The Business of Dying

For a long time I have been interested in going into the funeral business. I have the personality of wanting to help people who are in a vulnerable state. As I continue with my schooling to reach that goal, the business is changing. I read an article called “The Death of the Funeral Business” by Sandy Hingston where it highlights how this is changing. Cremation is becoming more and more popular rather than burying your loved one in the ground. We do cremation because it is easier and cheaper to spread someone’s ashes than to buy an expensive casket and a burial plot. Because cremation is becoming popular, the funeral services are changing as well. Slide shows and photo montages of the person's birth to death are being displayed in various ways. How will the lack of burials change the future? In the article I read, Hingston makes the observation about how anthropologist use burials to identify people from different time eras. For example, anthropologist can examine a plot and gather possible information on how that person lived, ate, and religious affiliations. If we continue to cremate people, how will anthropologist years from now learn on how we were as a society? I personally think we should continue to keep with the tradition of having a formal funeral service. There is something about seeing your loved one in the casket and then seeing that casket being lowered into the ground that brings closure. I think that it sometimes more morbid when you cremate someone. You burned that person into ashes to just sit in a vase on the fireplace mantel.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/death-funeral-business/?all=1