Cultural Shift?

[Richard Romeo]

Mr Maas wrote:

>Kate Julian, writing in the December-January _Civilization_, sees the
>ongoing proliferation in the U.S. of impromptu roadside shrines to victims
>of cars or other violence as potentially of great import.  She writes: "We
>may be seeing nothing less than a major shift in America's deeply ingrained
>and fundamentally Protestant approach to death.  The United States and
>northern Europe have long emphasized privacy, individual loss, and 
>solemnity
>in grieving; but sidewalk altars and parking lot shrines invite
>participation by all, allow displays of emotion, and implicitly recognize a
>continuing relationship with the dead."  Of course, the Opposition is not
>inactive.  Julian goes on to write: "[H]ighway departments. . .have
>restricted or outlawed [roadside shrines].  The hostility of the opposition
>can be jarring.  A Nevada highway spokesman characterized the offerings as
>‘debris,' for instance, and a Houston legislator condemned them as ‘visual
>pollution.'"
>
>     Steve Maas
>
>________________________________________
My sister's friend is an urban folklorist--he's studied much about shrines 
to the dead erected in cities, usually by some really gifted artists--think 
the Moonman character in Underworld.  These shrines are for those killed in 
a drive-by shooting, drug dealers, those who died young by disease, fallen 
cops, you name it.  They're everywhere in NYC, and some are just stunning.

Rich

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