Unmute Yourself: Revealing Rituals

Abstract

I learned early in my education how cultural practices convey the truths or values of the culture in which those practices take place. It was during my undergraduate studies that I was exposed to the study and analysis of rituals surrounding death and how they, sometimes subtly, sometimes blatantly, present and promote the values and beliefs of those practicing them. An example of this approach was Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death. It was in Mitford’s work that I first encountered the practice of being buried in one’s car. Such a practice directly demonstrates the importance of that car (or even cars in general) to the deceased. Indirectly it demonstrates the financial status of the deceased and/or the family to be able to afford such an ostentatious display of wealth in already expensive funerary rites. This practice raised the question: do funeral rites demonstrate social and economic stratification? This theory was put to an empirical test through a study of Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois, in an upper-level sociology course I took later. Graceland Cemetery was established in 1860 by a prominent Chicago lawyer, in what was then the town of Lake View—now in the neighborhood just north of Wrigley Field on Chicago’s northside. The cemetery’s board was quickly filled with dignitaries from all aspects of Chicago’s life, including architects. Designed as an homage to Victorian gardens, it likewise attracted significant customers. So, on the one hand, the evidence of such a “high end” cemetery gives some initial evidence to one’s burial indicating your social status. Yet the more interesting story is actually within the walls of Graceland. Graceland attracted some of the most important figures in all of Chicago’s history. Our class project asked the question of whether there were well-defined “neighborhoods” and if so, how were they defined? What we discovered was that there were distinct neighborhoods for Graceland’s “residents” and even stratification within the neighborhoods. For example, the most “desirable” neighborhood is located at the far north end of Graceland. Here one finds etched in stone names like McCormick, Palmer, Field, Getty, Goodman, and Burnham—significant names in Chicago and beyond. Many of these burial sites are large plots of land with large “improvements” inhabiting them. For example, the tomb created for Carrie Eliza Getty by her husband was created by the renowned architect, Louis Sullivan. Not only is it large, but it is also considered to be one of Sullivan’s finest works. Not to be outdone, Daniel Burnham, the designer of the post-fire Chicago city plan, is buried on an island in the middle of a large pond. However, there are less ostentatious graves, such as that of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who resided in that neighborhood, and had a very elegant, though understated, marker. Likewise, some, like brew master Peter Schoenhofen, who resides outside this more desirable neighborhood, are buried in a magnificent pyramid. Bigger house in a cheaper neighborhood, if you will. It