1 Understanding Culture

Culture is one of the most critical factors in the funeral profession. Culture is the rules, ideas, and beliefs shared by members of society of and for living and dying, which are learned directly or indirectly. It includes our heritage and our history. Culture can be divided into material and non-material parts. Material components contain clothing, our mode of transportation, and the food we choose to eat. Non-material items include our values, ideas, concepts, and rules regarding how we behave in society. An example of non-material elements for an embalmer is how they choose to prepare a family member’s loved one, including which embalming techniques to use. An example of material elements for an embalmer are instruments, embalming fluids, and cosmetic brands to prepare a family member’s loved one.

The components of culture are values, symbols, and norms.

Values are standards by which members of a particular culture define what is good or bad, moral or immoral, proper or improper, desirable or undesirable, beautiful or ugly. Values are often shared but only sometimes standardized or uniform. This is why society has subcultures and countercultures. These terms refer to segments of society that share some values with a larger community while believing in other values that set them apart.

An example of values in American culture is recovering decedents from natural or human-made disasters like September 11^th. Local, state, and federal agencies go to great bounds and invest significant resources to identify and place the decedent’s remains with their loved ones. This type of value incorporates policies, laws, and practices of agencies that are dedicated to this mission. Another example of values in a culture is timeliness. In many cultures, it is common to set a dinner party for a specific time, like 7:00 PM, but the expectation is that guests will not arrive until after the set dinner time. This is part of their values.

Symbols are anything that communicates or carries meaning among members of a culture, such as a language (which is the most widely used symbol in a culture), clothes, hairstyles, facial and body expressions, mascots, cars, and icons. Some sociologies include language as a core component of culture because of its critical role in all cultures. If symbols were not shared in culture, communication would break down. Imagine being unable to describe emotions or basic human needs by communicating because there were no shared languages. You may have been in this situation before when traveling to a country where you didn’t speak or understand the language. When servicing families in the funeral home and cemetery, paying close attention to symbols, including religion, occupation, socioeconomic class, and ethnicity, is vital. When you recognize these characteristics, the result is a positive relationship with the family (customer).

Norms are social rules. They are divided into categories based on the significance of an act and the depth of the reaction from others. These categories are folkways, mores, taboos, and laws.

Folkways are norms with little or no moral significance. Folkways encompass behaviors in daily life, such as etiquette rules. Examples of folkways include holding the door open for someone walking behind you, using the correct utensils at a restaurant, and saying please and thank you. These behaviors are part of social life but have no moral implications.

Mores involve behavior that carries moral significance. Violation of these social/societal rules has informal and formal implications. Stigma and ostracism are included in the informal implications. An example of this would be shunning in the Amish culture. This form of social exclusion includes not allowing a person to eat with or take rides with other community members. The person is excluded from community activities and church. A person is shunned because of a transgression that has violated the church and community’s mores (church rules). Laws refer to the formal implications of mores. Breaking the law results in fines, suspension of licenses, and even prison. Behaviors, which are important patterns of ideas and acts of people related to the treatment of the dead, are considered mores. If they are violated, there are often informal and formal sanctions by society. You may have recently noticed several news stories involving these violations in the funeral profession. When these situations happen, a community may question the profession’s ethical character. The funeral home may receive phone calls questioning ethical practices. The funeral care provider must communicate their processes and procedures to assure families that their loved ones are safe and treated with dignity and respect.

Taboos are social prohibitions of certain actions. Spitting on the street and cursing in public are examples of taboos in American society. Remembering that what is taboo in one culture may not be in another is essential. The topic of dying, death, and grief could be considered taboo in American culture. However, many groups have been working on normalizing the topic in recent years. One such group is the Death Café, an organization throughout the US that holds meetings at coffee shops/cafes to discuss the issue of death and dying with the public.