ABSTRACT

There is general agreement among social scientists that the impact of urbanism on the lives of rural people is often great. This chapter traces the changes brought about by urbanism in the observation of rituals associated with death and dying in an obscure mountain community located in middle Tennessee. The community under study had to wait until the end of the second World War for dieselization of the railroad and the subsequent reduction of its economic base. Additional technological changes did not make their way into the county until the TVA brought inexpensive electric power. Since the second World War and, more importantly, since Medicare and Medicaid and the legal end of segregation, more and more black people who die in the community die either in a nursing home or in a hospital. The funeral rites for the child were reported to be the most elaborate the community had ever witnessed, complete with pall-bearers and a hastily organized children’s choir.