Death’s Summer Coat

Death’s Summer Coat Plot Summary

Introduction

In a small theater tucked behind razor wire off the strip in Los Angeles, people gathered in black clothing for an unusual event. It wasn't a funeral, though the Grim Reaper was in attendance with an actual scythe. It was the first-ever Death Salon, where scholars, morticians, curators, and the public assembled to discuss something most people rarely consider: our own mortality. In the Western world, death has become increasingly sanitized and silent over the past century and a half. We refrain from thinking about it, we avoid reflecting upon it, and death is something most of us simply don't talk about. Yet death has been approached quite differently across cultures and throughout history. From sky burials in Tibet, where bodies are ritually dismembered and given to birds, to the Victorian practice of creating jewelry from the hair of deceased loved ones, humans have developed countless ways to confront mortality. This exploration takes us through the complicated relationship between life and death, examining how different societies create meaningful rituals around dying, and how Western culture shifted from accepting death as natural to waging war against it. By learning about these diverse traditions, readers gain valuable perspective on our own attitudes toward mortality, perhaps finding healthier ways to approach the inevitable journey we all must take.

Chapter 1: Ancient Traditions: Death Practices and Funeral Rituals

Throughout human history, communities have developed elaborate rituals to process death and honor the deceased. Archaeological evidence suggests humans began intentional burials as early as 30,000 years ago, with some estimates pushing this practice back to 170,000 years ago. These early burial practices reveal how deeply ingrained our relationship with mortality has been since prehistoric times. In ancient Egypt, elaborate mummification processes preserved bodies for the afterlife journey. The embalming procedure, lasting approximately 70 days, included removing internal organs, drying the body with natron salt, wrapping it in linen bandages, and placing it in an ornate sarcophagus. This practice reflected the Egyptian belief that the physical body needed to remain intact for the deceased's spirit to recognize it in the afterlife. Their burial chambers were stocked with possessions, food, and symbolic items needed for the journey ahead. Different environments led to diverse practices across early civilizations. The Chinchorro people of the Atacama Desert in South America were practicing complex mummification techniques around 5000 BCE, predating Egyptian mummies by two millennia. For many indigenous cultures in North America, sky burials or platform burials ensured the deceased could be reclaimed by nature. The ancient Chinese practiced elaborate ancestor veneration, creating memorial tablets and making regular offerings. These diverse approaches reflected each society's worldview and relationship with both the physical and spiritual worlds. What connects these ancient traditions is their communal nature. Death wasn't a private, medicalized event but a community experience that brought people together through shared ritual. The process of preparing the body typically fell to family members or specialized individuals within the community rather than outsiders. These traditions created psychological closure for survivors while maintaining connections between the living and dead through communal memory. The societal investment in funeral practices reveals something profound about human psychology. These rituals weren't merely practical disposal methods but served deeper cultural purposes: reinforcing community bonds, expressing shared values, providing comfort to mourners, and creating a narrative about life's continuation. By studying ancient death customs, we gain insight into how communities reconciled the harsh reality of physical death with the human need for continuity and meaning.

Chapter 2: Death as Transition: Cultural Approaches to Mortality

For many world cultures, death represents not an ending but a transformation – a journey from one state of being to another. This transitional view fundamentally shapes how these societies approach death, dying, and grief in ways dramatically different from contemporary Western perspectives. The Tibetan Buddhist tradition offers perhaps the most vivid example of death as transition. For Tibetans, the moment of death begins a 49-day journey through the "bardo" or intermediate state. During this time, the consciousness of the deceased encounters various peaceful and wrathful deities before eventually finding rebirth. The famous "Tibetan Book of the Dead" is actually a guide for the living to help the deceased navigate this journey. The physical body, meanwhile, is often given a "sky burial" – carried to a high mountain location, ritually dismembered, and offered to vultures. This practice reflects both practical adaptation to Tibet's rocky landscape and the spiritual belief that the empty vessel has served its purpose, now offering final benefit to other living beings. In Indonesia, the Toraja people maintain intimate relationships with their deceased family members. After death, bodies are kept in the family home – sometimes for years – while funeral arrangements are made. During this period, the deceased is considered "sick" rather than dead, still an active family member who is symbolically fed, talked to, and included in family life. When elaborate funeral ceremonies finally occur, they serve as a community-wide celebration marking the deceased's transition to the afterlife while reinforcing social bonds among the living. The Wari people of the Brazilian rainforest traditionally practiced mortuary cannibalism until the mid-20th century. Far from being considered disrespectful, consuming parts of deceased loved ones represented the ultimate honor – incorporating the essence of the departed into the bodies of those who remained. For the Wari, this practice symbolized the transformation of the deceased into a permanent part of the community body rather than allowing them to decay in the ground, separated from their kin. What these diverse practices share is a fundamental view of death as permeable rather than absolute. The boundary between life and death appears more as a soft barrier than an impassable wall. This perspective creates psychological space for continued relationship with the deceased, allowing grief to take place within a framework of ongoing connection rather than total separation. These traditions recognize death as part of a continuum rather than a disconnected event, helping survivors find meaning in loss through culturally prescribed paths of remembrance and transition.

Chapter 3: Western Transformation: From Religious to Medical Death

The Western relationship with death underwent profound transformation between the medieval period and the Enlightenment, shifting from primarily religious understanding to increasingly scientific and medical frameworks. This evolution fundamentally reshaped how death was experienced, managed, and conceptualized in European societies. During the medieval period (roughly 500-1500 CE), Christianity dominated European understandings of death. The Catholic Church maintained control over death rituals, with priests administering last rites and overseeing funeral ceremonies. Burial in consecrated ground was considered essential for salvation, and elaborate prayers for the dead were believed to ease their passage through purgatory. The concept of the "good death" emerged during this period – dying well meant having time to set one's spiritual affairs in order, confess sins, and receive proper sacraments. Death was an ever-present reality, with cemeteries often located in town centers and mortality rates high due to disease and limited medical knowledge. The Black Death (1347-1351) marked a pivotal turning point in Western death culture. This devastating plague killed approximately one-third of Europe's population, overwhelming traditional religious frameworks and burial practices. Mass graves replaced individual interments, and many died without receiving last rites. The psychological impact was profound, contributing to the emergence of memento mori ("remember you must die") themes in art and literature. The Dance of Death, depicting skeletons leading people from all social classes to their graves, became a common artistic motif reflecting the universality and unpredictability of mortality. The Protestant Reformation (beginning in 1517) further disrupted traditional death practices. Reformers rejected Catholic concepts like purgatory and prayers for the dead, severing the perceived connection between the living and deceased. This theological shift placed greater emphasis on predestination and individual salvation, reducing the community's role in shepherding the dead to the afterlife. Protestant funerals became simpler, focusing on commemorating the deceased rather than assisting their soul's journey. By the Enlightenment period (roughly 1685-1815), scientific rationalism began displacing religious frameworks. The emerging medical profession increasingly claimed authority over death, with physicians rather than priests attending deathbeds. Anatomical understanding advanced through dissection and scientific study, transforming the body from sacred vessel to biological machine. Death certificates, medical examinations, and scientific causes of death replaced religious explanations. This period saw the first attempts to medically define and determine the moment of death, wresting this determination from religious authorities and placing it firmly in the realm of scientific expertise. This centuries-long transformation fundamentally altered Western death culture, gradually shifting authority from religious institutions to medical science – a transition that would accelerate dramatically with the rise of hospitals and professional medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Chapter 4: The Victorian Era: Memorializing and Commercializing Death

The Victorian period (1837-1901) witnessed perhaps the most elaborate death culture in Western history – a fascinating blend of sentimentality, commerce, and ritual that arose during a time of rapid industrialization and social change. This era's approach to death was distinctive for its emphasis on public mourning, material commemoration, and the commodification of grief. Queen Victoria herself played a central role in establishing Victorian mourning culture. Following the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861, the queen entered a period of deep mourning from which she never fully emerged, wearing black for the remaining forty years of her life. Her intense, public grief set the standard for proper mourning behavior throughout the British Empire and beyond. Soon, elaborate mourning etiquette emerged with strictly prescribed rules. Widows observed a "full mourning" period of one year and one day wearing only matte black crepe fabric, followed by "second mourning" with less severe clothing restrictions, and finally "half-mourning" when they could introduce purple and gray. Men had less restrictive codes but were still expected to wear black armbands and specific mourning attire. Material culture flourished around these mourning practices. Specialized shops sold mourning clothing, jewelry, stationery, and home decorations. Mourning jewelry, often containing locks of the deceased's hair, became popular keepsakes. These "secular relics" created tangible connections to the departed in a society increasingly influenced by science and less certain about traditional religious afterlife. The death industry expanded dramatically, with funeral directors (a relatively new profession) offering comprehensive services from body preparation to ceremony management. Perhaps most distinctive of Victorian death culture was post-mortem photography. These "memento mori" portraits captured images of the recently deceased, often posed as if sleeping or even arranged in family portraits alongside the living. For many families, especially those of modest means, these photographs represented the only images they would ever have of their loved ones. The photographers took great care to make the deceased appear lifelike, sometimes painting eyes onto the closed eyelids in the developed photographs or propping bodies into sitting positions. Cemeteries underwent dramatic transformation during this period. The overcrowded, unhygienic churchyards of earlier eras gave way to carefully designed "garden cemeteries" located outside city centers. These new burial grounds, such as London's Highgate Cemetery or Paris's Père Lachaise, featured landscaped grounds, elaborate monuments, and park-like settings where the living could visit and commune with the dead. These spaces reflected the Victorian belief that death should be beautified and commemorated rather than hidden away. The Victorian approach to death represents a cultural response to an era of profound transition. As traditional religious certainties weakened and medical science advanced, elaborate mourning rituals provided structure and meaning during bereavement. These practices acknowledged death's reality while transforming it into something beautiful, meaningful, and enduring – creating a bridge between traditional religious approaches and the increasingly medicalized death of the modern era.

Chapter 5: Modern Medicine: Death Behind the Hospital Screen

The twentieth century witnessed a radical transformation in how Western societies experience death, as mortality moved from the home to the hospital and became increasingly medicalized, technologized, and professionalized. This shift represents one of the most profound changes in human death experience in history. At the century's beginning, most people still died at home surrounded by family. By mid-century, this pattern had reversed dramatically, with most deaths occurring in hospitals or other institutional settings. This transformation was driven by several factors. Medical advances made hospitals increasingly effective at treating serious illness. The development of antibiotics, surgical techniques, and life-support technologies meant conditions that once meant certain death could now be treated. Consequently, seriously ill patients were brought to hospitals with hope for recovery, and when recovery proved impossible, they often remained there until death. The medicalization of death introduced a fundamental shift in authority. Physicians, not family members or religious figures, now determined when death occurred and certified its cause. The development of life-support technologies in the 1950s and 1960s complicated matters further. Ventilators could maintain respiration, and cardiac resuscitation could restart stopped hearts. These technologies blurred the previously clear line between life and death, necessitating new definitions. In 1968, an ad hoc committee at Harvard Medical School proposed "brain death" criteria to address these complications – a concept that remains contested and evolving. Professional specialization around death accelerated during this period. Morticians, funeral directors, and embalmers took over body preparation that families had previously handled. Hospital staff managed dying patients, while grief counselors and therapists addressed emotional needs of survivors. This professionalization created efficiency but distanced family members from direct involvement with dying loved ones and death's physical realities. The dying process became increasingly fragmented across specialized roles and institutions. The medical model fundamentally reframed death as failure rather than natural process. In a system designed to cure disease and extend life, death represented the ultimate defeat. This perspective influenced both medical professionals and patients. Doctors sometimes continued aggressive treatments even when futile, while patients and families hesitated to acknowledge death's approach. The physician's traditional role in providing comfort during dying diminished as their focus shifted toward battling disease with ever-more-sophisticated technological interventions. By the late twentieth century, a notable counter-movement emerged in response to medicine's growing dominance over death. The hospice movement, pioneered by Cicely Saunders in Britain and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in America, advocated for more humane, comfort-focused care for the dying. Their work highlighted how modern medicine had created technically sophisticated but emotionally impoverished dying experiences. These critiques laid groundwork for palliative care specialties and renewed interest in home death options, suggesting a potential rebalancing of medical and human approaches to mortality.

Chapter 6: Reclaiming Death: Contemporary Death-Positive Movements

In recent decades, a remarkable cultural shift has emerged across Western societies as individuals and communities work to reclaim death from institutional control and break long-standing taboos around mortality. This "death positive" movement represents a significant countertrend to the medicalization and professionalization that dominated twentieth-century approaches to dying. The death positive movement gained momentum in the early 2000s, though its philosophical roots extend back to the hospice movement of the 1960s. Organizations like the Order of the Good Death, founded in 2011 by mortician Caitlin Doughty, explicitly aim to reduce death anxiety through greater engagement with mortality. Death Cafes, informal gatherings where strangers meet to discuss death over tea and cake, have spread globally since their inception in 2011. The Death Salon, launched in 2013, brings together academics, artists, and death industry professionals for multidisciplinary conversations about mortality. These initiatives share a common belief that confronting death openly leads to more meaningful living. Green burial represents one of the movement's most significant practical innovations. Rejecting embalming chemicals, concrete vaults, and resource-intensive caskets, green burial advocates promote biodegradable containers and natural decomposition. Organizations like the Green Burial Council certify cemeteries that protect natural areas while providing environmentally sustainable interment options. This approach reconnects death with natural cycles and offers alternatives to both conventional burial and cremation, the latter of which has environmental impacts many find concerning. Digital technologies have transformed how contemporary societies memorialize the dead. Virtual memorial sites, social media "legacy contacts," and digital inheritance planning have become increasingly common. Facebook alone contains millions of profiles belonging to deceased users, creating what some scholars call "digital afterlives." These technologies raise complex questions about online identity persistence after physical death and how digital memorials influence grieving processes in ways traditional monuments cannot. Home funeral movements have reintroduced family care for the dead, reviving practices common before the funeral industry's professionalization. Organizations train death midwives or death doulas who guide families through home-based after-death care, including washing and preparing bodies, conducting home wakes, and managing disposition without professional funeral directors. These practices emphasize direct engagement with death's physical reality and the therapeutic value of hands-on care for the deceased. Artists and designers have played crucial roles in reimagining death rituals for contemporary society. Projects like Jae Rhim Lee's mushroom burial suit (designed to aid decomposition) or Katrina Spade's human composting initiative represent innovative approaches to body disposition. Meanwhile, death-themed art exhibitions, photography projects, and installations have proliferated, helping normalize mortality conversations within cultural spaces. What unites these diverse initiatives is a fundamental belief that greater engagement with death enhances life. By reclaiming mortality from institutional control, proponents argue we can develop more authentic, meaningful approaches to both living and dying. Rather than rejecting medical advances, the movement advocates for balance – integrating scientific understanding with human needs for ritual, meaning, and community during life's final transition. This cultural shift suggests Western societies may be gradually moving toward a more integrated relationship with mortality that honors both tradition and innovation.

Chapter 7: Cross-Cultural Lessons: What Death Teaches the Living

When we examine diverse approaches to death across cultures and throughout history, certain patterns emerge that offer profound insights for contemporary life. These cross-cultural lessons reveal how our relationship with mortality shapes not only how we die but fundamentally how we live and what we value. Perhaps the most striking lesson from this global survey is that death rituals serve the living more than the dead. From Tibetan sky burials to Victorian mourning jewelry, elaborate funeral ceremonies to simple green burials, these practices provide psychological frameworks for processing grief and reestablishing social order after loss. The communal nature of traditional death rituals – largely lost in medicalized Western approaches – serves crucial social functions. When communities gather to mourn collectively, they reaffirm bonds, redistribute social roles disrupted by death, and create spaces where grief can be expressed and witnessed. This collective dimension appears across radically different cultural contexts, suggesting a universal human need for community support during bereavement. The material culture surrounding death reveals our complex relationship with remembrance and continuity. Physical objects – from ancient Egyptian grave goods to digital memorials – serve as tangible connections between the living and deceased. These mementos function as "transitional objects" that help mourners gradually adapt to absence while maintaining psychological bonds with the departed. The universal human tendency to create memorial objects suggests our need to transform abstract loss into concrete representation, regardless of cultural or religious context. Cultural approaches to death profoundly influence attitudes toward life. Societies with more open, integrated relationships with mortality often demonstrate different priorities and values. In Bhutan, where Buddhist contemplation of death is encouraged from childhood, regular reflection on impermanence reportedly contributes to higher measures of happiness and life satisfaction. Similar patterns emerge in other cultures where death remains visible rather than sequestered. This suggests that confronting mortality doesn't necessarily increase fear but may actually enhance appreciation for life's transience and beauty. The medicalization of death in Western societies has created both benefits and challenges. While modern medicine has dramatically reduced premature mortality, it has simultaneously disrupted traditional wisdom about dying well. Cross-cultural perspectives reveal alternative approaches that integrate medical expertise with human needs for meaning, connection, and dignity at life's end. The hospice philosophy, which draws from both traditional death practices and modern palliative medicine, exemplifies this balanced approach. Perhaps most importantly, diverse cultural traditions remind us that how we die reflects how we have lived. Societies that value community, intergenerational connection, and spiritual meaning tend to create death practices that honor these same values. Conversely, cultures prioritizing individual autonomy, technological control, and material success often develop death practices emphasizing these qualities. By examining different approaches to mortality, we gain perspective on our own cultural values and blind spots, potentially allowing us to develop more integrated, meaningful relationships with both living and dying.

Summary

Throughout human history and across diverse cultures, attitudes toward death have revealed profound truths about how societies understand life itself. The fundamental tension between seeing death as a natural process versus an enemy to be conquered has shaped rituals, beliefs, and practices across civilizations. When we trace this evolution—from ancient funeral rites that honored death as transition, through Victorian memorialization that beautified mortality, to modern medical approaches that often hide death behind hospital screens—we witness not just changing practices but transforming worldviews. The contemporary death-positive movement represents a fascinating attempt to reclaim elements of traditional wisdom while acknowledging modern realities. These historical and cross-cultural perspectives offer valuable insights for navigating our own relationship with mortality. First, meaningful engagement with death enhances rather than diminishes life—cultures that maintain healthy relationships with mortality often demonstrate greater appreciation for life's transience and beauty. Second, community involvement in death rituals provides crucial psychological support during bereavement, suggesting we should reconsider the increasing privatization and professionalization of dying. Finally, how we approach death ultimately reflects our deepest values—suggesting that creating more humane approaches to mortality requires examining broader cultural priorities around community, technology, and meaning. By learning from diverse traditions while adapting to contemporary circumstances, we can develop more integrated relationships with mortality that honor both our universal human needs and our particular cultural contexts.

About Author

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Brandy Schillace

Dr. BRANDY SCHILLACE (skil-AH-chay) is an autistic, nonbinary author, historian, mystery writer and Editor (who grew up in an underground house next to a cemetery with a pet raccoon). Her mystery novel, THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE, features an autistic protagonist: Jo Jones. Plus: An abandoned English manor, a peculiar missing portrait, and one dead gardener. “A must read for any mystery lover.” – says DEANNA RAYBOURN, New York Times bestselling author of KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE. (This will be book one in the NETHERLEIGH mystery series.) ***QUICK NOTE! I love talking with readers - for Book Clubs and 1:1s, find me now on Skolay: skolay.com/writers/brandy-schillace***Brandy’s recent nonfiction, MR. HUMBLE AND DR. BUTCHER–described by the New York Times as a “macabre delight”–explores Cold War medicine, bioethics, and transplant science. Brandy’s next nonfiction book, THE INTERMEDIARIES, will tell the forgotten, daring history of the interwar Institute of Sexology in Berlin: trans activists, the first gender affirming surgeries, and the fight for LGBTQ rights in the shadow of the Nazi Third Reich. Rebels against empires, it’s a heart-stopping story of courage in the face of long odds.And because she writes in two worlds, both of them weird, Brandy hosts a regular YouTube show called Peculiar Book Club. It features livestream chats with bestselling authors of unusual nonfiction, from Lindsey Fitzharris and Mary Roach to Carl Zimmer and Deborah Blum. She has appeared on Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum, NPR’s Here and Now, and with Dan Aykroyd on THE UNBELIEVABLE (History Channel). Bylines at WIRED, Scientific American, Globe and Mail, WSJ Books, and Medium. She works as Editor in Chief for BMJ’s Medical Humanities, a journal for social justice and health equity.Dr. Schillace is represented by Jessica Papin at Dystel and Goderich Literary Management.http://brandyschillace.com/@bschillace

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