Ends of Life

Catalog description

This course explores the social, cultural, and biological nature of human personhood in the context of death and dying. Students will examine anthropological literature that seeks to explain and interpret the tremendous cross-cultural variation in mortuary rituals and funerary behavior, the cultural construction of death, mourning and bereavement, and medical and ethical issues relating to death and dying. Students will also examine a variety of ways that U.S. society deals with death and dying today. Prerequisite: ANT 100 or ANT 303 or permission of instructor.