Death Is a Social Construct - Essay Example

Death is a Social Construct People love life; there are very few people who think about eternal life. These people do not dread death when it comes; they accept it with open arms. For others, they dread the pain and the diseases that it brings with it. When death comes, our consciousness ceases before the heart stops and death is not complete if the heart is functioning. The concept of death has evolved in our society. Every culture holds a different concept of death, which may be based on religious factors. In ancient times it was described as the process in which the spirit left the body. It was said that the body and spirit act in conjunction and because of diseases this conjunction is broken which causes death. With death the bond between the spirit and the physical being is dissolved. As per the Webster's dictionary the "social constructs" can be stated as a social mechanism, phenomenon, or category created and developed by society; a perception of an individual, group, or idea that is constructed via cultural and/or social practice. Death is not a social construct in the literal sense as people do die whether the society wants them to or not. The rituals associated with death and the meaning that every group gives to this concept differs from society to society and culture to culture. This meaning is created and developed by the society and the religion that they practice. For example: Hindu's believe in seven lives, thus when a person in their community dies they believe that he will be reborn. On the other hand, Muslims believe in life after death not rebirth. Both religions have very different ways of tending to the dead; the Hindu's burn the dead while the Muslims bury them. From this we can see the way society and social constructs have affected the concept of death but not death itself. Death traditions take longer to change. The changes in the recent past have come from the grass roots. Phillipe Aries's classic The Hour of Our Death (1982) has categorized deaths evolution into five categories. Death used to be a part of every community, this was when communities were small and close knitted. The death rituals were personal as well as public but nowadays death has entered the invisible era. Here death is kept a secret and nobody talks about it, it is a taboo to mention it. In Phillipe's book the five eras of death mentioned are: tame death, death of self, remote and imminent death, death of the other and invisible death. The society we live in finds it necessary to anthropomorphize the death and project it categories and relations. Every religion has some degree of anthropomorphizing of the concept of death; just the intensity with which it is instilled in every religion differs. We find a need to rationalize the concept, to face reality and this is done from two basic sources: first is the anthropomorphic character, which is that we continue to exist even though somebody has died. The second source is the social institutions that make people face reality through the socialization process. They make them think logically and legitimately. Social institutions that control the concept of death can not loose sight of the biological being. The biology of an individual limits the reality constructing activities. The survivors blur the difference between the dead and the living especially when they have recently lost a loved one. An example to explain this would be that of the European peasant cultures feeding the returning soul. This refers to the symbolic form of eating as the soul can not eat the same way a live person can. If this was to be the case than the soul would have to have some features which can enable this act, this is negated by experience. (Berta, 1960) In the article by Derek Edwards, Malcolm Ashmore and Jonathan Potter, death and furniture are represented as arguments which go against the relativism to extremes. Death has two versions, the bad version, which is focused on the misery and the tragedy associated with death. This version of death is directly linked to furniture. The other version is about the warning that death is coming. Both the versions are linked in a relatively causal manner: ontological denial will lead to a dropping of guards, the road to Hell, which is paved by the good intentions of ostrich-like relativists. In my opinion the relationship between death and furniture exists on the basis of avoidance. The way we avoid furniture and walk right past it without noticing it, is the same way we avoid death. Until we run into the furniture we do not notice it and it only then hurts us, the same is with death, and until someone close to us dies we do not notice it and it does not cause us misery. Thus, we tend to avoid both things when going through life and when we do run into them, we stop and think about them and notice them from a very different perspective than before. At this point the perception of society comes into focus. We reflect upon our thoughts and understand other points of view. There are times, when incidents such as the Holocaust and the 9/11 terrorist attacks have not only affected the people who have lost loved ones but the whole society. Such killings have changed the way society thinks. We can see that in the way the whole world came together to fight a war against terrorism, irrespective of their race, culture or religion. We can say that in a way it is the power of death that brings people together. It does not have to be on a large scale for us to notice that. At home, when a relative dies, the whole family gathers to say a few last words and bid him goodbye. In a way it brings the family together. The world can only support a limited number of people and as the population keeps growing, death is a way of stabilizing it and keeping it stable. Younger generations will not move up the generation hierarchy if the older generation stopped dyeing. A fact about death is that it continuously replenishes the vitality of the gene and meme (the cultural equivalent of DNA) pools, allowing for innovation and change. (Berta, 1960) Lastly, people cope with death by carrying out the funeral rituals; these vary across cultures and religions. Each has its own psychological value for the members of the society and especially members of the family. Works Cited 1. Derek Edwards, Malcolm Ashmore and Jonathan Potter (1995) Death and Furniture; the rhetoric and theology of bottom line arguments against relativism 2. Berta Peter (1960) Encyclopedia of Death and Dyeing: Afterlife in Cross-Cultural Perspective. New York: Free Press. 3. Searl, Ed (2000) Reclaiming Death. Retrieved on April 8, 2008. http://consciouschoice.com/2000/cc1310/reclaimingdeath1310.html 4. Social Constructs - Definitions of Key Race Relations Terms. http://racerelations.about.com/od/skillsbuildingresources/g/socialconstruct.htm Read More