Initial Thoughts On Care of the Dead

"If you would risk your life to bury the body of the loved one, move to the right. If not, move to the left." Whenever anyone asks me questions about my beliefs revolving care of the dead, I always think back on this ninth grade activity. We were reading Antigone in Humanities and our teacher was asking us questions off of a list to lead way into a discussion about some of the conflicts that would arise in the play. At that time, I remember standing in the middle of the room. Risking my life would depend on the situation. If it was one in which my family was running for some reason, I would just take my little brother and keep running. If it was a situation more akin to the play, where the body wasn't allowed a burial, I think I would also find myself sneaking around to try and bury whoever it was that had died. Of course, for this, it would have to be someone I was close to in my family. I wouldn't risk my life for some distant cousin I'd never met once but I definitely would for my immeadiate family.

I've been to a lot of funerals since I was little. I can't really recall whose funeral they were besides friends of family or distant family. I think they mostly might have been Christian based; most of the time I remember being in a building that looked like a church with preist (and I could be getting the clergy titles wrong) or someone similiar would talk about whomever had died and what a wonderful person they were. I always found that funny - they didn't know the person. It was obvious that they had just asked whoever had organized the funeral to describe the person and then beautified a few short paragraphs about them.


Please write 2-3 paragraphs of your current thinking about the care of the dead followed by a list of the questions (in order of importance) you'd like to explore in this unit.

You should attempt to work through some of your ideas and questions rather than just typing up the first bubbles that float into your mind. The goal - your best, most interesting, most powerful insights, experiences, and questions you can come up with.

Aim for exploration. You shouldn't be writing an argumentative paper (probably), instead try to get your own thoughts and insights and perceptions flowing.

Some prompts you could use to get yourself started:

1. Your experience with the topic.

2. The way you've been taught to think of and act towards dead people.

3. Social norms around the treatment of dead people in your/our culture(s).

4. Your family's perspective regarding people who have died.