How does culture affect peoples views on death?
Every culture in the world has their own way on dealing with illness and death weather it's using a religious figure such as a monk or a priest or going to the doctor and hospitals we all have our own ways on dealing with illness.
In the united states we ignore illness and death because we have the perception that the united states in the world and every American is powerful compared to people in other countries, but statistically speaking the average American does live longer than someone in a "third world country". In this unit we learned a lot about health care and how it works, and have spoken and read many passages about stories dealing with illness, and in every single source just like the food unit everything we see on tv or in the movies about how a person deals with illness and death is not like we imagined, when someone is sick and goes to the hospital does not mean that they're going to come out that hospital feeling better or even alive.
In other countries and cultures health care and the say someone is taken cared of is different and sometimes better than the way we take care of our ill, for instance in Canada, the U.K. and France their health policies are much different than ours the doctors make almost the same amount of money an american doctor would make but every single citizen in those countless is not denied care, which doesn't mean that people don't get sick and die, but means that atleast they'd be taken cared of regardless. Some cultures believe in natural healing weather it's through prayer or using natural resources such ad herbs and etc.
When one dies in the united states they can have the choice to how they want their body to be preserved whether it was bring cremated, hurried, frozen, or turned into diamond, they get the choice to how they die. In some other cultures some would lay the dead wrapped up in a cave that's been use for hundreds of years as a burial ground, and others they'd put a body on a raft to drift down a river steam or whatever. The idea of preserving the dead or disposing them in nature, has been going on for years for example 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt leaders would he mummified and their organs would be stored, and to this day their bodies are well preserved.
No matter where people are from are thief cultural beliefs people when they die want to be remembered and be laid to rest when they die to stay in contact in the world by being physically attached to it, even though their bodies won't move again or be able to do anything.
The fact that most societies ways of handling death connect to one common worldly theme is mind blowing to think about. Especially because the common theme is so insightful: We all want to believe that we will still be apart of the world after we die. It's a beautiful thought. It is also interesting to see the many different ways humans have accomplished to fulfill this want. Physically, Mentally, Spiritually, Religiously. I like the thought that all societies can have commonalities while staying true to their individuality.This makes me wonder about the other universal themes that have been expressed and repeated throughout history. I'm curious about them because they must have been so prominent for a they are agreed upon ideas.
ReplyDeleteRigel,
ReplyDeleteYou have really good ideas here that show a great deal of depth and understanding, but your grammar mistakes and poor wording in some parts were killing me. They took away so much credibility from your piece because the little mistakes you are making do distract the reader from the message you were trying to get at. I understand what you are trying to say in terms of the various ways of dealing with death and how your culture deals with that. I think that if you focused on one aspect of a "cultural" death, and wrote about that, then you would have a more logical train of thought that would be easier to follow.
Good start though,
Sam
Rigel,
ReplyDeleteYour essential question is very interesting because already culture is what sets us apart in our society, but we all die the same way. Your insights on how deaths are represented in each different culture shows how similar we are. One thing I would like to have seen in your blog was how one dominant culture vs. another sees the topic of illness and dying, and really focusing on the trials before death instead of after.
Insightful Read!
Christian