Constructing Death
The Sociology of Dying and Bereavement
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A basic motivation for social and cultural life is the problem of death. By analysing the experiences of dying and bereaved people, as well as institutional responses to death, Clive Seale shows its importance for understanding the place of embodiment in social life. He draws on a comprehensive review of sociological, anthropological and historical studies, including his own research, to demonstrate the great variability that exists in human social constructions for managing mortality. Far from living in a 'death denying' society, dying and bereaved people in contemporary culture are often abl...
A basic motivation for social and cultural life is the problem of death. By analysing the experiences of dying and bereaved people, as well as institutional responses to death, Clive Seale shows its importance for understanding the place of embodiment in social life. He draws on a comprehensive review of sociological, anthropological and historical studies, including his own research, to demonstrate the great variability that exists in human social constructions for managing mortality. Far from living in a 'death denying' society, dying and bereaved people in contemporary culture are often able to assert membership of an imagined community, through the narrative reconstruction of personal biography, drawing on a variety of cultural scripts emanating from medicine, psychology, the media and other sources. These insights are used to argue that the maintenance of the human social bond in the face of death is a continual resurrective practice, permeating everyday life.
Table of contents:
Part I. Social and Material Worlds: 1. Experiencing and representing the body; 2. Death, embodiment and social structure; 3. The social aspect of death; Part II. Representing Death: 4. Medicine, modernity and the risks of life; 5. The revival of death awareness; 6. Reporting death; Part III. Experiencing Death: 7. Falling from culture; 8. Awareness and control of dying; 9. Grief and resurrective practices.
A review of sociological, anthropological and historical studies of death, grief and mourning. It is both an introduction to the sociological study of death, dying and bereavement, and an original contribution to death studies and social theory, combining a theoretical argument with original research material.
An introduction to the sociological study of death, dying and bereavement.
Table of contents:
Part I. Social and Material Worlds: 1. Experiencing and representing the body; 2. Death, embodiment and social structure; 3. The social aspect of death; Part II. Representing Death: 4. Medicine, modernity and the risks of life; 5. The revival of death awareness; 6. Reporting death; Part III. Experiencing Death: 7. Falling from culture; 8. Awareness and control of dying; 9. Grief and resurrective practices.
A review of sociological, anthropological and historical studies of death, grief and mourning. It is both an introduction to the sociological study of death, dying and bereavement, and an original contribution to death studies and social theory, combining a theoretical argument with original research material.
An introduction to the sociological study of death, dying and bereavement.
