Sociological Thanatology Essay, Research Paper

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the orientations of death which people have learned from their culture, and to explain different cultures varying views on death and burials.

I. Cultural evaluation of death

A. Orientations

B. Varying views

II. Cultural examples

A. Egyptians

B. Aryans

C. Burial Masks

III. Reasons for death views

A. Changes

B. United States

C. Tie together

Sociological Thanatology

It is when one first sees the horizon as an end that one first begins to see…Ends are the hardest things in the world to see- precisely because they aren t things, they are the ends of things. Death is the perspective of every great picture and the underbeat of every measurable poem.

-Archibald MacLeish

The orientations people possess regarding death are radically different and easily influenced by language, art, religion, funeral rituals, and social structure of the culture.

There are five types of death that cultures can believe in.

Tame death is a process familiar and near.

In Death to Self, the true essence of oneself was assumed to be revealed. It is a renewed appreciation of life and it s possibilities.

Remote and Imminent Death is viewed as a rupture or break in life rather than a continuum.

Death of the Other is when you are more worried about a loved one s death than your own.

Invisible Death means that individual lives and deaths are inconsequential.

(The Hour of our Death)

Cultures can be death accepting, death denying, or death defying. In the west strategies for salvation have included strict discipline for afterlife survival. In the east, strategies are more contemplative and mystical. Death can be considered the end of existence or a change into another state of being.

(The Hour of our Death)

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To mix forever with the elements,

To be a brother to the insensible rock

The oak shall send his roots abroad,

And pierce thy mould.

-Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant

If you were to parachute down into some exotic culture, how would you classify the meaning it had constructed against death? There are lists to help classify cultural views towards death. This is a general list:

1. Nature of their beliefs in the meaning of life, death and afterdeath;

2. Strategies for body disposal;

3. The perceived role of dead on affairs of the living;

4. The physical/symbolic boundaries between worlds of dead and living;

5. Whether dying process is a public or private event;

6. The degree of social status attached to those dying, dead, or bereaved;

7. Views toward and rates of suicide, murder, and abortion;

8. Social goal of death prevention and avoidance;

9. The death socialization of children and their involvement in the funeral ritual;

10. The forbidden status of the topic of dying and death in everyday talk;

Throughout the history of mankind, death has been an enduring theme of myth and religion, science and magic, curiosity and fear.

Let s talk of graves, of worms, of epitaphs.

-Shakespeare

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There are two aspects of survival after death: the journey of the spirit to and continued existence in another sphere of living, and the relations of the dead with the living. When a culture believes in the first, then the cult tends to exclude any emphasis on the second. Take for example two opposite-believing cultures, the Egyptians and the Aryans. Egyptians believe strongly in the soul returning to the body after death. Aryans believe that the person s soul leaves the body, and that the body is then unsanitary and should be disposed of.

Egyptians believed that a person s soul had many parts. One of these parts was called the ka. The ka was a person s double, sort of an invisible twin, which supposedly lived in the body until death. It was necessary to prevent the dead body from decaying because the ka still needed it. (Learn about Egypt with Neferkiki)

Sometimes a statue that resembled the deceased would be placed in the tomb with the mummy. These ka statues were a back up to make sure the ka had a body to belong to, just in case something should happen to the mummy. In addition to a recognizable body, the ka also needed food to survive. When Egyptians left food and water at the tomb, they were leaving it for the ka. They also would sometimes bury servants of the deceased with the body to care for it in the afterlife. The servants would starve to death because they could not touch the food left for the ka. (Learn about Egypt with Neferkiki)

The other part of the soul was called the ba. Like the ka, it could only stay alive if it found the body to which it belonged. This is why the Egyptians wanted to preserve the dead in as life-like a state as possible.

What isn t known is whether the Egyptians practiced mummification to support their religion, or if they shaped their religious beliefs to go along with their desire for fancy burials, which relied on mummification. (Learn about Egypt with Neferkiki)

I think you’re right, Wyatt. I can’t see a goddamn thing.

-Morgan Earp, on his deathbed,

finally accepting his brothers refusal

to believe in life after death

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In the 8000s BC, Iran was the residence of the Aryans. They believed in destruction of the body that was considered unhygienic and polluting, both physically and spiritually. To cleanse the putrefaction from the corpse, it was bathed in the urine of a particular white bull. The corpse-bearers would carry away the body on a special iron bier because the body cannot contaminate iron or stone.

The body would be placed on a stone, and a dog brought near to gaze on the face of the dead person. The dog possesses divine sight, and has the power to see and chase away any evil spirits. The sun and vultures then worked systematically to destroy the body. Then rain would fall and wash away the dried bones into the sea. (Dakhma-nashini Mode of Disposal of the Dead)

Another death ritual, burial masks, were not particular to a culture, but displayed through several ancient cultures. Burial masks of gold are known from pre-Greek Mycenae as early as the 2nd millenium BC. Molded in gold leaf on the dead man s face, they were probably intended not only to preserve the appearance of the dead but also to preserve the person by magic. In Egypt heads of stone were put in tombs to ensure that the dead person would continue to exist. It was thought that such masks would enable the dead to maintain contact with the living. (MASK)

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The views of the different cultures are just an example of how the people were brought to their views of death. Perhaps the Egyptians believed in afterlife as a result of a popular king who wanted to be preserved for all time. Or maybe they believed in the ka returning to the body because of a dream that a wise man once had. Whatever reason started the theory of death, the Egyptians acted on it and the believed in it more and more

as generations impressed the beliefs to them. The Aryans achieved their perspective in the same manner, just as all cultures do.

Even in the United States, we have certain views of death that we accept without knowing where they came from. Many beliefs stem from religious teachings. Some come from the arts, such as paintings of television. The views that we have on death are just as much a learned process as religion or society. They are impressed on us from birth, and we develop a sense of what death is and how it affects us.

So what is the true meaning of death to a particular culture? It is not concrete, because extenuating circumstances can sway it. The belief in survival after death is not an individual s response to death, but an accepted part of a human s understanding based on the viewing of social customs. The customs impose certain modes of behavior and the stimulation of certain emotions that may or may not be felt. These customs alter aspects of death among cultures, and is a learned part of society. (Mortuary customs)

Don’t take life too serious. You’ll never escape it alive anyway.

Elbert Hubbard

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Aries, Philippe. The Hour of Our Death. Translated: Helen Weaver. Oxford, Oxford University, copyright1991

Baumeister, Roy. The Meanings of Life. Guilford Press copyright 1991

Gluckman, Max. Mortuary Customs and the belief in survival after death. Mortuary customs and the belief in survival after death among the south-eastern Bantu . http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/ERA/Ancestors/gluckman.html

Kearl, Micheal. Kearl s Guide to Sociological Thanatology. Sociology of Death and Dying . http://www.trinity.edu/ mkearl/death.html

Learn about Egypt with Neferkiki. All about Mummies . http://members.aol.com/neferkiki/mum2.html

Mask. MASK . http://www.optonline.com/comptons/ceo/03047_A.html

The Dakhma-nashini Mode of Disposal of the Dead. The Zoroastrian Dakhma-nashini mode of disposal of the dead . http://www.ozemail.com.au/ zarathus/dakhma33.html