infrastructure of life

The infrastructure of the city accompanies a person at all stages of their biography, including death as an integral attribute of life. This section includes three articles, the authors of which appear in our journal for the first time. The articles discuss strong trends that usually escape the attention of architectural theorists. There is a return of communal and other forms of housing where people unrelated to each other live under the same roof. Is it a global trend or a forced measure against economic hardships? A rethink of the rental house, a rapid shift in the balance from home ownership to rental housing – how will this affect the architecture of cities? In the general trend of changing attitudes to death and the process of dying, the subject of hospice architecture until recently was taboo, but now strongly attracts architects’ attention. The articles of our new authors are more of a question-posing and problematic nature, which is exactly in the style of our journal.

7. Death

‘Death’ describes ancient Egyptian attitudes to death and the cult of Osiris, looking at the tomb of King Djer at Abydos. The tomb has been regarded as the ultimate, quintessential royal funerary memorial: the mythical burial place of the god Osiris, whose entire religious cult was intimately connected with the concept of the dead king. The combination of Osiris's associations with fertility and death almost inevitably ensured that he became the ultimate god of resurrection. Thus, it became essential for the mummified body to be associated with Osiris in order to gain eternal life. Of course Egyptian mummification and Egyptian funerary beliefs are important areas of study within the broader subject of ‘death’.

Nurses’ Attitude Toward Caring for Dying Patients in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital

Introduction Death and the dying experience are common phenomena in all clinical settings. Death and the dying presents physical and emotional strain on the dying patient, his relations and professional caregivers. Objective The study therefore assessed the sociodemographic determinants of nurses’ attitudes towards death and caring for dying patient. Method A cross–sectional design was used to study 213 randomly selected nurses, working in one of the tier one teaching hospital in Nigeria. Attitude towards death and the dying was collected with Frommelt Attitude Care of the Dying and Death Attitude Profit–Revised questionnaire. The data collected was analysed with SPSS version 20 and inferential analyses were considered statistically significant at p < 0.05. Results The study revealed that most of the nurses had negative attitudes toward the concept of death (76.5%) and caring for dying patient (68%). Furthermore, a chi-square test revealed significant associations between the nurses’ years of working experience (χ2 = 24.57, p <.00) and current unit of practice (χ2 = 21.464; p = .002) and their attitude towards caring for the dying patient. Also, nurses’ age (χ2 = 13.77, p = .032), professional qualifications (χ2 = 13.774, p = .008), and current ward of practice (χ2 = 16.505, p = .011) were significantly associated with their attitudes to death. Furthermore, the study observed a significant association between nurses’ attitudes to death and caring for the dying patient (χ2 = 11.26, p < 0.01). Conclusion This study concluded that nurses had negative attitudes towards death and dying and therefore prescribes, as part of continuing professional development strategy, the need for requisite positive value – laden, ethnoreligious specific education regarding end of life care.

Crypt Burials from the Cloister Church of Riesa (Germany) – Changes of Funerary Customs, Body Treatment, and Attitudes to Death

The cloister church of Riesa (Saxony, Germany) contains two burial crypts which were used from the 17th to 19th century AD by local noble families, namely the barons von Felgenhauer, Hanisch/von Odeleben and von Welck. The crypt beneath the altar originally contained 50 inhumations of which about 30 are still preserved at present, either as coffins and/or mummies, while the northern crypt contained eight interments. During the last two centuries, the crypts have experienced major changes which could partly be reconstructed through historical records, photographs and oral history. The aim of the investigations, supported by the parish and the city museum, was to document the current state-of-preservation and to identify the inhumations by combining different types of evidence. The coffins were visually inspected and dated by typo-chronological comparisons, and inscriptions were transliterated whenever possible. Material, fabrication, clothing type and dating of the garments were determined during costume analysis. The mummified remains were subjected to a morphological investigation, including X-rays. Different body treatments resulting in natural or artificial mummification could be observed. In selected cases, samples for aDNA analysis were taken to test for kinship between individuals, and stable isotope analysis was performed for the reconstruction of diet, origin and age of weaning. Probable identification could only be achieved for the individuals with contextual information; however, the bioarchaeological analyses are still ongoing. The coffin ornamentation and inscriptions as well as the garments show chronological changes as well as individual preferences from the 17th to 19th century, most distinctive in the children burials. Faith in God and hope of resurrection remain constant attitudes to death, but familial affiliation becomes an important factor in early modern noble burials.

Development of the Requiem Genre as a Reflection of Philosophical and Social Ideas About Death

The article deals with the Requiem genre and its evolution in the context of a philosophical worldview through various historical periods of human development. The basis for this is the periodization proposed by V.V. Mineev, which reflects different attitudes to death in the process of evolution of philosophical and scientific thought. Views of the public consciousness concerning the issues of death resonate not only with philosophical reasoning and scientific works, but also with works of art. In the field of music, this is particularly evident in the genre of Requiem, which produces immediate response to social change. The author traces the transformation of ideas about death from superstitious – fantastic nature to medical justification of death, its treatment and prevention. The Requiem originated within the walls of the Catholic Church as a cult genre, capable of instilling religious fear in parishioners. Over time, it has freed itself from prejudice and gradually accumulated not only the memories of a particular deceased person who, but also the recollections about all mankind. The latter trait manifests itself in a departure from the Latin text and images of the Last Judgment, as well as in introducing secular texts into the spiritual genre

A Questionnaire Study on the Attitude towards Death of the Nursing Interns in Eight Teaching Hospitals in Jiangsu, China

Introduction. Nurses play an important role in caring for dying patients. However, little is known about the attitude towards death of the registered nurses in China. Materials and Methods. A knowledge, attitude, and the practice (KAP) survey using standardized questionnaires was conducted at eight teaching hospitals in Jiangsu Province, China. In total, 366 nursing interns were recruited and 357 turned in valid response. Data about the interns’ demographic characteristics and their attitudes to death in five domains, including fear of death, death avoidance, natural acceptance, approach acceptance, and escape acceptance, were collected. Results. Compared to the norms, the nursing interns had statistically significantly higher scores in the domains death avoidance, approach acceptance, and fear of death (14.9 vs. 11.1, 26.2 vs. 24.2, and 20.3 vs. 19.0, respectively); however, statistically significantly lower scores were in the domains natural acceptance and escape acceptance (18.4 vs. 22.0, and 13.6 vs. 15.1, respectively). Religious belief, experience of a deceased relative in family, death education, and family atmosphere of discussing death are positively associated with one or more domains of attitude towards death. Conclusion. The positive attitude towards death and death education before clinical practice are helpful for nursing interns when they care for dying patients. In general, the scores of attitude towards death are at a moderate level in the surveyed Chinese nursing interns. The death education for nursing students needs to be reinforced in China.