Test 2-Am Colonial Funeral Behavior, Early Am. Funeral Undertaking Flashcards
Origins of funeral customs
British, and Dutch (NY & DE)
Southern Funeral Practices
- commercial enterprise
- Anglican church dominated funeralization
- Anglican church sexton was primary controlling force
- preparation and care of remains done by family. No embalming yet; no ice
Northern Funeral Practices
- founded by Puritans as a religious colony in exile from Anglican England
- Theocracy- rejected all other creeds except their own
- embraced the Doctrine of Fatalism and rejected an organized clergy, doctrines
- Simplistic committal services and immediate interments
- Simplistic committal services and immediate interments.
- Rise of Protestantism- starve to death, ethic, hardworkers
Reasons why there are so many deaths
Indian wars, colonial disputes, very high infant mortality rate, communicable diseases, public executions
1600-1700
Puritan funeral customs were models of simplicity and dignity
1700-1800
- increase in social character and prestige attached funeralization.
- fatalism and pessimism were replaced by liberalized Calvinism as prosperity increased in New England (sense of hope)
Use of Gifts 1700’s
Rings, scarves, gloves, books, printed verses, needlecraft were given as gifts. like sumtury laws
Colonial sexton
charged fees for: announcing the funeral by tolling the bell and 2) digging the grave. No charge for birth/death records. A social function/public event
Maryland
Catholic colony continued the European practices of the Roman Catholic Church
New England Wake (North)
- remains were washed, dressed, and placed in state by FAMILY
- coffin was purchased from a cabinet maker
- expensive coffins had “coffin furniture” imported from England or Germany (metal decorations, lugs, frames, handles, corner molding, latches)
- Evisceration and placing remains in cere cloth during hot weather
- Giving gifts to mourners
cere cloth
heavy double duck canvas usually wool
Virginia or southern colonial funeral (Southern)
- Anglican sexton in charge
- Funerals under direct control of the Anglican Church usually by the sexton who is now charging a fee for his services.
- drinking and feasting were carried into the colonies and shooting off guns was added
- specific garments for mourning
Ossuaries- Native American
skeletons are reinterred in burial pits
Dutch influence on funeral
- extensive and important ceremony prior to burial- extensive praying
- 3 or 4 day wake period utilizing the best room in the house
- coffin covered by a pall, carried to the churchyard by 12 pall bearers with underbearers
- monkey spoon- given to pallbearers
- primarily attended by men
- estate divided
Aanspreecker
dutch licensed individual to direct and oversee all funerals (paid licensed director)
Revolutionary War
- nothing being imported
- funeral goods particularly coffin furniture, imported from England were now produced in the US
- After the war a large influx of non British immigrants/Germans arrived with their own funeral customs
- less pretentios funerals
- Modern American funeral practices are the result of the rise of the middle class occurred during 19th century.
“Funeral Directing”
- occupation sprang forth after the civil war
- a specific set of tasks for the care and disposal of the dead
- provide service but don’t make goods
Craftsman in the field of undertaking prior to the civil war
- Cabinet maker- coffin makin
- Protestant church sexton- directing the burial, record keeping
- Liveryman trade- renters of hacks and carriages
- All of America’s old established funeral services evolved from the above 3 sources
“Layers out of the dead”
Nurses and Midwives
- earlier performers of the personal service between 1700 and 1820
- wash dress, place deceased in state on slumber couch or if available at the time of death a coffin
Protestant church sexton
tolling of the bell and digging graves, directing funeral processions, laying out of the body, attendance to families, furnishing merchandise and paraphernalia, record keeping
Why was the sexton-undertaker the most powerful of the three trades to enter funeral services in the 19th century
- he would take charge of other undertakers funerals once inside the cemetery
- He controlled cemetery and church policy as they related to rules, regulations, fees statements of birth and death, scheduling funeral times
- had a monopoly until 1850
William Ensign
independent undertake won his court case against the sextons monopoly
“Inviter to funerals”
licensed position in the colonies and common between 1650-1700. Paid by local govt to be sure all were properly buried.
-forerunner of the coroner
Town undertaker or coroner
dev. between 1750 and 1800
- advantage for undertaker to hold a public office in the health field as coroner prior to Civil War
- Conflict of interest had not been established in law yet
Specific undertaking procedure from death to burial
Civil War 1861-1865 undertaking had taken on characteristics of a service occupation with specific set of tasks and functions into a pattern of behavior toward the dead
- Placing deceased in state- NOT coffins- mostly ice trays
- coffining
- transporting the body to the grave
- furnishing paraphernalia of mourning
- some paper work filed NOT at health dept. but with sextons at local churches
Furnishing Undertaker
- prior to Civil War 1840/50
- wholesaler- supplied coffins and funeral paraphernalia to emerging undertaker who no longer had time to devote to making his own goods
- encouraged others to enter funeral service who were not cabinet makers, sextons, or livery men.
- had economic advantage bc he could cut out the middleman prior to Civil War
Professionalism
After Civil War- encouraged by furnishing undertaker to devote full time personal service to bereaved families, freeing them from obligations to craft or trade
-After Civil War the cabinet maker could no longer compete against the furnishing undertaker who by now developed mass production
19th century burial receptacles
- Prior to 1840- traditional wooden coffin handcrafted in cabinet shop
- 1840-1870- mass produced metallic Fisk mummy case
- 1870-1900- cloth covered wood and metal coffins mass produced
