the dominant practices are apparent. I know that after someone who has died, there are ceremonies, funerals, grievances, and celebrations. Alternatives to this kind of practice I have no clue on where or how it might be practiced. One thing I do realize about these practices are, that it is all brief. I may be overstating, but once someone dies, we put together these ceremonies that last for a week or two and then we move on. Why? Is it that we have a tendency of moving on from the past quickly or is that we no longer have any physical connection anymore? This has always bothered me why when people die, there of major importance for a brief amount of time, and once that time is over, it is set aside.

Coming from my parents, I was always taught to respect the ones who have passed, and in all seriousness, after leaving from a funeral, entering your home backwards instead of forwards. It was to make sure that unrested souls don't follow you in. Creeps me out still. But from there on, my 'real' personal connection with this topic is not there, or I just don't know yet.

Questions:
1. Alternatives to care for the dead?
2. Similarities and differences within dominant social practices around the topic of Care of the Dead.
3. Is it true that after someone dies, we quickly try to move on? if yes, why?

Hw - 45 Reply to Other Peoples' Comments

Comment on Harry's comment:

Harry,

I would like to first thank you for taking an interest and reading my post and commenting afterwards. I'm glad also that I was somehow clear enough to rid you of any doubt on how women were treated in hospitals throughout history. My central focus was to indeed bring to light the treatment of woman and how growing fads are an accomplice to the further development of doctors practically experimenting on woman. Though there was little detail, the covered basics should prompt anyone who reads this to take an interest in their own research of hospitals and just like what it has done to us, hopefully we can share with all.

Thank you,
Christian Bowen

Hw - 44 Comments on Other People's Projects

To Harry:
Harry,

Your topic of choice is very interesting because adoption in the U.S is overlooked by many people and should deserve more attention then what it gets now. In your post, I especially like the bit about "seeking cultural identity" because it's a interesting complexity for those who have been adopted; whether to call themselves what their adopted parents culture is, or the family that gave them up for adoption. A focus you could of also brought into this post is the psychology aspect of finding identity and how psychologist may look at this kind of issue of displacement within adopted children. This topic of seeking identity is especially interesting to me because what makes us who we are are the cultural aspects our families follow that shape and construct us and for the adopted children, they fall in between two cultures and the question of "which one do I choose"?

Great Post!
Christian

To Alex:
Alex,

I enjoyed reading this piece written to Chuck Schumer, and the basic concepts of the pros and cons of Pregnancy/Births in the U.S. In your post you bring up good points that can be developed into powerful persuading statements for instance the bit where woman are prefer hospitals over midwifes because they trust the hospital more. Here, you can expand on how the doctor influence has a connotation of professionalism that sounds more reassuring than a midwife that a woman may know little about.

Good Post!
Christian

To Matt B:
Matt,

This letter was moving with its creative and persuasive language. From the beginning of the powerful and relevant Kennedy quote, to the atrocious statistical data and your analysis of it, I found myself convinced that I was reading a speech of a "budding activist", but like American literature, we have beautiful writing but the actual action the writing is meant to provide is skewed. A question I have for you is, "if you were to begin this kind of movement, how would you account for the movement of actual action holding true to the beautiful writing provided?"

Great Post!
Christian

Hw - 42 Pregnancy & Birth Culminating Project

Throughout time, history has provided us a map of what structured the establishments of fads today. One establishment that keeps growing within our society are the creations of perfecting pregnancy and birth. But how can one perfect a thing that is so complex and never the same. How can you plan for the almost unplannable. Tools. Tools used during pregnancies explored the experimental side of doctors trying to create their own perfect attempt at what a perfect birth possibly could be. And as time shows, they still haven't found one.

From the horrid treatment of women back in the 19th century to the comparison of the 21st century and how women are somewhat still treated similarly of course with many exceptions. Like in the movie, "Business of Being Born" there was not much of historical time periods being named, but some of the methods the doctors used on women, heavily drugging and giving little then less information or option of birth strategies can easily been seen in what Cassidy, an advocate for woman and maternal mortality expresses to the public. Cassidy's book, "Birth" is important to further deepen the atrocities of how hospitals and doctors toss women into a "black hole system" that traps them into having no opinion or choice of birth they would like. The establishment of fads from one generation to the next under the light of doctors practically experimenting possible and still very dangerous methods of creating the "perfect birth" to this day is still demonstrated in hospitals such as, the drugs that supposedly accelerate or ease the challenge of birth. And to the growing popularity of C-sections now, presumed as the new fad of this generation so women could hold on to their "appeal" to their significant others and on other hand not actually realizing the possible and threatening danger there is to it.

One issue I believe that woman choose to go to hospitals for their pregnancies is because it is universally known to happen in centers where doctors can assist if anything goes wrong. We have been set to imagine that when a woman is in labor, she can rely on a doctors professional help to aid in making sure that she will be fine. But this is where information like this falls short. In a convoluted system, its not easy to spot the actual dangers there are when a doctor is performing their practice on their patients, and its usually without the patience consent. The establishments of doctors performing their profession began in the mid 1900's where "[...Women] were beginning to believe they should have the more educated physician there, just in case. Doctors generally didn't like having all these women watching them work and questioning practices."(139) The women of that time and still to this day see that a person with more of an education rather than experience should be held on a level of higher standard because it is a profession that is held under a lens of creating safety in case the horrible is to happen. But what if what the doctor is leading you into in consequence is life threatening. Like the growing popularity in C-sections to this day which is called the fastest and quickest route for delivering a child. But there is so much more to it because nothing is really that simple."[A Cesarean Section]...has become such a routine operation that nearly one out of every three babies in developed countries arrives by cesarean section...Cesareans have become so commonplace that we refer to the discreet six-inch scar as a bikini cut."(103) An ideal birth today would be a C-section because it creates a sense of "efficient-ness" but what woman do not know is that this kind of procedure can alter either their next pregnancy or the functions of the organs that are cut/torn in the area of where the C-section took place. This is one of the developing fads in the U.S and in other developed countries because doctors can perform this experimenting with what can be easily done.

Even though this may be true in dominant practices, there are other options presented in Birth/Pregnancy such as using a midwife which is of the most controversial topics of birth. And like growing fads, midwives in this time are also growing in popularity. Since."...Maternal morality rates were increasing sharply, especially in urban areas. Disease and more meddlesome practices were introducing new troubles in childbirth...Government and charities sprang into action...but death rates continued to rise...in New York City [it] had risen to alarming levels...4.5 percent of women who delivered in hospitals died after what should of been a normal delivery, compared to the 1.6 percent who delivered at home with a midwife. And at least half of those deaths were preventable."(246) If women were aware of these death rates and this kind of data was publicly shared more often, some of the dominant practices that are popular today, would cease to happen and other developments under the structure of Birth/Pregnancy would arise. For midwives, the need for more experienced individuals that have preformed deliveries instead of the book-reading educated ones who have not performed deliveries would present a more safe and lifting experience to the woman. But this is not the precise case and because the popular dominant practices are still widely known and accepted without realizing, furthermore the more popular fads such as the growing use of C-sections, the more woman will be trapped in a system that provides little then less information, giving you less options of choice.

Hw - 41 Independent Research

Throughout my time of exploring the different angles of approaching the topic "Birth/Pregnancy", I was really captured by the growing amount of popularity in Midwives and the "industrial" versus "natural" side f births in the U.S. The first step in researching these sub topics in Birth/Pregnancy, I would like to plan a survey to actually test if women either prefer to have a home birth(natural) or a hospitalized birth(industrial). From the survey, I would like to see how each individual answered and sorting out how many and which of those chose the industrial hospitalized way and why and so on for those who chose home births. Doing this kind of study will provide more of a real aspect of learning other than just reading and hearing about the positives and negatives of Birth/Pregnancies.

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/homebirth.html

http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/doctor/birth_centers_hospitals.html

http://www.nyhomebirth.com/Advantages-Of-Homebirth/

http://ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=713

http://hospitals.nyhealth.gov/maternity.php