The Rise of American Funeral Directing- Test 2

Question 1

Origins of funeral customs were British and Dutch.

Answer 1

Americn Colonial Funeral Behavior

Question 2

Founded in 1607 and was basically a commercial enterprise.

Answer 2

Virginia Colony (South)

Question 3

These funeral customers were carried intact to the southern colonies.

Answer 3

English

Question 4

Was the primary controlling force over funeralization practices in the southern colonies.

Answer 4

Anglican Church Sexton

Question 5

The actual preparation and care of the remains were perfromed:

Answer 5

Within the Family Unit

Question 6

Founded in 1620 by Puritans as a religious colony in exile from Anglican England.

Answer 6

Masachusetts Bay Colony (North)

Question 7

Massachusetts Bay Colony established this kind of government that rejected all other creeds except their own.

Answer 7

Theocracy

Question 8

During this century, the Massachusetts Bay Colony embraced the doctrine of fatalism and rejected an organized clergy, doctrines, or any other trappings of European organized religion.

Answer 8

The 17th Century

Question 9

• Simplistic committal services
• Immediate interments
• All preparations of the deceased accomplished within the family unit.
• Eliminated prayers during the committal

Answer 9

Massachusetts Bay Colony Funeral Practices

Question 10

The Calvanistic work or starve to death ethic with dedication to the production of goods and service and the development of one’s own individuality, pulling one’s own weight, spread throughout the colonies from it’s base in New England. (Protestant work ethic).

Answer 10

Rise of Protestantism

Question 11

Death was common place, and the funeral was a common occurrence and because of its frequency became integral as a social custom.

Answer 11

Burial Practices (American Colonies)

Question 12

1. Indian wars
2. Colonial disputes
3. Very high infant mortality rate
4. Communicable diseases (smallpox)
5. Public executions

Answer 12

The Reason for Death Being Common Place

Question 13

Burial was in churchyards and this was firmly transplanted into the colonial regulatory and legal system as it related to funeral practice. (Still influences funerals today).

Answer 13

British Common Law

Question 14

Puritan funeral customs were models of simplicity and dignity.

Answer 14

1600-1700

Question 15

An increase in social character and prestige attached to funeralization. Ostentatious funeral practices (within 100 years (3 generations) poor people could become wealthy (small cottage industries became profitable.))

Answer 15

1700-1800

Question 16

The skull and crossbones was replaced by this on gravestones.

Answer 16

Winged Cherub (1700-1800)

Question 17

Fatalism and pessimism were replaced by this as prosperity increased in New England.

Answer 17

Liberalized Calvinism (Presbyterianism) 1700-1800

Question 18

The return of these, often printed and attached to coffins. (1700-1800)

Answer 18

Long Sermons

Question 19

Were given as gifts to those who participated in the funeral. Massachusetts general court passed laws prohibiting “Extraordinary expense at funerals.”

• Due to extensive gift giving at funerals, the colonial widow was faced with tremendous financial burden.

Answer 19

Use of Gifts (Late 1700’s)- Scarves, gloves, books, printed verses, needlecraft, etc.

Question 20

Would begin in the church with prayers and a sermon said over a pall-covered coffin placed on a bier.

Answer 20

The Funeral (1700-1800)

Question 21

On foot, underbearers actually carrying the coffin on the bier, while pallbearers, men of dignity, held the corners of the pall. Pallbearers held 6 sticks attached to the pall and carried it over the coffin or bier. Went slowly and was marked by numerous rest stops and frequent change of under bearers.

Answer 21

The Procession (1700-1800)

Question 22

Charging fees for:

1. Announcing the funeral by tolling the bell
2. Digging the grave

The funeral bt the revolutionary war was both a social function and a public event. No charge for birth/death records or other recordkeeping.

Answer 22

The Colonial Sexton

Question 23

A Catholic colony that continued the European pratices of the Roman Catholic Church. Was a place where British Roman Catholics could practice their faith free from persecution.

Answer 23

Maryland

Question 24

Is a result of 200 years 1600-1800, of extremely hard working merchants, farmers, and fishermen, planting the seeds for the industrial revolution and the turning point for funeral service in the future United States.

Answer 24

The Rise of a Middle Class

Question 25

Funeral services during this tie became a middle class phenomenon.

Answer 25

The 18th and 19th Centuries (Extends into the 20th Century)

Question 26

This is the influence of the revolution.

Answer 26

Social Change in the Later Colonial Period

Question 27

• The remains were washed, dressed, and placed in state by family, neighbors or even a nurse. (There were no hospitals, only a few Barber Surgeons)
• A coffin was purchased by a cabinet maker, the more expensive coffins would have expensive “Coffin Furniture” (attachments) imported from England or Germany.
• Evisceration and placing remains in cere cloth during hot weather.
• Giving of gifts to mourners.

Answer 27

New England Wake

Question 28

Metal decorations, lugs, frames, handles, corner molding, latches, etc.

Answer 28

Coffin Furniture

Question 29

Heavy double duck canvas, usually wool.

Answer 29

Cere Cloth

Question 30

• Funerals under direct control of the Anglican Church usually by the sexton who is now charging a fee for his services.
• The British medieval customers of drinking and feasting were carried into the colonies and a new custom of shooting off guns was added (exiled “lower class” population, mainly from prisons).
• After 1750 as the colonies became stable there was some degree of ceremonial dignity restored to the Christian funeral.
• Specific garments for mourning were also characteristic of the southern colonies (Formal Funeral Dress).

Answer 30

Virginia or Southern Colonial Funeral

Question 31

• Flayed off the skin in one piece from an incision down the spine. The skeleton is retained and all viscera, muscle, and fat are disposed of. The skin is then reattached to the skeleton and the body is filled with white sand whih assists in dehydrating the skin.
• Some Indians are buried wrapped in blankets then wrapped in animal skins.
• Some bodies are wrapped in skins or cloth (or both) and placed high on platforms or tree limbs to keep animals from ravaging.
• Large burial mounds
• Natural mummification.

Answer 31

North American Indians- Native Americans- Various Methods Based on Customs of Individual Tribes

Question 32

Tenessee and Mississippi used this type of burial.

Answer 32

Large Burial Mounds

Question 33

By Chance in the Southwest (Arizona, NM, TX)

Answer 33

Natural Mummification

Question 34

• Body buried in ground until a skeleton, then dug up.
• Creation of Charnel House
• Cremation until skeleton left
• Skeletons are reinterred in burial pits.
• Iroquois and Hurons

Answer 34

Algonkian Tribes of the Middle Atlantic States (NC, SC, VA, MD, DE)

Question 35

Raised mortuary long houses- store bodies until skeletons.

Answer 35

Charnel House

Question 36

Skeletons of the Algonkian Tribes were reinterred in these. Three dozen of them found in MD with 10-250 skeletons found in each.

Answer 36

Ossuaries

Question 37

Reinter bones on the feast of deaths- common practice of this group of people of Georgia Bay, Ontario Canada.

Answer 37

Iroquois and Hurons

Question 38

• Extensive and important ceremony prior to burial- extensive praying for the soul (Dutch Protestants).
• 3 to 4 day wake period utilizing the best room in the house.
• Coffin was covered by a pall and carried to the churchyard by as many as twelve pall bearers with underbearers.
• Monkey Spoon
• Funerals were primarily attended by men and after the committal service, much feasting and drinking took place (as in Europe), then the estate was divided. (Goes back to Germanic times where the oldest son had priority).

Answer 38

New York or Dutch Influenced Funeral

Question 39

An ornate spoon often made of silver whose handle was intended to resemble an apostle but actually looked like an animal because of shoddy engraving. It was given to pallbearers to commemorate their participation in the funeral.

Answer 39

Monkey Spoon (Dutch Custom, 1500’s-1600’s)

Question 40

It is interesting to note that the Dutch licensed an individual to driect and oversee all funerals.

Answer 40

Annspreecker

Question 41

The Embargo Acts

• Funeral goods
• Industrial manufacturing centers grew
• Non British Immigrants
• A shift to simpler, less pretentious funerals and mourning customs occurred during this period.
• A new thriving middle class

Answer 41

The Influence of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 on American Funeralization

Question 42

The Revolutionary War and the British costal blockages during the War of 1812, forced the northeastern colonies to enter the Industrial Revolution.

Answer 42

The Embargo Acts (1775-1812)

Question 43

Particularly coffin furniture, imported from England were now produced in the United States.

Answer 43

Funeral Goods

Question 44

American population shifted from a rural (farming) to an urban setting (wages) as these grew.

Answer 44

Industrial Manufacturing Centers

Question 45

After the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, are large influx arrived, mostly German (Lutheran). They brought their own funeral customs.

Answer 45

Non-British Immigrants

Question 46

1774-1814 (the war years). Legislative measures, because of an economic squeeze, were common to both Tories and rebels supporting austere funerl practice.

Answer 46

A Shift to Simpler, Less Pretentious Funerals and Mourning Customs Occurred During This Period

Question 47

This is because the industrial revolution was successful in eastern North America and the funeral became a means to express social status aspirations. (Modern American funeral practices are the result of the rise of this- occurred during the 19th century).

Answer 47

A New Thriving Middle Class