A Review of: “An Individual Scholar's Sociological Perspective on the History of Euthanasia in the United States”

Abstract

As with people of the distant past, contemporary Americans inter funerary remains or “grave goods” with their dead. The analysis of contemporary artifact interment in the United States is an initial focus of this study. Survey data gathered from 22 morticians in seven states have been used to explain modern funerary trends and motives of the bereaved. A second and more sensitive questionnaire was distributed by morticians to individuals who had placed artifacts in a relative's burial. Their responses give direct personal insights from which scholars may gain an understanding of the importance of grave goods to those who bury them with their dead.