Let 's Talk About Death Essay

Death is inevitable part of human experience, which is often associated with fear of unknown, separation, and spiritual connection. Death is an individual experience, which is based on unique perceptions and beliefs. Fear of death and dying seems to be a universal phenomenon, which is closely associated with apprehension and uneasiness. Death is allied with permanent loss, thus personal experiences of grief are similar in many different cultures. There are different mourning ceremonies, traditions, and behaviors to express grief, but the concept of permanent loss remains unchanged in cross cultural setting. With this paper I will identify cross-cultural perspectives on death and dying, and will analyze

Every individual experiences the act of death, and most persons experience the death of someone they know of. Whether family, kin, or someone infamous, the living deal with the process of dying. Anthropology seeks to understand the universal process of death ritual and how different cultures deal with death differently. An anthropologist can extract social values of a given culture, past or present, from how death ceremony is practiced. Such values could be regarding political hierarchy or an individual’s status in a society, and about a culture’s spiritual or religious faith. By exploring death ceremony in ancient Egypt, contemporary Hindu death practice in India, and current North American funerary rites, it can be illustrated that

No one can escape death. It’s one of so few unavoidable certainties in our lives and has held an important position in every human culture since time immemorial. Of course, this position has is different from culture to culture, and shifts over time. This is particularly evident in western culture. The shift is discussed at length in two essays: “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” by Jessica Mitford, and ‘The Fear of Dying’ by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Both explore different aspects of these themes – Mitford’s essay being deconstruction of a the uniquely North American process of embalming, and Kübler-Ross’ being an indictment of the clinical depersonalization of contemporary western attitudes toward death. Each utilize many different tools as writers, such as rhetorical modes. Rhetorical modes they share are exemplification, description, and compare-and-contrast.

This research explores the literature across cultures on death and dying in order to highlight the impact of culture on reactions to death and the dying process. A theoretical framework is established, using Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of dying, followed by a succinct discussion of the reactions and attitudes toward death and the dying process of four cultures (Buddhist, Hindu, Native American and American). By illustrating the different reactions and attitudes toward death of these cultures, it is revealed that through increased cultural understanding health care workers can provide more personalized care to the dying.

When an individual dies, their death can greatly impact the loved ones they leave behind. Each mourner may feel and perceive the death differently from one another, but one common factor that can influence the mourner’s beliefs, values, and views about a person’s death is their culture. Their culture can regulate the way the mourner copes with the death of a loved one, what they do with the physical deceased body, and how they may honor the dead afterwards (Cartaret, 2011). For me, my culture is relatively related to the Catholic, Hispanic American culture, which is a broad and subjective category, but it is what I believe that guides my views towards life and death. I have additionally chosen to learn about the cultural practices of Hinduism of Indians on death

People die everyday all over the world. In United States, people use hundreds of different words to describe death. Generally, people that grow up in the United States tend to view death as a taboo subject and are seen as a topic that should be kept behind closed doors and contracted with an individual or family. A belief system that so many individuals hold to be true has been shaped over the past century. In this culture, death has become something that is enormously feared and as a result, some people stop living their lives to his or her highest potential because of their fear of dying. The effect that death has pertains to individuals of all ages, gender and ethnicities. But unfortunately, how death is viewed it has become more and

I have read pages nine through twenty of our assigned book, Death and Dying in America. These few pages cover a variety of topics, mainly the history of how Western societies have handled death in the past.

Death is something not much people talk about; therefore, it’s usually hidden. In the book Smokes Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons From the Crematory, Caitlyn Doughty discusses how the America culture is in denial of death. There are an abundance of reasons why people do not want to face death. This could be because fear of pain or leaving their loved ones behind. In addition, death is also displayed very differently in television compared to reality. We are a society in denial of death. Society should expose children to the reality of death because death is inevitable. I agree with Caitlyn Doughty that our culture hides death and this denial is a “root cause of [...] problems in the modern world.”

The moment of death is the absolute most liminal instance. Is the moment of death the present or the past or maybe the beginning of an afterlife, the hallowed or the disrespectful, the person or the memories? Death is something we wonder about but do not know because it does not fit into a specific set of guidelines therefore we do not know and do not understand it. To Americans, death is an abstract concept. When is the last time you talked to someone about your future death or the future death of a loved one? It isn’t the go-to topic. So why have we become a society that hides death? It is everywhere and people experience this every day yet our culture is so unfamiliar with the concept of death and how to deal with it. Through strenuous avoidance, we have become a culture of death.

This illustrates the interesting idea that death is not simply a medical or legal term, but a cultural abstraction that can be freely interpreted by different

I believe the average American’s view of death and the dying process has slowly changed throughout time. The slow change in our population’s view of death can partially be contributed to the negative view the media often casts on death and the dying process, as well as the lack of the connection many American’s have with their aging family members. In the past, family was often present during the aging and dying process. However, families are often nuclear units currently, and are not as involved as they once were. Rather than having a personal experience with death and the dying process and truly having a personal view, many individual’s views regarding death are often influenced by the negative portrayal in the media.

When it comes to the topic of death denial in American culture, it’s one of those thing’s most people are for the most not willing to talk about. As many people may agree, death isn’t an easy thing to cope with. Some more than others rather go unspoken about the subject than to simply open up about their fears of death because people are repelled by death and do not want to be reminded of it. I think Americans as a culture share one common ground and that’s the denial of death because in human civilization it’s ultimately an elaborate, symbolic defense mechanism against the knowledge of our mortality, which in turn acts as the emotional and intellectual response to our basic survival mechanism.

In viewpoint, it is essential to be nonjudgmental about an individual’s practice related to death and dying as each person has different views. Therefore, if an individual chooses to uphold confidentiality regarding beliefs, their request should be respected. In experiencing personal loss, grieving relates to all cultures and practices relating to death and dying are a practice of an individual’s personal preference. Therefore, assisting individuals to choose for themselves how their end-of-life wishes should be handled has assisted people to take control over their dying practices related to death and dying and their final scenario (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2013).

People here in the United States, tend to discuss the topic of death and burial as little as possible and is something people always put in the back of their mind. They do not think about it or discuss it until the proper moment has come. Someone dies, and we bury them. We do not go to great lengths to almost "drag-out" the experience of death, as other cultures do. There is an American tradition that people visit the person 's grave or other sanctified spaces on occasion, but that 's the extent of our interaction with the dead in American culture. This is also a topic that as Americans, are not discussed. In other places, in other cultures, and in other lives based on how one is raised, people are not always so squeamish about death and have a continuing relationship with the deceased bodies of their family members, friends, and neighbors.

In today?s modern society we have a certain distaste for the subject of death. There are people in society feel uncomfortable with the subject of death. The subject of death is a reality that we need to face everyday. There is nothing any of us can do about