scholarly journals Evolutionary thanatology

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1754) ◽  
pp. 20170262 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Anderson ◽  
Dora Biro ◽  
Paul Pettitt
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Psychological Significance ◽  
Human Adults ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Time Frames ◽  
Nonhuman Species

Societies, including those of humans, have evolved multiple ways of dealing with death across changing circumstances and pressures. Despite many studies focusing on specialized topics, for example necrophoresis in eusocial insects, mortuary activities in early human societies, or grief and mourning in bereavement, there has been little attempt to consider these disparate research endeavours from a broader evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary thanatology does this by adopting an explicit evolutionary stance for studies of death and dying within the sociological, psychological and biological disciplines. The collection of papers in this themed issue demonstrates the value of this approach by describing what is known about how various nonhuman species detect and respond to death in conspecifics, how problems of disposing of the dead have evolved in human societies across evolutionary time and also within much shorter time frames, how human adults' understanding of death develops, and how it is ultimately reflected in death-related language. The psychological significance and impact of death is clearly seen in some species' grief-like reactions to the loss of attachment figures, and perhaps uniquely in humans, the existence of certain psychological processes that may lead to suicide. Several research questions are proposed as starting points for building a more comprehensive picture of the ontogeny and phylogeny of how organisms deal with death. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals’.

“Our Dead are the Ultimate Teachers of Life”. The Corpse as an Inter-mediator of Transcendence

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-240
Author(s):  
Antje Kahl
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Spiritual Experiences ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Funeral Directors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Funeral Director ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Relationship

Today in Germany, religion and the churches forfeit their sovereignty of interpretation and ritual concerning death and dying. The funeral director is the first point of contact when death occurs. Therefore he or she is able to influence the relationship between the living and the dead. In the course of this development, the dead body, often referred to as dirty and dangerous, is being sanitized by funeral directors. Funeral directors credit the dead body with a certain quality; they claim that facing the dead may lead to religious or spiritual experiences, and therefore they encourage the public viewing of the dead – a practice which was, and still is not very common in Germany. The new connotation of the dead body is an example for the dislimitation of religion in modern society. The religious framing of death-related practises no longer exclusively belongs to traditional religious institutions and actors, but can take place in commercial business companies as well.

scholarly journals Hominin evolutionary thanatology from the mortuary to funerary realm: the palaeoanthropological bridge between chemistry and culture

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1754) ◽  
pp. 20180212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Pettitt
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Core Set ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Animal Community ◽  
Palaeolithic Archaeology

Palaeoanthropology, or more precisely Palaeolithic archaeology, offers the possibility of bridging the gap between mortuary activities that can be observed in the wider animal community and which relate to chemistry and emotion; to the often-elaborate systems of rationalization and symbolic contextualisation that are characteristic of recently observable societies. I draw on ethological studies to provide a core set of mortuary behaviours one might expect hominoids to inherit, and on anthropological observations to explore funerary activity represented in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, in order to examine how a distinctly human set of funerary behaviours arose from a more widespread set of mortuary behaviours. I suggest that the most profound innovation of the hominins was the incorporation of places into the commemoration of the dead, and propose a falsifiable mechanism for why this came about; and I suggest that the pattern of the earliest burials fits with modern hunter–gatherer belief systems about death, and how these vary by social complexity. Finally, I propose several research questions pertaining to the social context of funerary practices, suggesting how a hominin evolutionary thanatology may contribute not only to our understanding of human behavioural evolution, but to a wider thanatology of the animal kingdom. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals’.

Death and Dying

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Covington
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social History ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Dead

Beliefs and practices relating to death underwent profound transformations in the early modern period and continue to provoke the interest of widely disparate scholars. Once the purview of demographic, medical, and social historians, the subject of death and dying has also been given literary and art historical treatments as well as treatment from a range of other interdisciplinary and theoretical perspectives. As Philippe Ariès once noted, if the historian (and one might add the student) “wishes to arrive at an understanding” of what death meant in the past, he or she must “widen his field of vision” to encompass different historical approaches and methodologies—and even then the subject still eludes. (Ariès 1981, p. 16–17; cited under Attitudes and Mentalities). No study of death’s history can escape the shadow of Ariès, even if his two works relating to the theme of death have been criticized for the selectivity of their sources and sweeping conclusions about collective beliefs. But as with many such ambitious and problematic works—Michel Foucault and Norbert Elias are others whose field-changing books come to mind—the influence has been enormous. Working from the perspective of social history and the Annales school of French historians, Ariès tended to focus primarily on the cultural and attitudinal aspects of death, with most of the books in this article reflecting this approach. But the biomedical and demographic aspects are also important, particularly in the context of an age that witnessed a revolution in professionalized medicine and, according to many scholars, resulted in the medicalization and eventually the “secularization” of death. Historians have also been influenced by the contributions of anthropologists, such as Jack Goody on ritual, Victor Turner on liminality, and Arnold Van Gennep on rites de passage (rituals marking the life cycle), all of whom have deepened understandings of the very different approaches to death that people held in the premodern past. Many practitioners of “historical anthropology” thus explored cultural practices and collectively held symbolic systems, each of which carried extensive implications for the study of funerary rites, burial customs, or rituals of remembrance. Indeed, the anthropologist Robert Hertz made such endeavors possible in his own work on funerary rituals and the psychological connections between the living and the dead or between the individual and the community. Such perspectives were also animated by a related turn in the study of memory, with such notable exponents as Pierre Nora and his “sites of memory”; as a result the use of tradition and commemorative ritual as well as an interest in epigraphs and tomb monuments has been applied to the memorializing of the dead with productive results. Most of the sections in this article select works that reflect these different theoretical approaches as they describe how death in the early modern world was an intimate fact of life and one that was confronted communally and with a common, consolatory language and set of rituals, all of which was a healthier way, perhaps, to face death than the medicalized isolation that often surrounds it in the early 21st century.

scholarly journals Death is common, so is understanding it: the concept of death in other species

Synthese ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Monsó ◽  
Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Complexity ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Learning Pathways ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Nonhuman Species

Abstract Comparative thanatologists study the responses to the dead and the dying in nonhuman animals. Despite the wide variety of thanatological behaviours that have been documented in several different species, comparative thanatologists assume that the concept of death (CoD) is very difficult to acquire and will be a rare cognitive feat once we move past the human species. In this paper, we argue that this assumption is based on two forms of anthropocentrism: (1) an intellectual anthropocentrism, which leads to an over-intellectualisation of the CoD, and (2) an emotional anthropocentrism, which yields an excessive focus on grief as a reaction to death. Contrary to what these two forms of anthropocentrism suggest, we argue that the CoD requires relatively little cognitive complexity and that it can emerge independently from mourning behaviour. Moreover, if we turn towards the natural world, we can see that the minimal cognitive requirements for a CoD are in fact met by many nonhuman species and there are multiple learning pathways and opportunities for animals in the wild to develop a CoD. This allows us to conclude that the CoD will be relatively easy to acquire and, so, we can expect it to be fairly common in nature.

Brahms's Opus 45 and German Protestant Funeral Music

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 616-640
Author(s):  
Robin A. Leaver
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
The Other ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Long Line ◽  
Basic Understanding ◽  
Funeral Music ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Church

Brahms's German Requiem stands at the end of a long line of Lutheran funerary music. Luther reworked funeral responsories into a new, totally Biblical form, and later Lutherans collected anthologies of Biblical texts on death and dying. Such sources were used by later composers, including Schüütz and Bach, to compose funeral pieces on Biblical texts together with appropriate chorales. Brahms's opus 45 is similar in that its text is made up of Biblical verses assembled by the composer, and connections may be drawn between chorale usage in this work and the composer's Protestant upbringing in Hamburg on one hand, and in his knowledge of two cantatas by Bach (BWV 21 and 27), on the other. The text and structure of the work accord with general, north German Protestantism, and the famous letter to Reinthaler, which many have taken as a demonstration of Brahms's general humanistic tendencies, shows Brahms to be standing aloof from the theological controversies of his day in favor of a basic understanding of Biblical authors. Part of the problem was that the first performance was scheduled for Good Friday in Bremen cathedral; Reinthaler, the organist, and the cathedral clergy would have preferred passion music of some kind and what Brahms gave them was something different. Brahms surely knew of the distinctive Lutheran observance of "Totensonntag," the commemoration of the dead on the last Sunday in the church year (the Sunday before Advent). There are many similarities between Brahms's Requiem and Friedrich Wilhelm Markull's Das Gedäächtnis der Entschlafen (The Remembrance of those Who Sleep) of ca. 1847. Since Markull's work is subtitled Oratorium füür die Todtenfeier am letzten Sonntage des Kirchenjahres (Oratorio for the Celebration of the Dead on the Last Sunday of the Church Year), it is possible that Brahms had the same occasion in mind when composing his German Requiem.

scholarly journals THE RECEPTION OF C.G. JUNG IN US DEATH AND DYING STUDIES

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-110
Author(s):  
Jelena Martinovic
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Terminal Illness ◽  
William James ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
The United States ◽  
Humanistic Psychology ◽  
Death Experience ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Book Of The Dead ◽  
Near Death Experience

C.G. Jung’s work has had a noticeable impact on conceptions about death and the dying experience, as well as on the therapeutic work methods that deal with anxiety, depression or terminal illnesses. This article analyses the reception of C.G. Jung’s work in the United States during the time period 1960-80. It examines ways in which Jung’s concepts were discussed and applied by psy practitioners who worked in fields related to death and dying studies (thanatology, palliative care, suicide and near- death studies). Following an examination of Jung’s ‘Americanisation’ in the 1950s and the reception of his commentaries on death, discussed in relation to the reception of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, I will analyse four examples: 1) a psychiatric interpretation of Jung’s account of a near- death experience and its comparison with William James’ mystical states of consciousness; 2) psychedelic therapies conducted with LSD, in which ‘symbolic dying processes’ are provoked; 3) suicide studies done on suicide survivors; 4) parapsychological investigation of near-death experience. The examples show that Jung’s work was pivotal, allowing psychologists to link it to concepts and approaches to terminal illness and positive or transpersonal psychology. Within the period under consideration, Jung’s reception has to be read and understood in relation to the more general reception of James’ work, in particular his psychology of religion. KEYWORDS William James, near-death experience, thanatology, palliative care, Tibetan Book of the Dead, LSD therapy, suicide studies, humanistic psychology

scholarly journals COVID-19 Research Communications (Editorial)

BIOMATH ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2005047
Author(s):  
Hristo V Kojouharov
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Statistical Modelling ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
Mathematical Methods ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Significant Research ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Research Questions

The goal of the series is to provide a platform for rapid communication and exchange of ideas concerning the COVID-19 epidemic. It is new and unlike the known virus-induced diseases. There is a significant research effort, including mathematical modelling, to understand the characteristics of the virus SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) and the epidemiological dynamics of COVID-19, the disease caused by it. Due to their novelty, the research is often likely to produce results only on specific aspects of the disease, provide just partial answers to research questions, or collect evidence for formulating hypothesis yet to be tested. We believe, however, that the significance of the pandemic for the human population makes it essential to share even such partial results as soon as they are available to facilitate the advancement of the research on this disease. While eventually, a more comprehensive picture of both the virus and the disease will emerge, even incomplete but timely and scientifically-based information will help the authorities to make sound decisions on the course of action during the epidemic. For the series, we invite publications on any aspect of the COVID-19 epidemic. Specifically, the series aims to cover • the biological research, providing an understanding of the relevant structures and causal relationships in the epidemiological environment, which can facilitate mathematical or statistical modelling, • mathematical models of the structures, causal interactions and epidemiological data, and their analysis, • mathematical models and analysis of the socio-economic aspects of the pandemic, • any new mathematical methods, applicable to the study of any of the mentioned topics. All submissions to the series will be prioritised for a fast peer-review.

scholarly journals With Respect to the Dead: Reconstructing a Historic View of Death in Gaelic Nova Scotia

Genealogy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Shamus Y. MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Relationship

Drawing on a combination of oral history and archival research, this article reconstructs a historic view of death and dying in areas of the province settled by Scottish Gaels. It discusses beliefs and customs associated with death, giving special attention to traditional house wakes. Inspired by studies in culturally related communities in Ireland, Scotland, and Newfoundland, this study highlights insider perspectives of local customs and beliefs in order to develop a clearer understanding of the relationship previous generations had to death in Gaelic Nova Scotia. This study concludes by suggesting why some mortuary customs were abandoned during the second part of the twentieth century.

Death cafe in the Welsh valleys–an appraisal

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 188-194
Author(s):  
Maria Parry ◽  
Mark Taubert ◽  
Sam Clements ◽  
Clare Churcher ◽  
Alex James ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Simple Synthesis ◽  
The South ◽  
Safe Place ◽  
Track Record ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Emerging Themes ◽  
The Uk

Background: A death cafe is an event where people drink, eat and discuss death. Death cafes do not follow a set structure and the events are held for free. The mission of death cafes is ‘to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’. Death cafes have a proven track record in providing a safe place for people to have conversations about dying, death and grief. Aim: This study aims to contribute to the literature by providing a simple synthesis of comments made on the day of a death cafe in Wales by the attendees, and to allow the identification of further research questions. Method: A death cafe event was organised in the South Wales valleys, to encourage discussions about death during Dying Matters Awareness week in the UK, 10 May to 16 May 2019. Result: The event was well attended, and attendees recorded their thoughts about the event. Conclusion: Emerging themes were categorised into the following themes: communication, digital legacy, stigma, humour and a request for future events. Feedback showed that the death cafe had encouraged a greater dialogue about death and dying and facilitated conversations.

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