The American Way Of Death Revisted
This book was first published in 1963 to address funerary practices in America. The second addition is her revisiting the industry 35 years later.
Sales. Mitford reminds her reader that the funeral industry is ultimately about making a profit. Funeral directors, or undertakers because she later discusses funeral jargon, are trying to sale coffins, embalming, and many other services that are profit making. Mitford studied funeral magazines, produced by people in the industry, that continually had articles on how to make the most money off grieving families. She describes one article that detailed how to sale caskets/coffins. It was so detailed that it had a floor plan on where to place the caskets in order to get people to buy the more expensive ones.
Embalming. The funeral industry's foundation is embalming and the ritual of the open-casket. Mitford describes the strange art of embalming, and reveals the actual laws involving embalming the body, cremation, and being buried in a casket. Basically, the funeral industry has made it seem that everyone must have these done to be in ordinance with the law, but the law does not mandate these practices.
A
sterile room in which a body is embalmed and painted for an open casket viewing.
Along with Mitford's discussion on embalming, is the discussion on the open-casket funeral. Mitford finds that there is little empirical evidence that support the myth that seeing the body helps the grieving process.
History plays a large role in the funeral. However, not until recently has the undertaker been the funeral director. The original role of the undertaker was limited. The undertaker was never a grief counselor, and today, is still not qualified to be a grief counselor.
Mitford addresses the McDonaldization of the funeral industry in her newest edition. Stewart Enterprises, SCI, has begun to buy out family owned funeral homes, and is standardizing them. SCI allows them to keep their names, but basically a monopoly is beginning in the industry.
This book is very interesting, and asks its reader to evaluate the practices of the funeral industry. It is not meant to say that all funeral directors are bad people, but it does reveal a part of the industry that many funeral directors like to keep quite.