ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the historical evolution of death practices in Kentucky with special emphasis on Appalachian Kentucky. It presents the results of a survey concerned with the visibility of death, conducted in contemporary Appalachian and non-Appalachian regions of Kentucky. The evidence for the low visibility of death is fairly convincing in those cultural settings which are modern, cosmopolitan and technologically advanced. After death, the body was prepared by friends and neighbors who verified that life had actually departed, washed the body and applied lotions to retard mortification. The historical survey indicated that Appalachian Kentucky, while adopting many death practices of the larger society, retains some of its uniqueness. The independent variable of region was defined geographically as towns lying within or outside of Kentucky “Appalachia”. The questionnaire survey gives striking evidence that death denial, avoidance and invisibility are not the norm in Kentucky, contrary to what has been suggested in much of the death literature describing trends in western society.
