Deck 8: Last Rites: Funerals and Body Disposition

Question 1

What has been called a "celebration of the soul's entrance into heaven "

A)The funeral meal prepared by elders
B)The "second line" march (or jazz funeral) of New Orleans brass bands
C)The playing of Barber's Adagio for Strings at a funeral
D)Balloon release a year after death

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Jessica Mitford found modern funeral practices to be

A)interesting.
B)enlightening.
C)beautiful.
D)morbid.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The funeral business is generally viewed as a

A)business of mourning.
B)"closed business."
C)supplier of grief.
D)"mystery business."

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Approximately what percentage of Americans knew within the first hour of President JohnF.Kennedy's death

A)20 percent
B)50 percent
C)75 percent
D)90 percent

Question 5

Excluding burial vault and cemetery costs, what was the average cost of an adult funeral in the U.S.in 2009

A)$2,200
B)$4,200
C)$6,600
D)$8,200

Question 6

Funerals in the United States are mainly

A)structured around the wishes of the deceased.
B)enacted to preserve memories of the deceased.
C)focused on the welfare of the survivors.
D)seen as a vehicle for the dead to emigrate.

Question 7

According to Leroy Bowman, modern funerals

A)are overlaid with such ostentation that the essential meaning and dignity of such rites has all but disappeared.
B)are lacking in serious religious symbols, which diminishes the dignity of funeral rites.
C)have remained largely unchanged throughout history, which promotes a sense of mysticism in the experience.
D)have improved in society to meet the needs of the bereaved.

Question 8

What were The Casket and Sunnyside

A)Satirical plays presented by the National Funeral Directors Association at their 2012 convention
B)The undertaker's instruction guides for helping client families
C)Two nationally known funeral bereavement aftercare programs
D)Early trade publications to help facilitate communication among funeral directors

Question 9

Wake is best defined as a

A)memorial service after the funeral.
B)vigil at which those close to the deceased keep watch over the body.
C)ceremony held at the grave or crematorium.
D)ceremony that involves relatives and friends gathering to pray and say farewell.

Question 10

Which of the following fees are included in a mortuary's basic charge for professional services

A)Consulting with family members and clergy
B)Placement of newspaper notices
C)Cemetery or crematory services
D)Flowers

Question 11

Which of the following were normal functions of the undertaker in the late nineteenth century
1)Laying out the body for the wake
2)Providing "aftercare" counseling for the bereaved
3)Transporting the body to the church for the funeral
4)Transporting the body to the cemetery for burial

A)1, 2, and 3
B)1, 2, and 4
C)1, 3, and 4
D)2, 3, and 4

Question 12

Historically, when a family's ceremonial occasions involving death were held within the home, what services did the undertaker provide

A)Organizing after care programs for the family.
B)Supplying materials and funeral paraphernalia.
C)Digging the grave.
D)Laying out the body in the parlor for the wake.

Question 13

Funeral parlors acquired that name because

A)parlor is a pun as it comes from the same root word as pale or dead.
B)church officials wanted a separate place for funeral services.
C)undertakers wanted to disguise the reality of death.
D)viewing of the body used to take place in the ceremonial room of the home.

Question 14

Roadside memorials

A)began after the great rail disaster of 1929.
B)are a 21st century phenomenon.
C)have a long history.
D)are state mandated farewells to workers killed in the line of duty.

Question 15

Funerals are akin to other major transitions in a person's life in that they all involve

A)rites of passage.
B)numbers of people.
C)family and professionals.
D)money.

Question 16

Which of the following best represents the viewpoint expressed in Jessica Mitford's book The American Way of Death

A)Conventional funeral practices are misunderstood and complicated.
B)Conventional funerals are enlightening.
C)Conventional funerals are bizarre and morbid.
D)Conventional funerals are beautiful and inspiring.

Question 17

The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) distinguishes how many categories of costs related to the conventional American funeral

A)Two
B)Four
C)Six
D)Eight

Question 18

What is the primary requirement of the FTC Funeral Rule

A)Funeral service providers must give accurate, detailed information about prices and legal requirements to people who are arranging funerals.
B)Only professionals can care for the dead.
C)Funerals are required to be private functions.
D)Grave goods cannot be buried with the deceased.

Question 19

David Sudnow's study on death notification revealed that

A)the immediate family is often last to be notified.
B)doctors are unskilled in notifying families about the death of a loved one.
C)notification occurs randomly depending on the circumstances of the cause of death.
D)notification occurs in a consistent pattern from the immediate family to the wider community.

Question 20

According to Bertram Puckle, funeral rites

A)are the most important function related to death.
B)must adjust to modern social values.
C)reflect a superstitious fear of the dead.
D)should become more religious in nature.

Question 21

Which of the following statements about embalming is true

A)Embalming in the United States was adopted around the time of World War I.
B)A body destined for cremation cannot be embalmed.
C)A body destined for burial may or may not be embalmed.
D)Embalming methods among various cultures all have the same results relative to preservation of the corpse.

Question 22

Personalized funerals are also called

A)"ego" funerals.
B)"aqua" funerals.
C)"green" funerals.
D)"life-centered" funerals.

Question 23

It has been said that no land in the United States is more sacred than the square mile of

A)Arlington National Cemetery.
B)Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.
C)Washington Monument.
D)Cherokee Burial Mound.

Question 24

In which of the following countries is cremation the most common method of body disposal

A)Norway and Sweden
B)Russia and China
C)Canada and United States
D)India and Japan

Question 25

The most popular choice of casket in the United States is made of

A)walnut.
B)plastic.
C)gasketed steel.
D)cherry wood.

Question 26

Which of the following prefer cremation to ground burial

A)Judaism
B)Christianity
C)Islam
D)Buddhist

Question 27

Which of the following is generally considered an experimental technology

A)Harvesting of organs
B)Cryonics
C)Burial at sea
D)Donation to science

Question 28

The FTC Funeral Rule requires that mortuaries

A)obtain express permission from the family in order to charge a fee for the embalming procedure.
B)embalm the deceased if the funeral is more than three days after death.
C)disclose all embalming fees to a federal regulatory agency.
D)use an approved list of chemicals for embalming.

Question 29

Which of the following is considered a new direction in funerals and body disposition

A)Cremation and scattering ashes at sea
B)Placing one's ashes in a columbarium niche or urn
C)Having a space burial on a rocket
D)Entombment in a subterranean vault

Question 30

After cremation, the "ashes" are

A)in pieces like wood or paper pulp.
B)in a sharp and spiky state.
C)as fine as baby powder.
D)in a granular state like coarse coral sand.

Question 31

What is an ecopod

A)Recyclable casket
B)Internet site for casket purchases
C)Method of body disposal involving freezing in liquid nitrogen
D)Obituary announced via the world wide web

Question 32

At the lower end of the price range, caskets are typically

A)gasketed steel.
B)cherry wood.
C)plastic.
D)cloth-covered plywood or pressboard.

Question 33

When was embalming adopted in the United States

A)Around the time of the Revolutionary War
B)Around the time of the Civil War
C)Just prior to WWI
D)It is still not officially adopted in the United States since it is not required by federal law

Question 34

What is a "green" technique that can substitute for the conventional cremation process

A)Resomation
B)Crypting
C)Ecolization
D)Larching

Question 35

Which of the following types of body disposition will delay decomposition the most

A)Open air disposal
B)Corpse buried in a casket
C)Corpse buried without a casket
D)Body whose flesh has been washed from the bones prior to burial

Question 36

The "ashes" left from the cremation process are

A)one-half of the body weight.
B)like coarse coral sand.
C)different shades according to the person's ethnicity.
D)weightless.

Question 37

Which of the following is MOST likely to view cremation as a symbol of the transitory nature of human life

A)Christian
B)Hindu
C)Taoist
D)Muslim

Question 38

Funerals have been compared to a

A)shopping mall display.
B)graduate student defending their research.
C)traveling museum exhibit.
D)theatrical presentation.

Question 39

President Lincoln's funeral procession increased awareness of the practice of

A)embalming.
B)flying flags at half-mast.
C)reparation.
D)cremation.

Question 40

Funeral and memorial societies are organizations which were formed to

A)provide economic and simple after-death arrangements to members.
B)provide support group networking.
C)unite against the funeral industry to regulate pricing.
D)memorialize important figures in history.

Question 41

"Spontaneous shrines" may be seen on walls, roadsides, and via the internet.

Question 42

Cameras are illegal in a United States mortuary or chapel.

Question 43

Cremated remains must be placed in an urn if kept by the family.

Question 44

"Deathswitch" is a Web site specializing in the promotion of "green" burial products.

Question 45

The Parsi community in India disposes of the dead by allowing corpses to be consumed by birds of prey.

Question 46

Charges for the use of a hearse are usually included under the heading miscellaneous charges.

Question 47

The term "burial" simply involves digging a grave.

Question 48

There are those who believe that substituting a memorial service for a traditional funeral is lacking in which of the following respects

A)Formality, and therefore the memorial service tends to be chaotic
B)Cohesiveness as the clergy and family tend to disagree about the content of service
C)The body is not present, so the fact of death is not fixed in the minds of the mourners
D)It again brings up feelings that may have been 'put to rest'

Question 49

Burial vaults or grave liners are required by state law in all American cemeteries.

Question 50

Cryonics or cryogenic suspension is a method of

A)freezing.
B)mummifying.
C)immediate body disposal.
D)embalming.

Question 51

Most people appear satisfied with the quality of service provided by their local mortuaries.

Question 52

Wal-Mart cells caskets and urns on its website.

Question 53

What is the Hawaiian "feast of tears "

A)The first family meal following burial
B)The final family meal before burial
C)A joyful reunion of the bereaved
D)A marriage celebration of the deceased's grandchildren
True / False Questions

Question 54

Funeral costs are the same among regions of the country and between rural and metropolitan areas.

Question 55

Websites are set up to notify online friends of a death.

Question 56

Embalming is a uniform practice required by FTC law across the United States today.

Question 57

Funerals have attracted criticism only recently, due to online product suppliers.

Question 58

An intake fee is the charge for transporting the corpse from the place of death to the mortuary.

Question 59

If funds are not available from private sources to pay for burial the local Red Cross or Salvation Army picks ups the costs.

Question 60

Burying "grave goods" with the dead promotes the expression of grief.

Question 61

The Hawaiian "feast of tears" is the meal shared by mourners the evening of the death symbolizing the salt of the Pacific and the bitter tears of sadness.