| Lesson 12: Death and the Deerfield
Graveyard
1 class period (85 minutes)
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| Key Content Ideas Taught in this Lesson and
Teacher Background |
Death rituals in the home and subsequent burial
and mourning practices reveal much about community values and social
classes. Although these rituals have varied over time because of
changes in the belief system, these rituals were shared, varying
only in terms of social position. The social elite used this time
to once again demonstrate their wealth.
Teacher Background Essay: Death and Community
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| Intended Learning Outcomes |
Understandings
Students will understand:
- Burial practices were structured differently
than they are today.
- Because of the high death rate of the period, representations
of death communicated a more personal meaning and reminded people
of the inevitability of their own death.
- Both belief systems and fashion, in addition to available
materials and artisan skill, governed the choice of iconography
seen in gravestone and mourning art through time.
Skills
Students will be able to:
- Make educated deductions between iconography
on gravestones and in mourning art, and the culture and religion
of the time.
- Use information gained from this and other periods to
develop a continuum showing the growth of the Deerfield community.
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| In Preparation for Teaching |
1. Read Teacher Background Essay: Death and Community
Further Background Readings:
Deetz, James. In Small Things Forgotten. New York: Doubleday,
1996 Dublin Seminar. Puritan Gravestone Art. Boston: Boston University,
1976.
Forbes, Harriette. Gravestones of Early New
England and the Men Who Made Them. New York: Da Capo Press,
1967.
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Primary and Secondary Sources:
Unless otherwise noted, all can be found
on the American Centuries website.
- Examples
of gravestones
- Terms/iconography
used in graveyards
- Memorial Embroideries from the Digital Collection
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| Activity |
Materials in Context |
- Invite students to focus on the terms used on the tombstones,
the shape of the stones, the material they were made of, the iconography, and the
condition of the stones.
- Ask students to complete a Digital Collection
search about Memorial Embroideries and share their findings.
Assignment:
Based on the character that you are developing in your family,
write an obituary of a family member, conduct an appropriate
funeral, and then design a gravestone with an appropriate
epitaph to place on the grave. Include a billing for the gravestone. |
Examples
of gravestones
Terms/iconography
used in graveyards
|
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The writing of the obituary and the design of
the gravestone.
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