In:Discourses on the Edges of Life
Edited by Vicent Salvador †, Adéla Kotátková and Ignasi Clemente
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 26] 2020
► pp. 11–22
Death
From myth to the laboratory
Published online: 9 April 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.26.01bar
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.26.01bar
Abstract
Death is a biological event which forms an
essential part of culture. All human societies have attributed some
meaning to death in myth, religion, philosophy or science. The
various forms of art have also represented death as an essential
part of the human condition. This article discusses the cultural,
social and medical constructions of death, starting with the origin
myth and the contradiction between death and eternal life. It
explores funeral rites and parish registers, examines death as an
important social phenomenon in modern societies and considers the
meaning of civil registries as instruments of social identity and
legitimacy. Finally, it reflects on medicine’s power over death,
death’s biological dimension and attempts to objectify signs of
death.
Keywords: death, culture, myth, medicine and technology
Article outline
- 1.A cultural construction: Origin myths and eternal life
- 2.Death as a social event: From the parish to the civil registry
- 3.Death as a biological phenomenon: How to objectify signs of death
- 4.The medicalization of death
- 5.The impact of technology
Bibliography
References (16)
Ackercknecht, Erwin H. 1968. “Death
in the History of
Medicine”. Bulletin of the
History of
Medicine 42: 19–23.
Ariès, Philippe. 1974. Western
Attitudes towards Death: from the Middle Ages to the
Present. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Arrizabalaga, Jon. 1993. “La
identificación de las causas de muerte en la Europa
pre-insdustrial: algunes consideracions
historiográficas”. Boletín de
la Asociación de Demografía
Histórica 11: 25–48.
Balaguer, Emilio. 1975. “La
tensión clasificación-nomenclatura en la estadística
demográfico-sanitaria”. Medicina
Española 74: 7–12.
Barona, Josep L. 1993. “Teorías
médicas y la classificación de las causes de
muerte”. Boletín de la
Asociación de Demografía
Histórica 11: 49–64.
Bernabeu Mestre, J. 1992. “Fuentes
para el estudio de la mortalidad en la España del siglo
XIX”. En Estadísticas
demográfico-sanitarias, 27–44. Madrid: Centro Nacional de Epidemiología, Instituto Carlos III.
Cunningham, Andrew and Perry Williams. 1992. The
Laboratory Revolution in
medicine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Foster, Georges M. 1976. “Disease
Etiologies in Non-Western Medical
Systems”. American
Anthropologist 78: 773–782.
Israel, Robert A. 1978. “The
International Classification of Diseases. Two Hundred Years
of Development”. Public
Health
Reports 93: 150–152.
Labitsch, Alfons. 1992. Homo
Hygienicus: Gesundheit und Medizin in der
Neuzeit. Frankfurt, Campus Verlag.