Chapter 4 Flashcards
Kastenbaum’s definitions of death system
- The sociophysical network by which we mediate & express our relationship to mortality
- The interpersonal, sociophysical, & symbolic network through which society mediates the individual’s relationship to mortality
Functions of a societal death system
- to give warnings and predictions
- to prevent death
- to care for the dying
- to dispose of the dead
- to work toward social consolidation
- to help make sense of death
- to bring about socially-sanctioned death
examples of WARNING AND PREDICTIONS in a societal death system
sirens
flashing lights
media weather alerts
examples of PREVENTING DEATH in a societal death system
Police & security officers
emergency medical care systems
Dept. of Homeland Security
examples of CARING FOR THE DYING in a societal death system
hospice
hospitals
examples of DISPOSING OF THE DEAD in a societal death system
cemeteries
crematories
examples of WORKING TOWARD SOCIAL CONSOLIDATION in a societal death system
funeral rituals
bereavement support groups
examples of MAKING SENSE OF DEATH in a societal death system
religious, spiritual, and philosophical programs
examples of BRINGING ABOUT SOCIALLY SANCTIONED DEATH in a societal death system
war
capital punishment
slaughtering livestock
People in societal death systems
funeral directors lawyers medical examiners florists
Places in a societal death system
cemeteries
funeral homes
“Hallowed ground”
health care institutions
times in a societal death system
Memorial Day
death anniversaries
objects in a societal death system
tombstones
hearses
obituaries
gallows
symbols in a societal death system
skull and crossbones
black armbands
“ashes to ashes, dust to dust”
events of September 11, 2001
revealed both ineffective and effective aspects of American death system
increased feelings of nationalism among many American citizens
redefined freedom, rights, and personal liberties in the United States
led to the invasion of Afghanistan to rout Taliban leaders hosting al-Qaeda
Death caused by human beings
accidents homicide terrorism war, genocide, and ethnic cleansing the holocaust the nuclear era
death by accident is about ___ percent of all deaths per year. It is the ___ leading cause of death overall and __ for ages 1-44 yrs.
Each accidental death affects about ___ survivors. Affects ____ ppl in the US and many suffer disabling injuries.
Gradual ____ in overall accidental deaths since 2000.
5%
4th
1st cause
10
more than a million
increase
motor vehicle accidents are ____ percent of accidental deaths.
Highest death rates by age is
___ to ____ years old
___ to ____ years old
___ to ____ years old
and by gender ?
26%
15 to 24
75 to 84
85 and older
males way more
What is Homicide or “assault”?
it is the ___ leading cause of overall death in US
death rate of ___ per 100,000.
rates have been _____ since the 1980s
An act by one human being that is intended to or actually does kill another human being
17th
5.0 per 100,000
gradually increased
Homicide demographics by age:
Highest rates among \_\_\_ to \_\_\_ yrs \_\_\_\_ per 100,000 Second rates among \_\_\_ to \_\_\_ yrs \_\_\_\_ per 100,000 Third rates among \_\_\_ to \_\_\_ yrs \_\_\_\_ per 100,000
almost ___ % of homicide deaths involve ppl between ___ and ___ yrs.
rates _____ after young adulthood
25 to 34
9.6 per 100,000
15 to 24
9.5 per 100,000
1 to 4 and 15 to 34
69 %
15 and 44
decline
homicide demographics gender and race
_____ are far more likely to be both perpetrator and victims of homicide (ratio of ___ : ___)
leading cause of death in _______
rate of _____ per 100,000 (___ for males alone)
males
3.8 to 1
African Americans
17.8 per 100,000 (32.1 for only males)
Approximately __ % of all homicides occur between family members or acquaintances
in ___ % of all homicides the victims and assailants are of the same race
strongly correlated with use or misuse of firearms
______ deaths
50%
90%
11,008
Definition of Terrorism
violent acts or threats intended to intimidate or create fear
perpetrated on behalf of some religious, political, or idealogical goal
acts that target or disregard safety of civilians
Individual terrorism
one or two ppl engage in an act that harms or kills others and destroys property
perceives him or herself to be weaker than his or her opponent
expressing anger with those who are targeted
desires to mobilize the larger society to rectify some wrong or to act in some other desired way
examples of individual terrorism
Timothy McVeigh with help of Terry Nichols bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev placed pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013
Group Terrorism
Formally or informally organized group of people who attempt to do harm for religious, political, or ideological reasons to those whom it perceives as its opponents
Goals of Group Terrorism
to force outsiders to leave the country or area
to overthrow a perceived puppet regime
to lay claim to political power
to try to set up a separate power
example of group terrorism
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
- radical catholic and protestant factions at one point in the northern island, Chechen separatists, Boko haram in northern Nigeria, and the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria
state supported terrorism and its goal
employed by a political administration against its own or neighboring population
stronger side acts on weaker group
the goal is to coerce certain behaviors or to remove the targeted group from society through forced emigration or extermination
example of state supported terrorism
Saddam Hussein employed terrorist tactics against some Kurdish communities in Iraq in 1988
Nazis in Germany 1930s & early 1940s acted to eliminate Jewish people & other groups of persons
Mean by which terrorists employ action
act at a distance with minimal risk of self-harm
- EX : car bombs, IEDs
Direct presence of the perp with escape plans but potentially high life-threatening risk
- EX : Snipers, Kidnappers
Self destruction
- EX : suicide bombers
Implications of Terrorism (issues afterward with survivors)
- Challenges personal security & safety, as well as common assumptions about life & the world
- Survivors may feel abandoned by a social system that often is unable to either find or prosecute the perpetrators
war
to overcome another society or group
or to repel some aggressive action
genocide
violent crimes committed against groups intending to destroy the very existence of the group & its members
ethnic cleansing
involves the forcible relocation of population groups; often becomes a form of genocide
war, genocide, and ethnic cleansing typically lead to …
social disruption both directly and indirectly in suffering and death
difficulty grasping or making sense of these events and such huge numbers
_____ forcibly displaced people worldwide
more than half are _______
65.3 million
children
the holocaust
WWII
Nazi’s systematic, ideologically driven program to eliminate the Jewish “race” gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, those who said to be Untermensh or subhuman
the “final solution” culminated in the slaughter of 6 million european jews and millions of others during the late 1930 early 1940s
Nuclear weapons
a form of socially-sanctioned death
first tested July 16th 1945 at trinity site new mexico USA
Used as a weapon in WWII
- hiroshima aug 6 1945
- nagasaki japan aug 9 1945
weapons of mass destruction
nuclear energy
a source of much needed energy world wide
peaceful use carries significant dangers to mankind
Accidents
- three mile island 1979 and chernobyl 1986
Natural Disasters
- japan’s earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant 2011
people go to great lengths to avoid saying words like _____ and _____
death and dying
Euphonisms
- substituting a pleasant or inoffensive word or expression for language viewed as harsher or more offensive
- arise out of human experiences with death
- over reliance can distance us from important and fundamental events of life itself
people are comfortable with death language as long as the events have nothing to do with actual death and dying, such as …
dead batteries, a deadpan expression, a dead giveaway
being dead drunk, dead tired, dead serious, dead certain, a deadbeat, scared to death
marksmen hit the target dead center and have a dead eye or are dead shots
worried to death
ebarrassed may say i wish i was dead
purposes of death related language
Emphasis & exaggeration
Dramatization & intensification
Power & dominance
Deth experiences with News Reports
- highly selective portrait of death and life
- unusual modes of death come to be seen as ordinary or typical
- our own deaths are perceived as less likely to happen and more remote
Fantasized death and violence thru entertainment in the media
- deaths are unrealistic or fantasized
- death is distorted and associated more with violence and gore
- impact on society is a looser grip on the genuine expe4riences of life and dearth
