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 El-Lance-O rated 16 months ago - [Excerpt]
"At birth we cry; at death we see why."
--Bulgarian proverb
"Birth is the messenger of death."
--Syrian proverb
Like the climatologists who so eagerly awaited the close-up photographs of Jupiter and Saturn in order to understand the atmospheric dynamics of ea...
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12 Reviews
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- hyphen9 rated 14 months ago
- "Changes in how we die - From Sudden to Slow-motion Deaths. There have been profound changes in the very quality of death. Owing to innovations in public sanitation and medical technology, death now typically occurs in slow-motion due to degenerative diseases, often exhausting the resources and emotions of families. Because of our tendency to depersonalize those most likely to die, slow-motion deaths mean that individuals must now die a number of social mini-deaths before actually physiologically expiring."
- Koru999 rated 37 months ago
- From the page: "IMAGES ACROSS CULTURES AND TIME
"At birth we cry; at death we see why."
--Bulgarian proverb
"Birth is the messenger of death."
--Syrian proverb
Like the climatologists who so eagerly awaited the close-up photographs of Jupiter and Saturn in order to understand the atmospheric dynamics of earth, we need cross-cultural comparisons in order to comprehend ourselves."
- dogwater rated 16 months ago
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No matter how much better the asshole next to you thinks he/she is, we all eventually will just end up here - comforting don't you think?
- El-Lance-O rated 16 months ago
- [Excerpt]
"At birth we cry; at death we see why."
--Bulgarian proverb
"Birth is the messenger of death."
--Syrian proverb
Like the climatologists who so eagerly awaited the close-up photographs of Jupiter and Saturn in order to understand the atmospheric dynamics of earth, we need cross-cultural comparisons in order to comprehend ourselves. "Death" is a socially constructed idea. The fears, hopes, and orientations people have towards it are not instinctive, but rather are learned from such public symbols as the languages, arts, and religious and funerary rituals of their culture. Every culture has a coherent mortality thesis whose explanations of death are so thoroughly ingrained that they are believed to be right by its members. It is here assumed that any broad-scale change in the relationships between the living is accompanied by modifications of these death meanings and ceremonies. The reverse may well also be true: Would there be a rash of suicides if it were to be conclusively verified scientifically that the hereafter is some celestial Disneyland? And what if the quality of one's experiences there was founded to be based on the quality of one's life?
- abbynormal92243 rated 37 months ago
- From the page: "Before getting too carried away with this classification business, it's worth reflecting on the value of the enterprise. Say that we have for each dimension of a cultural death system a set of mutually exclusive and totally exhaustive categories such that each culture can be pigeon-holed into one and only one, what then? So what?
The first step might to see how these various categories cluster together. For instance, are there patterns in the way beliefs in an afterlife correlate with cultural/personal orientations toward abortion or euthanasia? Is cultural thanatophia related to cultural gerontophobia-- in other words, do death fears lead to fears of growing old? This question brings us to the second and most important step: how orientations toward death relate to orientations toward life."
- kayester rated 37 months ago
- There is more jargon buried on this website than bodies in the Valley of the Kings. But despite its best efforts to be dull and pedantic, it emerges as more than a little interesting.
It's an ugly page, which speak well for it. No flash, no pizzazz, just meat and potatoes.
- mediaranch rated 19 months ago
- A very well written essay on the topic of death, delivered clearly.
"..with increasing secularization and the rise of science, death came to be viewed as some rupture or a break with life rather than as part of a continuum, a matter better put out of mind."
As a man once said, "what's life, but the dash between 2 dates on a tombstone"
- onthevirg rated 34 months ago
- i found this to be a very interesting read - thought provoking indeed...
From the page: "IMAGES ACROSS CULTURES AND TIME
"At birth we cry; at death we see why."
--Bulgarian proverb"
It is here assumed that any broad-scale change in the relationships between the living is accompanied by modifications of these death meanings and ceremonies. The reverse may well also be true: Would there be a rash of suicides if it were to be conclusively verified scientifically that the hereafter is some celestial Disneyland? And what if the quality of one's experiences there was founded to be based on the quality of one's life?
- MrsA rated 36 months ago
- Truly, I have mixed feelings on this one (notice the no thumbs? That was deliberate). Although I know death comes for all, I don't wish to dwell upon it nor do I want to see others dwell upon it. I know each culture has its own tradition for handling death and so be it. The funeral parlor, burial plot and officiating minister will be taken care of. The lawyers will see that the estate is properly distributed and that any lingering debt is paid. What more?? The next stumble I do needs to be happy and uplifting..... Y'all hear that Stumble!?????
- jenjen1352 rated 23 months ago
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Brings life to the expression 'the dead are watching over you'...
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