The author immediately starts off by introducing ancient groups like the preliterate groups who kept the corpse laid out after death (Crissman, 1994). Keeping a watch or wake over the body brought the wake to take many different forms today after generations passed (Crissman, 1994). Wakes differ from funerals in that funerals are conducted at a gravesite while wakes allow families or close associates of the deceased a time of grief and visitation before the burial (McMahon & Wallace, 2018). He mentions early Greek and Roman societies and how they did the burial process. For Greeks, friends and relatives viewed the corpse to guarantee that the person was dead (Crissman, 1994). If the deceased was a well known member of the society, the disposal
