RELEVANCE OF STUDYING DEATH

Joseph Jacobs at the end of last century produced prophetic article titled The Dying of Death describing practical disappearance of idea of death as an influential factor of leading practical life (Jacobs, 1899). Geoffrey Gorer in 1955 confirmed this idea of Jacobs claim that death has become the taboo in modern times. By 1979, it was claimed that English literature badly kept the death as secret subject. Death has remained unmentionable topic that there are about 1700 books by that time asserting the ignorance of this subject (Michael, 1987). There exists continuation in belief systems of almost all societies for considering death as taboo and still death is more discussed (Walter, Modern Death—taboo or not taboo?, 1991).

Contemporary efforts in field of medicine to improve life expectancy, end of life care, hospice etc. reminds that death are being discussed more in that field. Similarly, in the field of art and literature “heart touching” stories related to death are narrated and projected across the world. Even sociologists have started talking about death. (Walter, Sociologists Never Die: British sociology and death, 1993).

It is clear that death is unclear in society. Society is seemed to be obsessed with death. It is no more considered as taboo and yet dying is isolated, bereaved people observe themselves an embarrassment to their friends and funerals in some societies remains cold and impersonal. What is observed about death in today’s time is not a taboo but a babel of voices proclaiming various (Williams, 1990)

There exists paradigm shift in understanding of death and dying. So, It becomes important to recognize the relevance of death and dying. When it comes to sociology, it produces novel kind of understanding of re...

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...tanding of death. But at the same time, it is observed that understanding of death and dying is being repeated, the changes are simply superficial or having different mask. Underlying concepts are still fixed and untouched by human understanding. For instance, death was initially controlled by religious institutions and now death is controlled by medical institution, thus the idea (and not method) of control has remained untouched, and what is being studied is change in institutions and methods/procedures/processes adopted by these institutions. The best serving example for this is palliative care and bereavement counseling (mostly in western societies) which shows their commitment to Christianity and see their work as a Christian calling. Unfortunately, there exist very fewer studies to draw out such picture of eastern societies on the topic of death and dying.