didn't
rest of
lich-
nap
for
David
and
office
They
on of
unit
Tuesday, February 12. 1974
University Daily Kansan
3
Cultures Dictate Funeral Customs; Burial Still Most Popular in U. S.
By LINDA A. HALES
Kansan Staff Reporters
We're all going to die some day; that's sure. Most of us will go underground, a few will go up in smoke, and an even smaller number will be left to the birds.
Anthropologists say culture ranges from the ancient Chinese to the Hottentots and Greeks traditionally bury their dead, but their funeral ceremonies vary greatly.
"We know that roughly 500,000 years ago they already sprinkled some red ocher on bodies so they would still have color," Felix Moos, professor of anthropology savs.
But, the Parsis continue the ancient Zorastian custom of throwing bodies in stone Towers of Silence where the flesh is buried in cultures. Bones are then placed in ashes.
In India, the Hindu's custom is to cremate the dead on funeral pyres, although the ancient custom of the widow throwing her husband's burning pyre has been outlawed.
By comparison, burial, or in some cases, cremation, in the United States is tame. Funeral services, usually arranged by a funeral director, are simple compared with the formal parades and mourning customs of other cultures.
But this is not to say they are all alike.
Nor is it likely that your funeral will be like
this.
"People are looking for what serves their individual needs," says Larry McElwain, funeral director and embalmer at Warren Mortuary.
But changes have occurred in the funeral business as they they in the second business, the McKenna wish.
"About 90 per cent of all funeral services used to take place in the church," he says.
Services themselves, are becoming more secularized, he says, although many people still prefer traditional verses like the 23rd Psalm to contemporary poetry.
Choice is not limited to verse, however. Oscar Rumsey of the Rumsey Funeral Home says people can choose from a variety of coffins including cloth-covered wood (the least expensive), stainless steel, mahogany, oak, copper and bronze.
by Mayo
Rumsey says there is a difference in the way each kind of coffin looks and in how long each will last. There is also a difference in cost.
"I don't think eople spend more than they want to," McElwain says.
He says relatives usually make decisions about the funeral because most people don't plan ahead. Relatives often try to gear the deceased up with the standard of living of the deceased, he says.
McEiwain complains that funeral homes are of ten portrayed in a bad light because of their "pathetic" treatment.
"We're trying desperately to find ways of holding the line," he says.
released in the last six months show the cost of living has risen faster and higher than the
The cost of a funeral, according to Rumsey, can range anywhere from about $500 to $3,000. Cremation, he says, isn't substantially cheaper.
Only about two per cent of Warren Mortuary's business is cremation, McClain says, but the figure would be higher on the east or west coast. Because of a land shortage on both coasts, cremation becomes more attractive, he says.
McElwain expects burials to retain their popularity in Lawrence.
Everyone Welcome!
for Student Body Vice-President
Todd Hunter
UNICAMPUS COALITION
We Stand for:
·Abolishing the foreign language requirement
·Revamping the academic advising program
·Reduction in parking permit prices
·Reduction of parking ticket fines
John Beisner
for Student Body President
Fools Afloat
Vote Feb. 13 & 14 (paid for by Unicampus Coalition)
ATTENTION SENIORS Class of 1974
A factory representative will be in the Kansas Union Bookstore all day
Thurs. and Fri., Feb. 14 and 15
to assist you in placing your orders for Graduation Announcements.
kansas union BOOKSTORE