ABSTRACT
Funeral services have been attacked and mourners massacred as part of Middle East violence. Funeral picketing continues to be an ethical and legal issue with additional court cases pending. Eventually, public graveyards were moved to the outskirts, but because of a distaste for the over-crowding and neglect that had been seen before, and the risk of disease that such conditions might bring, a new style of rural, garden cemetery became the norm by the middle of the nineteenth century. A funeral director may have already made preliminary arrangements to see that the wishes of the family are respected. The interval between death and funeral allows symbolic and psychological needs to be met. Both whole-body burial and cremation offer the possibility of a funeral service. The funeral process would not have become so important to so many societies unless it served significant needs and values.
