Dr. Gary Laderman
(Emory University, Department of Religion)
"Grief Mythology and the Invention of a Modern American Tradition"
Wednesday, April 4th, 2001, 3:00 p.m.
This paper will explore the development of a pseudo-psychological
language in America's funeral industry during the early and
middle decades of the twentieth century and its relation to
both specific ritual practices to dispose of the dead as well
as larger cultural attitudes that make sense of the experience
of death. In particular, it will examine the mythic structures
produced within in the industry to legitimate embalming--a practice
that in a very short period of time became the lifeblood of
the industry. The presentation will also challenge conventional
wisdom, articulated most forcefully in 1963 by Jessica Mitford's
popular The American Way of Death, that America is a
death-denying culture.
---
Gary Laderman, Associate Professor (1994), received
his B.A. in Psychology from California State University, Northridge,
and his M.A. and Ph. D. from the Religious Studies Department,
University of California, Santa Barbara. He teaches in the following
areas: American religious history and cultures, death and dying,
theory and method, Native American religions, and science and
religion. His research focuses on death in American life. Laderman
is currently writing Death in Modern America: A Cultural
History of the American Funeral Industry (Oxford UP), a
follow-up to The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward
Death, 1799-1883 (Yale UP, 1996). In addition to participating
in an NEH-Summer Institute on the history of death in America,
Laderman has received research support for this project from
the American Council of Learned Society, the Louisville Institute,
and Emory's University Research Council. Laderman also serves
as Associate Director of the Graduate Division of Religion,
and is on the editorial board of the Journal of the American
Academy of Religion and of the electronic-only Journal
of Southern Religion. He has organized three conferences
at Emory University: "Religious Diversity in Metropolitan Atlanta,"
"Religion in the American South," and "Science and Religion:
Perspectives on Suffering and Healing."
---
The MARIAL Center
Emory West, 4th Floor, Room 415E
Open to the public
Refreshments will be served
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DIRECTIONS TO THE MARIAL CENTER
The MARIAL Center is located on the 4th floor
of the main building of Emory West, 1256 Briarcliff Rd. There
is ample parking close to the building. Alternatively, you may
take the Emory shuttle (Route W). The shuttle leaves every half
hour from the main campus and is a 10-minute ride. Route W shuttle
stops are located at the corner of Asbury Circle and Pierce
Drive, along Pierce Drive, and in front of the Administration
Building.
Please tell the receptionist at the front window
that you are here for the MARIAL Center lecture.
