Home > ORPC > Vol. 3 (2011) > Iss. 2
Article Title
How Death Imitates Life: Cultural Influences on Conceptions of Death and Dying
Abstract
Although the final outcome of death is the same for all humans, cultures vary in how they conceptualize death and what happens when a person dies. In some cultures, death is conceived to involve different conditions, including sleep, illness, and reaching a certain age. In other cultures, death is said to occur only when there is a total cessation of life. In a similar manner, certain cultural traditions view death as a transition to other forms of existence; others propose a continuous interaction between the dead and the living; some cultures conceive a circular pattern of multiple deaths and rebirths; and yet others view death as the final end, with nothing occurring after death. These different conceptions have a noticeable influence on people's lifestyles, their readiness to die for a cause, the degree to which they fear death, their expressions of grief and mourning, and the nature of funeral rituals. A relatively global conceptualization of death issues would have to incorporate these various cultural variations.