1st Student's Major
Anthropology
1st Student's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Students' Professional Biography
Bethany Rykhus is an Anthropology major originally from Waseca, Minnesota. She graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato in May of 2018 and will be moving to South Korea in the fall of 2018 to teach English as a Second Language.
Mentor's Name
Dr. Chelsea Mead
Mentor's Email Address
chelsea.mead@mnsu.edu
Mentor's Department
Anthropology, American Indian Studies
Mentor's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
Grief can be expressed in a vast number of ways, each unique to the person experiencing it. But are there wider trends in the manner in which this grief is displayed publicly? This research examines a collection of Christian funeral programs in Blue Earth County spanning the 1960s to the 2010s. By examining the linguistic and symbolic features of these programs, commonalities in the imagery, bible verses, poetry, or other tributes to the deceased are identified and analyzed across several factors including specific genders, ages, and time periods. This examination reflects a larger culture of memorialization amongst local Christian mourners as they participate in the grieving process. Furthermore, it contributes to larger conversations of grief, mourning, memorialization, and religious ideologies in the Southern Minnesota area.
Recommended Citation
Rykhus, Bethany R.
(2018)
"A Culture of Memorialization: Examining Public Grief Through Funeral Programs,"
Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato: Vol. 18, Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56816/2378-6949.1213
Available at:
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/jur/vol18/iss1/5
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.