Felix Amanor-Boadu
Professor Shannon Reed
ENG 319
27 April 2015
Paying Respect: Funeral Expense as a Revealing Signal
On March 31, 2014, a college first year died in a tragic accident. Family, friends and strangers alike began posting condolences on her Facebook profile. One friend began a campaign on GoFundMe, an online crowd funding service, to assist the family in paying for the burial and service. The original goal of $500 dollars was reached within 10 hours. Within 18 hours, the campaign had received $1,120 from 14 donors. Within 24 hours $1,845 had been donated from 30 donors. In 9 days, 111 people donated $7,907. The campaign raised a grand total of $8,182 from 115 donors. The two highest donations were of $300 dollars and both were
…show more content…
Sosis describes evolutionary biologist Amotz Zahavi’s writing about this process, called stotting (p. 168). When a springbok antelope spots a predator, it jumps up and down to demonstrate its physical prowess. According to Zahavi, only those antelope that could effectively outrun the predator expend energy handicapping themselves with this behavior (p.168). Therefore, stotting is too costly to be worth faking, making it, and similar signals, more trustworthy. Sosis uses this theory to argue that if a religious ritual is costly, be it walking across a bed of hot coals or wearing multiple layers of hot, black clothing in the middle of the desert, then it promotes cooperation by building trust (p. 166). In his application of costly signaling to human behavior, Sosis points to a study of kibbutzim in Israel (pp. 170-171). While many secular kibbutzim faced financial trouble in the late 1980s, the religious kibbutzim fared well. Sosis points to the greater number of rituals and obligations within religious communities as reason for their stability. However, a unified religious affiliation is not essential to feel the cohesion such costly signaling produces. Individuals who opt in to any community-established obligation gain trust within the group, and the community overall stabilizes when all members …show more content…
Facing the increased financial stress of the recession, families are more frequently choosing cremation. Cremation rates have increased in all 50 states (Sanburn, Rise of the Ashes, para. 8). When the cost of signaling is no longer affordable, the acceptable minimum cost of signaling decreases. Cremation has been an option in the United States since 1876 (para. 4). During the 1960s, the rate hovered around 3% (para.7). In 2008, just before the recession, the rate was 36.2%; by 2011, every state was performing more cremations than they had the year before (para. 8). When inflation and cost of living increased following the recession, standard burials, with the vault, embalmment, etc. became less financially viable, and other solutions had the chance to rise in prominence. Cremations, currently cost around $3,250 with memorial service, and families may opt for direct cremation without a service, an option which can cost up to $1,000 less (“Statistics,” 2014). By opting for cremation instead of burial, families can save approximately $5,000. According to a Funeral and Memorial Information Council survey, cost was a primary incentive for choosing cremation, followed by customization, eco-friendliness, geography, and changing religious perspective (CANA Annual Statistics Report, 2011,
Since each funeral home is for the majority independent, the “leader” is either the owner or the manager. The position is achieved th...
In the past four decades the cost of a funeral service has risen 1,328% (Boring) and that’s not just because Morticians wanted to out of pure greed. One must take into account that modern mortuaries are much more of a business than before. Prior to 1970, the majority of funeral homes were were independent, family run. Today about 14% of funeral homes are run by a publicly traded corporation (Boring) meaning there’s a plethora of capital involved in these businesses now. The homes are built better and by professionals rather than by individuals with some tools, the home’s are extremely more sanitary since there’s more than likely no one living in these funeral homes unlike before, and the quality of the products these services are providing is greater than before.
Bloody rituals and moonlit sacrifices define a cult. As long as religion exists, cults also exist. Initiation involves feats of courage and skill and often results in fatality. Once they complete their initiation they gain the status of an official member. Members advance in rank by following the regulations and being faithful to their deity. New recruits rank lowest and the priest or prophet are the highest ranking members; climbing through the ranks takes years. Judith Lorber, the author of “Believing Is Seeing: Biology as Ideology,” assists in understanding the ideas presented in Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber’s article “The Spread of the Cult of Thinness…” ; society gives “cult” members body expectations they must follow for them to secure their places in the “cult” of thinness, or society rejects them.
IN my role as a managing director at Methven-Taylor funeral homes and in my current capacity at miller funeral homes, I often am placed in situations where multi-tasking is not only a requirement, but also a needed tool for performing the duties of the job. Grieving families, Medical examiners, Pastors, cemeteries, nurses, hospitals, law enforcement are just a few of the entities that will initiate contact with a funeral home. The key to making all things happen when they are suppose to requires the ability to multi-task, prioritize, and act, and being able to adjust and retool plans in the blink of an eye. The life of a funeral director can change in a single phone call.
Morbid Funeral Home, Inc. is an accrual basis taxpayer who sells preneed funeral contracts. Customers pay Morbid in advance for goods and services to be provided at the contract beneficiary’s death. Under state law the payments are refundable if the contract purchaser requests them any time until the goods and services are furnished. Morbid, for both financial and tax accounting purposes, includes the payments in income for the year the funeral service is provided. Morbid insists that the amounts it receives under the contracts are customer deposits. The IRS agent insists that the payments are prepaid income that is subject to tax in the year of receipt.
When discussing any topic, from medicines to death, history is always relevant. Funeral service dates back to 1685, which involved providing mourning merchandise to the society. Many undertakers at this time in history were also furniture builders, building the coffins for burial, as well as other household furniture. It wasn’t until the 19th century that funeral directors were utilized often. Before this time, families took care of their deceased loved ones. Around the time of the civil war embalming was introduced and shed a new light on funeral service. Listed below is a brief summary of some important events in funeral service history.
Summary: Funeral planning is not an easy thing to do, if there’s an unexpected death of a person. There are various arrangements needed to be made and the procedure is quite stressful. This is why it’s recommended to get funeral plans while you’re alive to save your family members from extra burden.
Less work for them to do if family members chose for their loved one to be cremated
A loss in someone's life is life changing and tragic. It is a tough obstacle to overcome.
I have chosen to plan my own funeral and post mortem arrangements with the minimal budget of $2,700. Since I have such limited funds to work I have decided to cremate my body instead of the more traditional burial in a coffin. Cremation is a cheaper alternative to an earth burial, more environmentally friendly, and increasing in popularity throughout the United States. This is a practical choice especially for someone with a small budged, burials in this day and seems more unnecessary and obsolete in a society of growing population and
If you work with a crematorium now, you can go ahead and make arrangements for how it will all be paid for. Then, your loved ones will not have to stress over coming up with the cash while they are mourning.
Death is something that no one wants to go through or have to deal with, especially concerning the loss of loved ones. Unfortunately, it is not possible to go through life without experiencing this loss. Throughout the past several decades, the way that we view death and the funeral industry has changed significantly. Recently, it has seemed much more apparent that funeral industries are using death as a means of getting rich. But why?
The hypothesis optionally proposes that durable gathering game plans, devel-oped through positive and reliable trades and collaboration among individuals, energize an environment of backing and helpful join ments among gathering individuals, subsequently lead-ing to better individual psychosocial prosperity results. Then again, absence of these trades or feeble levels of social joining among gathering individuals can be the premise for disengagement, prompting negative individual psychosocial prosperity out-comes. Predictable with the hypothesis' propositions, Durkheim recommended that better prosperity, in particular, lower slant toward suicide, is because of part ship in family aggregates, where there are solid connections, consistency of communication, and sup-portive connections (Durkheim, 1951; Thorlindsson and Bjarnason, 1998). Thus, he kept up that religion makes social mix because of its capacity to encourage a more serious aggregate life, bringing about better psychosocial prosperity results (Durkheim, 1951). Expanding on Durkheim's work, Hirschi (1969) distinguished four key integrative capacities
Funeral planning probably isn't high on your list of things to do. However, planning ahead has many benefits: reducing stress and family conflict; saving money; and giving the time to create a meaningful, memorable "good goodbye."
David tends to blink a lot and crease his forehead when he listens to other people talk. He almost always makes eye contact. He rolls his eyes when he’s frustrated or angry, it’s often directed at his partner, Keith. David creases his forehead especially when showing concern. He tends to grimace when he hears bad news. He sighs a lot. He raises his voice when he’s angry.