Kirstin Anne Jackson (Anthropology major)
“An American Funeral: Christianity, Capitalism and 'Passing Away'”
Sponsor: Professor Stanley H. Brandes, Anthropology
Project Description
Kirstin proposes to ethnographically record and explore the significance, negotiation, evolution, and intertwining of folklore, ethics and business practices in North American funeral homes, aiming in particular to understand the evolution of “grief counseling”, business interactions, etiquette, and “rites of passage” or rituals, such as embalming. While scholars and journalists have published many studies and exposés about funeral homes "manipulating" funeral folklore to take advantage of the grieving, few have explored what Americans as agents and actors have had to do with the stasis, evolution, and significance of their own funeral folklore. They too play a part. This project will record and consider the current folklore, how it came to be, and what it symbolizes to different groups of American folk.
Scholar's Photo
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Kirstin poses in front of caskets; the number of Americans choosing caskets over cremation has dropped precipitously in the last few decades.
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Scholar's Journal
June 16, 2005:
I had the pleasure of visiting two Los Angeles
memorial parks and funeral homes this weekend. What
follows is my funerary account.
Jessica Mitford, writer of "An American Way of Death"
claimed that the Forest Lawn cemeteries and funeral
homes in Los Angeles were the Disneyland of funerary
things. She was wrong. They were the Disneyworld,
Knotts Berry Farm, a cathedral, a European estate, and
a history museum of funeral things, all rolled into
one and wrapped by a professional gift wrapper, with
a gorgeous pink bow.
As soon as I reached the Forest Lawn cemetery and
funeral home driveway in Glendale, I was struck by its
Los Angelian grandeur. The forty feet tall, wrought
iron gates that surrounded the 100 or so acres of
graveland and monuments were twisted into curls.
Topping the gates was something similar to European
family crests.
Past the gates was a pond with a enormous fountain,
garnished by seven golden frog figures shooting water
40 feet high out of their mouths, and a nude
Renaissance woman statue (replica of an Italian
original). The pond was further decorated with twelve
live ducks (two of them ran after me) and four white
swans. Outlining the pond were seven more replica
statues by artists, such as "The Little Mermaid" by
Edvard Eriken.
In building Forest Lawn, the creator of the memorial
park (referred to as “The Founder" on Forest Lawn
memorabilia) aimed for deathly decadence. His idea was
to create a beautiful space where people could both
enjoy lavish Renaissance art replicas, and visit their
dead friend or family member. In his opinion, all of
the other cemeteries or memorial parks in existence
during the 1920s were ugly. They were unfavorable to
enlightened mourners who appreciated beauty and
elegance. So, The Founder incorporated artistic and
architectural elements and styles from all over the
world in aims of creating a funerary worship place for
Los Angelans.
One example of the mixed architecture and artistic
styles of Forest Lawn is the mortuary building that is
housed in the memorial park. Half the facade resembled
old Danish style houses, and the other half resembled
Sleeping Beauty's Castle in Disneyland. The complex
building had arched stained glass windows, with some
panes featuring Jesus, medieval knights, and the crucifixion. As a side note, attached to the mortuary was a flower shop that sold flowers, Forest Lawn brand waters, grave statues, 2 garden gnomes, and scented lotions.
There are five funeral homes/cemeteries to the Forest
Lawn Los Angeles funeral corporation. Last weekend, I
visited one in Glendale (which I wrote about), and one
in Hollywood. They were AMAZING. Not only are they
artistic/architectural marvels; apparently they are
also teaching tools.
School children are brought to the one in Hollywood by
their teachers to have MesoAmerican and United States
history reenacted for them by live and costumed
"ancient Mayans" and "Abraham Lincolns". Forest Lawn has replicas of just about every historical American historical piece of paper one could find-- the
Declaration of Independence, letters from Thomas
Jefferson, and more.
Go see "forestlawn.com" if you want to see more.
I'm still working on my analysis of what it all means.
I've got strange ideas forming.
