Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Many people who die in the United States are transported across state boundaries for burial at a place viewed as “home” by the decedent or the next of kin. This article employs an analysis of data from death certificates to explore the transportation of human remains from Arizona where, in 1983, 17.1 percent of those who died were shipped beyond the state. A sample of 783 removals reveals a predominant geographical pattern of flows to the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes states. This pattern is the reverse of recent patterns of both seasonal (“snowbird”) and permanent in-migration of the living to Arizona. A propensity for individuals to be transported back to their state of birth or to their most recent previous residence is also revealed.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Risch

, Quartermaster Support of the Army: A History of the Corps, 1775–1939, Office of the Quartermaster General, Washington, D.C., p. 694, 1962.

Covington

W. P.

, Air Shipping Human Remains, Mortuary Management, 56, pp. 20–22, 1969.

Anonymous, Computer Nets Expedite Transit Case Shipments, American Funeral Director, 95: 3, pp. 38–-53, 1972.

Harrah

B. K.

Harrah

D. F.

, Funeral Service: A Bibliography of Literature on Its Past, Present, and Future, and Various Means of Disposition, and Memorialization, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Metuchen, New Jersey, 1976.

National Directory of Morticians, Vol. XX, National Directory of Morticians, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, 1984.

National Yellow Book of Funeral Directors and Suppliers, Nomis Publications, Youngstown, Ohio, 1984.

Sullivan

Stevens

, Snowbirds: Seasonal Migrants to the Sunbelt, Research on Aging, 4, pp. 159–177, 1982.

Monahan

D. J.

Green

V. L.

, The Impact of Seasonal Population Fluctuations upon Service Delivery, The Gerontologist, 22, pp. 160–163,1982.

United States Bureau of the Census, 1980 Census of Population, Supplementary Report, PC80-51-9.

10.

Faulkner

, As I Lay Dying, Random House, New York, 1964.

11.

O'Connor

, Judgment Day, in Everything That Rises Must Converge, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, pp. 245–269, 1965.

12.

Frost

, The Death of the Hired Man, in Come In and Other Poems, Franklin Watts, New York, pp. 110–117, 1967.

13.

The Dying Cowboy in Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Moore

Moore

(eds.), University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 307–308, 1964.

14.

Cope

, Britons Quietly Push to Discourage Burial, Northeast Funeral Director, 22, p. 8, 1973.

Returning Home: The Interstate Transportation of Human Remains

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References