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Ashley Wicken Did funerals in this period serve any purpose other than 'to display and reinforce the social distinctions of the dead'? Fundamentally, the funeral is the disposing of a corpse hygienically underground. Of course it also provided a place where individuals could mourn their loss. However, the English funeral during both the late medieval and early modern period also projected certain religious, as well as socio-economic and political beliefs. Changes to the role, nature and appearance of the funeral did take place during this period but peoples experience of this varied; according to social class, and location. Death is universal and ignores social status; it removes the mystic of superiority surrounding those of high social standing. The funeral on the other hand is an attempt to re-establish and re-affirm this mystic, broken by death, through use of status symbols and gestures. In other words the funeral was used, primarily in...

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