A review of Death, Dying, & Bereavement: Third Edition published in Vision, July/August 1996.
Sociology is a science of many measures. No single perspective dominates, but the body of knowledge within and bordering the discipline has built a multi-dimensional examination of factors that influence human relations. Outside of academia, the value of such a broad-based science may be nowhere more apparent than in considering funeral and cemetary service.
According to professors and co-authors Michael Leming and George E. Dickinson, "...funeral rituals allow individuals of every culture to maintain relations with ancestors, while uniting family members, reinforcing social status, fostering group cohesiveness, and restoring the social structure of the society." In keeping with this observation, Leming and Dickinson's book Understanding Dying, Death, & Bereavement: Third Edition establishes and interprets funeral service and cemeteries within a greater sociological context.
"Sociologically, the funeral is a social event that brings the chief mourners and the members of society into a confrontation with death... [bringing people] of all walks of life and degrees of relationships to the deceased together in one place for expression and support..." Much more than a "one time kind of 'support' group" the funeral has evolved over time, reflecting dominant attitudes and beliefs towards death. "In a country so de-ritualized as the United States, funeral directors may provide a positive role in developing sets of norms for mourning behavior."
In four sections, the book provides an overview to: Understanding Dying and Death; Understanding Death Attitudes; Understanding the Dying Process and Understanding the Bereavement Process, all with a strong emphasis on the American way. In this, the text's third addition, additional attention is paid to the funerary practices of a variety of cultural traditions. Hospice care, children and death, religion, suicide, biomedical issues and the funeral as an "expression of contemporary American Bereavement" are also discussed and extensive reference listings, suggested readings and glossaries at the end of every chapter raise Understanding from text to resource, a starting point in a study that is neither morbid nor dull.
Funerals and cemetaries hold up rather well under a sociologist's spectacles. The sense and significance of bereavement symbols, service and rituals, so prone to belittlement and misunderstanding, are studied with insight by both author-professors. If this text is any indication of what they're teaching in schools these days, it is an enlightened and welcome one.
Understanding Dying, Death, & Bereavement: Third Edition by Michael Leming & George E. Dickinson; c. 1994; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.; ISBN #0-15-500632. Hardcover; (U.S.) $47.75; (Cdn.) $68.95. To order, Canadian customers may contact Harcourt Brace Canada at: 1 (800) 387-7278, extension #317. Customers in the United States may contact Harcourt Brace at: 1 (800) 544-6678.
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