Interview #1
The first interview i decided to have was with my brother. throughout the interview i got a strong sense of where his views and thoughts originated from, what i got was the consumption of media and experiences with death. one question that i had asked him was, " why dont you see burial as a good thing?". he stated, its pretty nice to know that your being buried in a nice "box", but in that box your body deteriorates. Thats just disgusting when you come to think about it." he talked on about how much people look to a funeral and someone being buried as the right way to care for the dead. this showed that my brother in some way thought differently from the dominant social practice of caring for the dead. he didnt like the fact of someone being buried and living in the ground after death like many in our society do. he saw being buried as just a scape goat to hide the fact that individual is now dead.
Interview #2
The second interview that i held, was with my oldest brother. a person who i strongly admire and has definitely dealt with the death of many at a young and late age. ascwell as caring for them. a question i asked him was, " how do you feel about our society and how they typically care for the dead?". he said, that so much is required of the people surrounding the dead, to care or make them look great. that a funeral home's job is to make it the scenery, the casket and even the dead to look presentable and nice. as if they weren't death after all. what stuck out to me in this interview is that my brother had a similar view as my other the brother. that all of these things is just a way to shy away fro the fact that the person is dead. he pointed out that these things are consciously set up so we can feel bad for the dead. as well as not make ourselves look bad when doing so. if we don't do these things were seen as the devil or something of that sort. overall, all these dominant social practices and rituals when it comes to caring for the dead is a set up for us to look justified, things we dont have to follow, but we know it is "right".
Tamiko
ReplyDeleteI like the way you compared and contrasted your younger brothers thoughts with your older brothers thoughts and saw that in the end both of their view points helped you question the dominant social practices involved in funerals. How we often use funerals as a way for feeling bad for the dead (sort of moarning the dead rather than celebrating the life they once lived). Most people never really question how we can treat death other than to hold a funeral.