Midterm Review Flashcards
What are some themes in death education?
1) Limitation and Control
2) Individuality and Community
3) Vulnerability and Resilience
What are the reasons for new patterns in death statistics?
1) Industrialization
2) Public Health Measures
3) preventative health care
4) modern cure-oriented medicine
5) nature of contemporary families
What is death?
The cessation of life
What are attitudes towards death?
A reflection of today’s society
How are attitudes towards death disseminated in todays society?
mass media literature music visual arts formal death education AIDS quilt
How are we removed from the concept of death?
euphemisms isolation of process of dying technologies institutions by the media
How are attitudes towards death reflected?
Through humour and language
What are some factors that have affected attitudes towards death?
We have an aging population-more old people than young
The process of dying has been prolonged
The nuclear age is rising
The dying have rights-psychology of entitlement
What are the benefits of death education?
Learning bout death and dying helps to identify attitudes and bahaviours to confront mortality in OUR OWN WAY.
It Allows for people to make choices rather than to conform (hospices and pastoral care)
Make a statement about death attitudes and culture.
No matter what culture, death attitudes represent an effort to RATIONALIZE death
Where do you see belief in afterlife?
In societies that believe in myth
What are some common themes of myths?
Death is out of person’s control
There is a sense that you can fix or change things before death
Mortality is recognized
What sort of services could the dead provide for the living?
Can communicate with dead through shamans
The dead are role models for the living
The dead are the link between the living and the gods
Discuss names and death in different cultures.
Some cultures practice name avoidance where the name of a dead person will never be mentioned or if a living person has the same name as the dead they must change their name
Other cultures practice name admiration and name their children after the dead
What are the domains of death?
Natural
Socioeconomic
Psychosocial
How was death handled until the 6th Century?
People were pagans so everyone was buried together in charnel houses
How was death handled in 12th century?
People started to think about the concept of death and become aware of their own mortality.
Wills were testament to the dead not disposition of wealth.
How as death handled in the 17th century?
Big shift. Survivors started to be allowed to express emotion so ceremonies began to help them, along with tombstones. The state and the church became equal instead of church being more powerful. Death began to be romanticized and lots of art was made surrounding it.
How as death handled in the 19th century?
Others death overshadowed one’s own (?)
How as death handled in the 20th century?
Death became taboo, you weren’t supposed to show your emotions and children were left out of the grieving process.
Death was moved to hospitals instead of at home where a lot of opioids were used to spare dying from any pain as they did not have antibiotics yet and did not know what was really going on.
What are the functions of religion when it comes to death?
It is meant to relieve anxiety of death, this could mean through religious activities and rituals. However, activities and beliefs surrounding death could create some anxiety themselves because they are to unite the group through a common concern. This secondary anxiety is removed through group rituals.
What do all religions have in common when it comes to their beliefs surrounding death?
There is always some form of judgement involved in the process of the afterlife.
Discuss Judaism and the afterlife.
Some Jews believe in the afterlife and some don’t. They believe that death is the curse of Adam and Eve and that the body will rise from the dead at the end of time. The decisions you make in life are more about the affect on the survival of the community and Israel than about yourself.
Discuss Christianity and the afterlife.
They believe in dualism which is the existence of the body and the soul. Your soul will be judged at the moment of death and you will either go to heaven, hell, or limbo/purgatory. The foundation of Christianity is life, death, and resurrection.