HW 53

I read an article online about death and dying on Maxzip.com called "Sociology of death and dying" and this particular passage stuck out to me


 LINK"the sociology of death and dying is concerned with the role of mortality in social life. Many social thinkers believe that death poses the fundamental threat to the integrity and continuity of society. Social structures must provide a symbolic canopy which guards against the terrors of extinction by providing meaning to human activity. Societies respond to this threat in a wide variety of ways ranging from the collectivist, death accepting, rebirth orientation of the East, to the personal, death defying, hedonism of the West. The sociology of death and dying, therefore, provides a unique perspective to investigate the core values of a culture."

The author of this article seems to think that many "social thinkers" think that death is a threat to the world so we fabricate the harsh reality of it. Our society uses the fabrications to guard themselves of thought that the human race would be extinct (according to the article) We make the continuous rituals that we preform seem meaningful so that we feel our life has meaning. We live in a society that's taught to deny death, there are two things that go along with death in our society and thats hope and fear. We hope that we can postpone death and fear that we wont. Death isnt really taught to be accepted in today's society, your suppose to deal with it when it happens.


LINK

 The next article I read was called "sociological perspectives on end of life care"  it was long and draining but this passage caught my attention

 "The experience of suffering is universal across time and cultures, and reminds us of our human vulnerability, and the fact that one day we all must face dissolution through death. There is a long tradition of philosophical and sociological perspectives on death and dying, with many proposing that our shared awareness of our inevitable mortality, and by implication the possibility of suffering, is the key factor in how we construct the very fabric of society, how we understand what it means to be human and how we negotiate the business of living (Clark and Seymour, 1999)"

Death reminds us that we can go at any point in time which can make someone feel vulnerable. This article somewhat ties together with the previous one but the 1st article speaks more about societies defense mechanisms to ignore death and the 2nd article tells why we build up these defense mechanisms and its simply because were scared and feel vulnerable.