Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

The course is a study of cultural and cross-cultural variations regarding human responses to death and their implications. The cultural universal of death is addressed in its diversity from an anthropological perspective. The subject of death as viewed and experienced by several major cultures in different regions and religions of the world is explored.  These regions include East Asia, India, Indonesia, the Middle East, Melanesia and Native America. Historical trends in Western Europe and America are assessed regarding the evolution of contemporary perspectives on mortality. 

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

• Discuss the diverse cultural ways in which people interpret, experience, and respond to death and dying.
• Use an understanding of anthropology to describe different legal and cultural perspectives on forensics, including the identification of skeletal remains or missing persons.
• Identify their own views about death and dying and compare them to others.
• ​Discuss systems of power and social justice issues related to the cultural meaning and significance of death rites and rituals from an anthropological perspective.

To apply this knowledge to help resolve both enduring and contemporary problems, including denial, in dealing with the reality of death as a basic human experience, to respect its different cultural expressions, to review its different interpretations, and to promote the recognition and constructive resolution of loss, grief and bereavement. 

Course Activities may include any of the following:

• lectures,
• discussion,
• text reading and review,
• films and other media,
• in-class exercises,
• presentations
•  guest speakers
• The course may be taken as ATH 234 or SOC 234, using the same core course data. 

Assessment Strategies may include any of the following:

•   term paper,
• midterm and final exams,
• short position questions on specific concepts,
• regular discussion of contemporary issues,
• oral presentations, 
• service-learning tasks,
• student-instructor review conferences

Course Content:

Themes:

1. The nature of death as a cultural universal

2. The diversity within and between cultures regarding the experience of and response to death.

3. The nature of funerary ritual and it's history and functions

4. Eastern and Western thought, classical and modern, on the subject of death and the implication of these on our own sense of mortality.

5. Varying cosmologies and their implications for living and dying.

6. Changing national and cultural patterns of response to death

Concepts:

beliefs, bereavement, closure, culture, death, dying, grief, loss, resolution, ritual 

Issues:

use of rituals in funerary practices

cultural differences in dealing with death

Eastern and Western perspectives for the perceptions of death

Contradictions in the cosmologies of death

legal and cultural perspectives on forensics

Competencies and Skills Resulting:

Understanding death as a cultural universal and what this implies

Knowledge of the varied ways in which societies experience and respond to death

Understanding the process of death and its corresponding loss and thus functioning  with greater compassion in living

Awareness of family heritage regarding the experience and response to death

Ability to apply a range of historical thinkers’ ideas regarding death to personal experiences and insights

Developing a greater awareness of one’s mortality and hence, living more competently

Ability to reflect on the human condition in a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary manner

Ability to apply the above to real situations of dying, death and mortality