History of Death and Mourning

Catalog description

This seminar will examine the social, cultural, religious, and philosophical attitudes regarding the treatment of death and dying, the care and disposal of the dead, and the processes associated with mourning and commemoration from antiquity to the present. The course will examine the transformations that have taken place in western society's attitudes toward death, modes of dying, relationship with the dead, and ways to remember the dead. While the major emphasis of the course will be on the history of these themes in western cultures, the course also includes comparative analysis of non-western societies and religions so that students will be able to understand death practices within a global context. Various readings and discussion will examine the idea of death, on both macrocosmic (societal) and microcosmic (personal) levels.