"Death Without Weeping"

This surprising, maybe shocking for us white folks, article was assigned in my Anthropology class about Death.  The article describes a poorly fed society in Brazil with high infant mortality.  How the infant deaths are often accepted with joy or relief; or seemingly low affect.  The infants, often victims of malnutrition before and after birth are dressed up and laid in specially decorated coffins.  The children take the coffin to the graveyard for burial in common areas.  Parents aren't usually involved, mothers don't weep.  Openly expressed sorrow is said to make it more difficult for these young children to make their way on their journey.

Schepper-Hughes (the author) argues that this treatment and behavior should not be measured against the western-trained anthropologist's view of 'appropriate' models of grief and loss.  It doesn't apply here.

A number of quarters ago, I took an upper level archaeology class that included talking about cultural, processual and post-processual approaches.  Processual involved scientific analysis and measurement; the movement that followed rejected using science or quantitative western measures.  Like this.  Personally, I'm drawn to these post-processual works.  But, as my friend says, if you can't analyze, compare or classify things, how can there be any connections or principles.

Maybe there aren't. 

I think this photo might be from Nancy Schepper-Hughes.  I'm assuming the children taking an infant who died to the cemetery.