Death

Question 1

death

Answer 1

biologically: a physiological (and eventually taphonomic) process
socially and spiritually: an emergent phenomenon that requires witness and social consensus (biocultural concept)

Question 2

Bigham

Answer 2

illustrates a purely biologic definition of death

• there are inevitable conflicts between death, grief, and resource constraint
• families who don’t accept brain death and insist on keeping on life support even after declared brain dead
• her cases showed irreconcilable differences between physicians and family’s narratives led to arbitration

Question 3

death by consensus

Answer 3

contemporary Canada: death can be declared if sufficient evidence, or indirect
- only people in power can declare someone socially dead
Contemporary Japan: death is a social event and requires social consensus

Question 4

automaticity

Answer 4

the heart’s ability to beat outside the body for a number of hours

Question 5

attitudes toward organ donation: western modernist:

Answer 5

death=irreverisble cessation of consciousness

Question 6

cartesian dualism

Answer 6

once brain dead, body is disposible-organs can be removed

Question 7

attitudes toward organ donation: Historical Christianity

Answer 7

intact body is needed for ressurection

- body is buried in solid ground

Question 8

attitudes toward organ donation: orthodox Judaism

Answer 8

body must be buries ASAP, intact

Question 9

attitudes toward organ donation: Japanese Shintoism

Answer 9

death defined by the cessation of heart activity (brain death is insufficient)
-death is agreed by social consensus and the soul must be given time to leave the body

Question 10

attitudes toward organ donation: Taoism

Answer 10

the intact body is the resting place for the soul

Question 11

Joan Cassel

Answer 11

attitudes toward death and dying vary among biomed practitioners
intensivists prioritized alleviating suffering
surgeons prioritized preserving life and were suspicious of intensivists who were too keen on palliative care

Question 12

palliative care

Answer 12

comfort care in home, hospital, or hospice

Question 13

DNR orders

Answer 13

DO NOT RESUSCITATE. signed with family

Question 14

MAID

Answer 14

Medical Assistance in Dying

Question 15

Margaret Lock

Answer 15

discovered that death in Japan doesnt just affect the dead

- social event that requires social consensus

Question 16

Kleinman and Small

Answer 16

dying is a personal and social phenomenon, not just a biological process

Question 17

mortuary practice

Answer 17

the suite of cultural behaviours pertaining the caring for and disposing of the dead

Question 18

mortuary practices include:

Answer 18

preparing the body
methods of disposing of the body
symbolic and religious acts for doing these processes

Question 19

Nash

Answer 19

embalming and cremation

Question 20

return to the earth practices

Answer 20

Tibet: Sky burials: bodies are left in the open for scavengers
NW Coast: Box and Tree Burials: entuned in a wooden box and left to decay
at sea, sacred sites or rivers, in significant landscapes: cremation and scattering

Question 21

secondary burial: Wendat People

Answer 21

bundle burials and ossuaries

-body decays and bones are bundles up and sent to home or given secondary burial

Question 22

Toraja, Indonesia

Answer 22

the dead are cared for until family can hold funeral

Question 23

Mexico

Answer 23

dia de los Muertos

Question 24

Catholic tradition

Answer 24

blessing the dead

Question 25

Contemporary Indigenous traditions

Answer 25

ancestors as present in the landscape

Question 26

mortuary practices are symbolically and socially powerful acts that :

Answer 26

demonstrate respect to the dead
build and reinforce the mourners’ social capital
affirm bonds among living community
sites for constructing, reinforcing, and enforcing reputations and norms

Question 27

Kathleen Adams

Answer 27

studied exotic mortuary practices among the Sa’da Toraja

- pornographies of the macabre

Question 28

osteology

Answer 28

skeletal biology

Question 29

the biological profile

Answer 29

approx. age and death
sex at birth
appearance (body size and proportions)
personal history 
causes of death

Question 30

forensic anthropology

Answer 30

assembling a profile from human remains

Question 31

bioarchaeology

Answer 31

studies the effects of life upon the skeleton

• disease/disability
• growth and development
• nutrition
• habitual behaviour
• embodiment: gender, class, ethnicity

Question 32

mortuary archeology: the dead play a social role

Answer 32

the study of how we treat the dead

• community cohesion
• affiliation with place (cemetaries)
• expression and enforcement of social norms

Question 33

mortuary treatment

Answer 33

the physical context and associations of the dead and the attributes of their handling and presentation

Question 34

mortuary treatment reflects and affirms:

Answer 34

respect and care
construction of identity
continuity through time
place-making and collective memory

Question 35

cosmology

Answer 35

conceptions of world organization, afterlife, relations with spiritual realm

Question 36

Lothagam

Answer 36

geological formation, exposing red sediments going back to Milocene
fossils everywhere
no water or vegetation

Question 37

Lothagam interpretation

Answer 37

pastoralist communities: they moved about but came together at death at significant places
whole community buried together
everyone had personalized gifts
some people considered exceptional-but still buried at the same location