Well, there is a great deal more to it. The observer, confronted for the first time by the treasures and artifacts of this unfamiliar world, may well feel something akin to the astonishment of Bernal Díaz del Castillo at his first glimpse of the hitherto undiscovered court of Montezuma: “We were amazed,” he declared, “and some of the soldiers even asked whether the things we saw were not a dream.”
This is in reference to the plethora of products that mortuaries push and the industries that have developed. It is an astonishing list: burial shoes, lingerie and underwear, mattresses, sheets, and of course caskets, urns, and mausoleums. Think also of all the time spent developing advertising copy for these items and conferences discussing sales techniques.
