HW 50

This book explores the alternative to the dominant social pratice of a funeral and how they prep the body. The cost of a green burial is far less expensive than the typical funeral (In America).

"The total cost of embalming, funeral and burial of Jenny Johnson comes to $12,376."- pg 14

"Arterial embalming perserves Jenny's tissue and skin by creating an unwelcome enviorment for bacteria. It leaves largely untouched, however , the many billions of bateria that reside- and thrive- within and around her visceral organs. In the early days of embalming, practitioners eliminated those decay-causing microorganisms by cutting open and "eviscerating" the corpse,pulling out abdominal organs and flushing the cavity." pg 22


"Embalming is a three-stage process of preserving a cropse fro viewing:setting the deceased's "features" as they will appear in the casket, draining the body of blood and replacing it with a formaldehyde-based perservative, and then inserting a sharp-pointed "trocar" into the abdomen in order to puncture the body's inner organs, vacuum up the released bacteria and surrounding visceral fluids, afterward flooding the "cleared" area with more preservative."- pg 27

"Hawaii prohibits the embalming of a body infectted with any of half a dozen communicable diseases, including smallpox and yellow fever."- pg 28

At first I thought the book was boring, but the author was only giving the reader background information and examples so that we understand the book. I never realized how much time and effort and money went in for caring for the dead. The business of funeral homes would never go out of business because everyone dies at one point, its a bit of a scam in my opinion. Everyone would of course want the best for theyre dead loved one which means more money.

HW 48

Family member
Ally- How do you feel about death?
FM- You can escape it for only a short time but eventually its going to happen
Ally- Do you believe there is an after life
FM- I'd like to but I'll wait and see and if there is I'll leave you little clues to let you know I'm there
Ally-Do you fear death?
FM- sometimes

The conversation drifted off topic , death isnt something I want to talk about with my family members. I highly doubt I will interview them at all if the topic is about death.

HW 47

Interviewee- Dominican female, 17 years old, lives in Manhattan
Ally: Can I interview u
Nicole:Yea
Ally: How do you feel about death
Nicole:Its another part of life
Ally: Do you believe there is an after life
Nicole:No
Ally: How do you feel about your own eventual death
Nicole: It can happen any minute so I live to the fullest and I don't fear it
Ally: Would you consider being in a relationship w| someone who is dying
Nicole: Only if I found out they were dying after I've fallen inlove/ learned to love them
Ally: Do you think the dominant social practices of morning and wearing all black at a funeral is the correct way to go about death
Nicole: No
Ally: What do you think is the correct way
Nicole: white shud be the color worn and its ok to morn but I think its better to celebrate bc they're out of their misery if they were slowly dying and if other wise den knowing their in a better place den the hell we live in
Ally: How do you want your life to be remembered
Nicole:Happy cheery person who never took no for an answer
Ally: Anddddddd scene ! Ty for answering my questions
Nicole: Lol np

Interviewee- West Indian female, 17 years old, lives in Harlem

Ally: You bored ?
Raivyn: Yuuuup *trey songz voice*
Ally: Lol can I interview u
Raivyn: Lmao for whaat?
Ally: Hw, its about death tho
Raivyn: Lol interesting ok
Ally: How do you feel about death
Raivyn: I feel that itss scary :/. Idk lol
Ally: Do you believe there is an after life
Raivyn: Yuppp
Ally: How do you feel about your own eventual death
Raivyn: I don't wanna die I'm scared lol
Ally: Would you consider being in a relationship w| someone who is dying
Raivyn: Idk
Ally: Do you think the dominant social practices of morning and wearing all black at a funeral is the correct way to go about death
Raivyn: Nope
Ally: What do you think its the correct way
Raivyn: People are going to be sad anyway but having to dress in all black just makes everything in a bad mood so I think you shouldn't have to wear black just because someone died
Ally: How do you want your life to be remembered
Raivyn: U mean like what do I want 2 be remembered as ?
Ally: Yea sure
Raivyn: Umm
Raivyn: Damn idk
Ally: That's fine too lol thanks for participating

Interviewee- Malaysian female, 17 years old , lives in Bangkok

Ally: nadinnn
Nadin: Allyy
Nadin: (:
Ally: Sooo I have to interview ppl for hw nd its about death o_O you up for it ? Its only 6 qs
Nadin: Hahaha suree :3
Ally: How do you feel about death.
Nadin: Like in general?
Ally: Yea sure , your answer can be whatever comes to mind
Nadin : Mm well I feel like death can't be avoided. To be honest I'm not very worried about it. Its happens to everyone.
Ally: Do you believe there is an after life
Nadin : Yeah I do
Ally: How do you feel about your own eventual death
Nadin: I feel like it can happen any point of time. You can't prepare yourself for it. I'm not afraid of dying.
Nadin: Sorry my answers are quite vague
Ally: Lol its fine I'm not expecting a novel
Ally: Would you consider being in a relationship w| someone who is dying
Nadin : Yeah I would. I feel like it doesn't matter how long you have to spend with someone but the quality of the time u spend with them.
Ally: Do you think the dominant social practices of morning and wearing all black at a funeral is the correct way to go about death
Nadin: I personally don't think there's a definite correct way to go about death. So I don't really have a preference
Ally: How do you want your life to be remembered
Nadin: I would want to be remembered as a person who simple carried out a joyous life
Ally: Alll done , thanks
Nadin: Hahaha okies cool

Interviewee- 16 Male , Swedish , Lives in Manhattan NY

 

Ally-How do you feel about death? 

Jasper-I don't like death it makes me sad because I don't want to see the people I love go and I know that everyone is going to die eventually. 

Ally-Do you believe there is an after life?

Jasper-I have no idea, I don't really think so, I think your just dead, everything is over..  Not in a bad way though.

Ally-How do you feel about your own eventual death?

Jasper-I don't really know, but something about it seems comforting and peaceful to me.. Like one day this will allllll be over for me.  

Ally-Do you fear death?

Jasper-"My only fear of death is reincarnation" - Tupac lmao.  I don't really fear death because it will come eventually anyways and like I said in the previous question something feels comforting/peaceful about it.  But in my dream last night when I set myself on fire, as soon as I was on fire and burning I regretted it and I wanted to live and life seemed like something I never wanted to let go of.    

Ally-Would you consider being in a relationship with someone who is dying?

Jasper-Yes because I think that would only make the little time that you have with them much more meaningful and real because we take our time alive for granted and no one actually lives each day like its their last.  

Ally-Do you think the dominant social practices of morning and wearing all black at a funeral is the correct way to go about death?  If not what's the correct way?

Jasper-No, I think that is the wrong way of going about death.  I think that way just makes you more depressed then you already must be from losing a person you love.  I think the life of the person should be celebrated and remembered. 

Ally-How do you want your life to be remembered?

Jasper-I don't really care just as long as I'm not remembered as a pain in the ass to be around.

 

 

Over Spring break I hung out with a friend of mine named ashley, throughout conversation the death of her bestfriend came up and I decided to take the opprotunity to write down what she said about they way they mourn his death. Instead of moruning his death they celebrate his life, talk about him together , still write on his facebook wall. They want to keep his spirit alive, play songs for him daily and they even took a trip to Puerto Rico together (12 of them) on his anniversary.

 

Death is something that everyone thinks or thought about, we all know its going to happen and most of the people I interviewed think that we should celebrate the life of the one who passed. Death isnt taken lightly but its accepted.

HW 46

1.Your experience with the topic.

I've witnessed a few suicides and seen a few dead bodies but only been to one funeral. Death isnt much of a taboo to me since its inescapable, I think someone could drive themselves mad trying to understand death and why it happens. The care of the dead isnt something I think about, I think of cinco de mayo and how the Mexican culture treats death. They celebrate the live instead of dwelling on the fact that the person is no longer "here" I think celebrating the life of that person is better then mourning 

 

2. The way you've been taught to think of and act towards dead people.

I haven't been taught to think or act a certain way towards dead people, I think its common sense of what to do and what not to do at a funeral. There really isnt a way to act or think of dead people since they're dead but afterlife is something that I'm interested in. There are so many different opinions on afterlife and if an afterlife even exists. Heaven or hell , reincarnation etc

3. Social norms around the treatment of dead people in your/our culture(s).

Mourning, dressing in all black , burying the casket 6 ft under (why 6 ft?), tomb stones, cremation, spreading ashes or even keeping the ashes at home, burying the persons favorite things with them.

4. Your family's perspective regarding people who have died.

It's very sad but it happens and you have to move on but appreciate all the good times you've had with that person.

HW 44

 Jay's Post
I love how the opinion of this woman completely goes against the hospitals beliefs. I dont think it was a bias opinion because she works there and she has the first hand point of view.

My favorite part was,
JM: Do you think it's right that doctors are trained to think every birth is a high risk, emergency/surgical procedure?
N: I think doctors are not educated enough in the natural birthing process. OB/GYNs need more education. When I was in school, we trained with midwives, it was mandatory.

The fact that doctors are actually trained by midwives is really interesting but yet its like the battle of the fittest and they try to out bid one another, they try to prove why they're better than one another. I actually enjoyed reading this post.

Lina's Post
I was hopping to read about  postpartum depression but this post was interesting as well, I think its gross that the hospitals are trying to use celebrities to convince expecting mothers to do what they want. One of the things I found most interesting was the quote by a midwife,
""We need celebrities to endorse what we do," the midwife concluded. It was what she claimed would solve the current and literally largest problem of the birthing business."
It shows that midwives aren't all about holistic births and being one with your body, they're also about the money. Its seems like both doctors and midwives have different intentions then we thought.

Michelle's Post

 “Traditional women in India will act subservient to their husbands and will not make their own decisions…Women from India are modest and will prefer to be draped and covered during procedures and during childbirth.”

I noticed this person said prefer instead of taught, we dont really know if they like covering themselves or not but they have to or else they would be judged by they're community.  I found this post to be interesting it doesn't agree with the research I did on Indian birth rituals but that was with the Hindu culture and this may be apart of a different culture. I thought it was cool how you compared it to the traditional birth rituals of Americans.

HW 42

For this project Leah and I decided to make a poster focusing on the Hindu birth rituals, its way different from the social dominant practices of Americans. Religion plays a huge roll in India which is (in my opinion) the birth rituals are so different. We are going to present the poster in class on Friday along with an elevator speech

HW 41

http://www.babiesonline.com/articles/pregnancy/home-birth-vs-hospital-birth.asp
home births vs hospital births, They go through the pros and cons of home births and when a expecting mother should consider having one. They dont talk bout hospital births (probably because they think people have prior knowledge) but they do state when a hospital birth would be necessary.

http://choicesmedical2.reachlocal.net/abortion.html
Abortion is also an option and doesn't have to be looked down upon , there's many clinics and hospitals that provide safe alternatives for women who dont want to have children whatever the case may be. "Abortion saves womens lives"

http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/firsthour.asphe
The first hour of birth is "undoubtedly one of the most critical phases in the life of human beings" The mothers hormones go rapid after labor,the toxins released in her body causes her to have raging hormones after labor. Many studies "prove" this.