Dealing with death: the Pakeha treatment of death 1850-1910

Abstract

This thesis establishes the extent to which Philippe Aries' model of attitudes towards death is applicable to Pakeha society between 1850 and 1910. In order to determine this, the behaviour associated with death in Pakeha society during the stated period is examined. Although certain reservations are expressed, it is argued that Aries' model of attitudes towards death is essentially accurate for Pakeha society. It is evident that during the nineteenth century, in accordance with that which is argued by Aries, death was both calmly accepted as an integral element of the human experience and somewhat romanticised. This can be identified in the limited role of the nineteenth century undertaker, in the elaborate qualities of nineteenth century funerals, and in the cult of tombs and cemeteries which existed during the nineteenth century. The important shift in attitude which is asserted by Aries to have taken place around the turn of the twentieth century, clearly appears to have occurred in Pakeha society. It is unquestionable that death was increasingly considered to be shameful and loathsome. Two important changes in the behaviour associated with death belie the emergence of this attitude in the early years of the twentieth century. First, the expansion of the role of the undertaker saw the introduction of practices such as embalming, which are clearly explained by a distaste of the physical realities of death. An unease of death is also evident in the arguments of those who wished to see cremation replace earth burial as the method of disposing of the physical remains of the dead.