Independent Research HW 53

Chris R

Dance, Laugh, Drink. Save the Date: It’s a Ghanaian Funeral.
Précis: Death doesn’t have to be sad like Americans make it. Death in Ghanaian culture is literally a party. Going to a Ghanaian cultured funeral is the same thing as going to a party, there are people dancing, loud music, drinks and fun. It is very expensive to attend these parties. Spending near 100 dollars for entrance and spending money on things offered in the party in support of the family. Pictures of the lost loved one are hung up around the party as celebration.

In Her Childhood Dream, a Funeral Home Was the Destination
Précis: Funeral homes were not a place for women in the 1970’s. The ratio of men to women in education programs about funerals used to be close to 1:6. Recently women have become found a lot more in funeral homes. It highly doubted women could work in funeral homes because women were not commonly found with death. Years later the ratio of men to women in education programs about funerals is close 1:1.2 with women having the edge.

Osama bin Laden did not deserve an Islamic burial
Precis: Osama bin Laden was killed on May 1st 2011 and according to the President he was given proper Islamic treatment. This means his body was washed and he was wrapped. To make sure that his followers did not see him as a martyr the body was dropped in the ocean. Instead of giving him a proper treatment he should be judged by Allah in the same way that everyone is.


I wanted to look at these three different articles because they have nothing to do with each other and it shows the differences in different cultures. I find myself barely knowing about my own culture. The idea of cremation is like speaking another language, and when looking at the film ‘A Film Undertaking’ in class the idea of a home funeral never even crossed my mind. I was always taught that there was only one way to treat a body and this was with a funeral followed by burial. Every funeral I have ever attended was a funeral followed by burial. The thing that I found interesting is in the Islamic culture and American culture death is seen as a sad day. The bodies in both cultures are “wrapped” and “washed” as in cleaned. The body is then mourned like in American culture but the Ghanaian culture it is completely different. It is not just a celebration it is like a party with drinks, food, music and dancing. People even compete to have the best funeral. I feel like this is good but at the same time just having a picture of the person is not giving them enough memory. People are actually dancing in celebration but I don’t think while doing this people would be thinking about their loved one. This could just be me because I am accustomed to people always crying and listening to prayer. The Ghanaian culture however sounds like a better alternative to what we have in the United States. To them they are paying proper respects to the person who died and they also get to celebrate the life of the person in a fun way. The second article was also something that I never thought about. Being around the dead doesn’t seem like a masculine job so I don’t see why women wouldn’t be commonly found in funeral homes. This article wasn’t as interesting to me as the other articles. It was more about this one person who wanted to work in the funeral home to make the dead bodies look good in the casket. It revealed something I didn’t know though which helps my understanding of the care of the dead.

Q: Growing up with your grandfather owning a very ionic and successful funeral home in Harlem how are you views on care of the dead different from other Americans?
A: I wasn’t always around my grandfather. I wasn’t always around the funeral home but at the same time not everyone goes to a funeral home more than a handful of times a year. I definetly was there more than that and to me death and funerals stopped being a sad moment and became something that I was used to. I know there has to be a good amount of people in the country who are afraid of death, and after looking at all of the families who come through the doors for different reasons I realized it is going to happen. I also think that is something that I have experienced more than other people in this country, people always think they will die of disease because it is very common but there are so many different ways to die it becomes interesting how no matter what death will find you. In terms of views I do think funerals are the best way to go because to me it seems like the most memorial way to treat the body. You can have people you know there all in one room at one time just to play their last respects for your body. What criticism could there be.


Q: Do you know what you want to do for your death?
A: Not trying to sound cheesy or corny at all I want to have my funeral at my grandfather’s home. It’s not because he is my grandfather it is because he made this, ran it from the beginning and got it to where it is now. The thing that I like the most is that I feel at home here. I feel like everyone who has worked here that I have come to know are very interested and devoted to work. I said that I think funerals are the best way to take care of the dead body and if my body was here it would be like dying at home. As I said before I wasn’t here all of the time but my grandfather did pay my way through college and this place is a haven to me. It is the closest thing to heaven on earth. I would like to have my physical body here to when I die while my body is in spiritual heaven.


Q: How does your relationship with the funeral home affect how you feel about dead bodies?
A: Oops, I guess I kind of answered this question already before I was supposed to but, I think that with all of the bodies we have had it just makes death more real. People are afraid of death because they don’t know anything about it. It is the same reason people are afraid to try new things. The results could be very good (not death) but people are still usually afraid to try out of the ordinary things. I have been on the opposite of this. We don’t only get people that die from cancer we get people that have committed suicide, we have gotten people that have been shot and beaten. There is not only one way to die and being at the funeral home showed me this. I am no longer surprised by death.


Q: How do you feel about alternate ways of caring or the dead?
A: it is up to the person. I told you how I feel and there is nothing that will make me change my mind that I know of. Like I said I know a little more about regular people do and I have made a very educated guess of what I will want for the rest of my life. For people that want other things that is up to them. I won’t argue with tem because it is what they want. Anyone could want anything.


Q: What would you change about the way death is done if you could change anything?
A: I would make it so that people knew everything about death. If you are only taught what you are growing up knowing, which I guess is what you could say about me you only know one thing. I looked into different things on my own and decided I wanted a funeral. Not everyone does that. Everyone should be educated.

This was someone who I have met multiple times. He is in charge of Benta’s Funeral Home in Harlem and I also know Mr. Benta who was the founder of the funeral home. I have attended a few funerals there and on different days when you walk pass the funeral home there will be a group of people with all black on talking. It doesn’t always seem like a sad time and most of the time when I walk by people are smiling and laughing. One of the funerals that I have attended there was the funeral of a suicide victim who committed suicide in the 8th grade. There were a lot of middle school students. I feel like the colors and layout of the room made it so that the room had no dark connotations. It seemed like things were white and gold and there was a monitor with pictures of the girl. Everything seemed to be like it was trying to connote heaven or a happier afterlife. There were a few crosses in different places and there was a small waterfall which is what I noticed the most. All of these things remind me of peace and the perfect place to go for utter peace is heaven. The interview was not in the funeral home it was outside of it. I think the highlights of this interview were his first response because it was the one where his voice was the most passionate. This might have been from sincere passion or it could have sounded differently because throughout the interview maybe I got more boring. Either way it seemed like he liked talking about himself more than his grandfather. His grandfather has become increasing ill with Alzheimer’s and I think bringing his father up might have reminded him of this. He however had a lot of ideas about his own death though.

Going into this interview I didn’t really expect anything out of the ordinary. I wish that I would have watched the movie that we watched in class before I interviewed him because that would have made for some interesting conversation. He agrees with me for the most part though. I want to have a funeral because I feel like it is fitting for people to remember me if they want to remember me all at once and get it out the way. It was the way I was raised and funerals, though not very happy can be very nice and bring people to peace with the idea that the person is dead. He also said people should have the choice to what they want to do. The response makes me think about the home funerals from the movie “A Family Undertaking’. People in 5 out of 50 states are not allowed to have home funerals and care for their own dead one of those being New York. Probably making this a fitting place to have a Funeral Home that seems very welcoming and in a nice part of the neighborhood. When the government puts restrictions such as this it brings up questions.


• Why are people allowed to take care of their own dead in 45 states but not the other 5 states?
• How do funeral directors feel about the cost of the funeral? Does the price show they are not about the satisfaction of the people but size of the wallet?
• What do funeral directors thing about home funerals?
• How did cemeteries get a bad connotation (ex: ghost, fear)?
• What made funerals become more successful than other forms of care of the dead?
• How can I use Benta’s Funeral Home as a way to further understand care of the dead?