week 6

Week 6 Mini-lecture - Cross-cultural Perspectives_Maurer.docx

BEHS 380 Week 6 mini-lecture – Cross-cultural Perspectives (Anthropology and Geography)

By Donna Maurer, Ph.D. (2017)

Note: An audio version of this mini-lecture is available at: https://soundcloud.com/sociology_lectures/week-6

As we’ve discussed in earlier weeks, death is a socially constructed concept.  Therefore, we can expect that the treatment of death differs across cultures, with a variety of different practices and rituals.  This diversity manifests in many different ways.

First, the extent to which death is recorded varies across societies, as stratified by higher income, middle income, and lower income.  Higher-income societies keep much more accurate records of death statistics than lower- and middle-income societies. Such data are needed to better understand the causes of death in different societies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2014).

Second, the causes of death differ across societies, again based on income.  Lower-middle income, middle-income, and higher-income societies feature ischaemic heart disease and stroke as the two primary causes of death.  The leading causes of death in lower-income societies, in contrast, are upper respiratory infections and HIV/AIDS (WHO, 2014). Significantly more deaths in lower income societies are caused by communicable diseases than in higher income societies.  Also, trends regarding the age of death differ significantly based on the societal income level, with people in higher income countries living much longer lives:  70% of deaths in higher-income countries occur among people age 70 or older, while the respective amount in lower-income countries is only 20%. In lower-income countries, a much larger percentage of deaths occur among infants and children, due in part to complications of childbirth, as well as infectious diseases.

A third difference among countries that we can see is in the incidence of suicide, which is a global social problem. In particular, it is the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds throughout the world (WHO, 2016). While suicides occur throughout the world, the incidence is much more predominant in lower- and middle-income societies than in higher-income societies (WHO, 2016).

Where we see a multitude of cultural differences are in the areas of the symbolic aspects of end-of-life care and death rituals.  It is important to pay attention to the rich and varied cultural practices that people enact as in observance of their cultural traditions.  These traditions connect family members and communities and are expressions of cultural diversity.  What underlies these various practices and observances is an understanding of what links people together, what is our place in the universe, and how the dead can be honored and remembered.

In regards to end-of-life care, in some cultures, collectivistic decision-making predominates; some cultural norms prescribe that physicians make all of the end-of-life decisions; and some cultures have a taboo about talking about death in general (Coolen, 2012). As cultural practices can be extremely diverse, much understanding can be generated when a health care provider conducts a cultural assessment to better understand an individual’s needs and desires within broader cultural norms.

Despite the wide variety of cultural practices with regards to honoring the dead, certain cultural universals are apparent, including “announcing the death, care of the deceased, a method of disposition, a possible ceremony or ritual, and some form of memorialization” (Hazell, 2016).

Religious approaches to marking death are rife with symbolism, which can lead to a variety of different consequences.  Sometimes these traditions even make the news.  For example, the Vatican recently made a proclamation that if cremated, Roman Catholics should have their ashes buried in the ground; they should not be dispersed in the air or on the ground, kept in urns, or turned into mementos (Sherwood, 2016).  This mandate to bury ashes in consecrated ground has consequences for family members, as well as the death system as a whole, as space must be made available in cemeteries and other approved locations.

References (Note: The following are the references for this week’s mini-lecture. This week’s Learning Resources are listed in the separate section titled "Week 6 Learning Resources.")

Coolen, P. R. (2012, May). Cultural factors to consider in end-of-life care in Cultural Relevance in End-of-Life Care. Ethnomed. https://ethnomed.org/clinical/end-of-life/cultural-relevance-in-end-of-life-care#section-7

Hazell, L. V. (2016). Cross-cultural funeral service rituals. Funeralwise. https://www.funeralwise.com/customs/cross-cultural-funerals/

Sherwood, H. (2016, Oct. 25). Vatican bans Catholics from keeping ashes of loved ones at home. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/25/vatican-bans-catholics-cremation-ashes-loved-ones-home

World Health Organization. (2014, May). The top ten causes of death. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/

World Health Organization. (2016, April). Suicide: Fact sheet. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs398/en/