Critical Essay on Texas Graveyards: A Journey Through Culture, Tradition, and Time

Introduction

Texas Graveyards by Terry Jordan is a book about exploring Cemeteries and its evolution over time influenced through culture and traditions. The author has traveled in several cemeteries in Texas, which enabled him to write the book based on personal experience, culture, and traditions. This paper reviews the book giving an account of thoughts, opinions, and ideas about the book.

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Human burial rituals are a ritual that was started a long time associated with believes cultures and tradition. The book Texas Graveyards tries to find out the evolutionary process of the ceremony by explaining what is found in cemeteries the author has visited. The text is copyrighted for 1982, and its information is still relevant up to now (Jordan, 2004). It explores the social context of people regarding burials as a sign of honor to dead people. The recognition of dead people through the performance of rituals like burials is termed as neogeography. The book also has some folk art in it regarding cemeteries. The book explains social beliefs which trace human need to perform rituals of dead practices.

Through the findings in his book, Jordan noted that "cemeteries are not for the dead but the living."He also found out that different believes, races, and cultures have different divine regarding death which seems to be unfavorable for everyone. By interpreting the quoted text above, it means that nations and various lifestyles have to be tolerant of one another regarding dead rituals. The ritual is performed for the dead, but it will not affect them. It satisfies the living, giving them some sense of relieve and feeling that they have honored the dead.

There are similarities among the black, Indian, Mexican, and other people in terms of sculptured stones, mounts, hex signs and epitaphs present in cemeteries. The decoration in the graves, according to Jordan in his book, might be the representatives of Texas wealth folk art and tradition. He exclaims that Texas Graveyards marks the unique traditions among the ethnic groups in Texas. It is a preservation of the customs of Texas, which is an endangered customs.

There are a lot of culture grounds brought by the book surrounding cemeteries in the early years. The book reveals the discovery of fascinating cemeteries and graveyards telling the sign of cultures in them. They are based upon travels of "back roads and hidden trails "Jordan encountered Anglo-American, black, Indian, Mexican and German cemeteries in Texas. He which are dated back to the founding of lone star state after the Texas revolution. The variety and diversity of the graves give the traditional cultures of Europe, Africa, and Ancient Native Americans who lived in Texas. Jordan used photographs, maps, and drawings apart from writings to illustrate the beliefs behind the graveyards in his book.

"Texas Graveyards "is a book that has been praised for preserving the legacy of Texas which seemed to be endangered by changing customs with time. Graves and cemeteries have fallen further into disrepair in the recent past. That is why the book is seen as necessary for Texas history since it contains information that was no longer existing about graves and cemeteries. The books are equipped with photographs, drawings and illustration which serve as an evident of culture and customs of burial rituals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the book is neogeography in nature; it seeks to honor the dead by conserving the rituals and cultures associated with death. Jordan wroth the book after a lengthy exploration of thousands of cemeteries in Texas, equipping himself with enough information about Graveyards. The book is a history of Texas and many cultures that the great state has. It is recommended for anyone interested in the history of Texas.

Reference

Jordan-Bychkov, T. (2004). Texas graveyards. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press.