ABSTRACT
Two personal stories illustrate cultural features taken up in this chapter. The first occurred in 2005. I was visiting my aunt who was a patient in a Catholic community hospital (not a fieldwork site). We heard a bar of a lullaby over the public address system. The physical therapist working with my aunt said delightedly, “That’s the fourth one today!” She explained that the musical notes marked a baby’s birth. This simple gesture alerted everyone reachable by the paging system that a new person had joined the human family and that someone in charge thought that notice should be paid. Although I did not ask, I suspect that no similar musical announcement occurred when someone died, to mark a diminishment in the human family.
