Readings Flashcards

● Ms Moser (23) got Huntinton's disease, a rare incurable brain disorder affecting 30k people in the US and 250k at risk ○ Genetic: Her grandfather got it and affected him for 30+ years ○ Too many repeats in people's 4th chromosomes, causing cell death in the brain. The more the repeats, the earlier symptoms appear and the faster they progress ■ Ms Moser had more repeats than her grandfather, who's disease started at 50 ○ People jerk and twitch uncontrollably à unable to walk, talk, think, and swallow ● Most people her age with Huntinton's in their DNA don't test for it, some people choose to learn early to help them decide how to live their lives ● If you make the decision to test, you have to live with the consequences, and it applies to all diseases like breast cancer, depression, etc ● Her reaction process: ○ Cries, uses humor, anger at "why her," makes plans and tries to become super-strong and balanced ○ In following months, looked for cure, stepped back from crush so she wouldn't marry, got mad, but never regretted being tested. She remembers it over and over though ● Ms Moser will show symptoms within 13 years ● Her family regarded Huntinton's as a curse, not to be mentioned ○ Her mom didn't want her to get tested so she can enjoy life ○ Her relationship with her mom got worse, mom was mad she wanted to get tested ● More informed about genetics of the disease, she is convinced she'd rather know how many healthy years she has left than wake up one day to find the illness upon her ○ Confident that new reproductive technologies allow them to have children without transmitting the disease ● She made a list of how she would live her life if she got the yes or no ● She kept news from her family, but told people in small talk, making jokes on her new fate ● She was filled with new purpose: someone, somewhere had to find a cure. She raised money for research, but events didn't have many people

Intro ● For generation after WWII, people lacking 1st hand experience with death have death and dying as invisible and abstract ● US is death-denying culture, say "pass away" or "expired" and deaths occur in segregated hospitals and nursing homes ○ People have obsessive fascination with death + death-related phenomena, in entertainment media TV ● 1/3 of TV listings have programs including death + dying feature ○ People expressed concern over violent deaths in prime time and even cartoons in violent acts ○ Events like Gulf War of 1991, OJ Simpson trial, and terrorist attacks were on live television Cinema ● Movies featuring diseases like AIDS, airplane crashes, natural disasters, and ghost movies use near-death experience as a narrative focus. ● Zombie movies, slasher movies feature large death counts Music ● Death-related themes in operas and classical music ● Coffin songs were popular for teens in the 50s ● Many musicians have died in tragic + untimely fashion ● Emphasizes death's destructive + catastrophic nature, some ppl suggest it promotes destructive + suicidal behavior on teens ● Heavy metal and rap have death and destructive as main role in music themes, stirs up controversy Print Media ● Death, dying, and the dead are main themes in a lot of American literature, including Westerns, mysteries, fiction, children's stories, and comic books ● Reports of death + dying are common in daily news, more details for politicians, celebrities, + artists ○ They overemphasize catastrophic causes of death ● Tabloid sections have health advice for life-threatening medical problems Recreation ● Death sites are tourist attractions: going to the wax museum, King Tut's womb, dead bodies for exhibits, battlefields like Gettysburg, JFK assassination, cemeteries like Arlington ● War toys, board games like Casper the Friendly Ghost, video games like Mortal Combat feature death ○ Ouija Board to speak with dead Jokes ● 2 types of death humor: 1. Associated with the body like cannibalism, funerals, burials 2. Associated with the personality like suicide, griefs, executions, last words ● Insensitive humor like AIDS jokes includes dying people The Postself ● Person's reputation after death, especially for dead celebrities and other public figures ○ Symbolic immortality, they continue to exist in memories of the living ● Princess Diana's death had items sold after her to support Discussion ● Two explanation for our obsession with death and dying: 1. Many Americans have great deal of death anxiety, fascinated with it, paradox is apparent in our popular culture 2. Society is a death-denying one, we crave some info + insight about death and feed that craving through popular culture depictions of death and dying 1. Death humor is an extension of death denial, make it less threatening ● Death is a disruptive event, these themes in popular culture help us deal with death ● 3 impacts of this death and dying culture for the individual: 1. Death is re-conceptualized into forms that stimulate something other than primordial terror 2. Appreciation of death themes in culture requires detachment of individual exposure to death may make us more accepting of it The Real Article ● Comes treatment of sex + death in Victorian century, 1837-1901 ○ Lots of dying took place at home, family responsible for preparing the body for funeral at home ● Shift in how these 2 forms of life are dealt with in society ● Fear of death + diseases associated with death like cancer, hard to talk about it ● Uptight about sexuality ● Shift from pornography in Victorian to linked to death by mid 20th century ● 50 years ago, this course wouldn't exist, physicians and nurses wouldn't have courses about it ● TV specials and books expose us to this ● Suicide is something people are uncomfortable about, "was it suicide?" ● Reporters report stories about individuals, violate people for the sake of a story ● We want to read that personal story ● Distinction between American deaths and international deaths, Afghan bombing is just a statistic in the newspaper ● Person dying is a tragedy, mass of people is a statistic ● Violent depictions of death over time, tend to be much more graphic today than in the past ● Seasons of TV shows become more violent, desensitizing + shock ○ people need adrenaline rush or shock ○ like an addiction, American Horror Story ● pornography of death doesn't involve grief anymore, more about the action of the actual death like the Saw movies, no individual grief ○ separating out the natural human emotion of grief ○ parallel to sex: taking emotional portion out, like prostitution ● social media: hard to censor things out there, authorities don't take things down unless users flag it ○ people censor themselves if they're smart ● Fb of dead people: FB immortality, piece of us still alive after we're dead. Can engage with grief process in this online community ○ People share more about dying process, get people more exposed to and comfortable with death and its processes ○ Able to share and collaborate on it Is this a sociological paper? Midterm essay ● Find ways to bring in sociological theory, concepts, functional theory, symbolic interactionist, social perspective: use Google ○ Ways we'll use theory in this course ○ Ways to get some good ideas ○ Social capital Comparing Religious Groups with Respect to suicide rates ● Asking how death related issues vary within group ● Socialization is a big phenomenon ● How we behave in groups

-the healthy minded argument- views on death relate to the presence or lack of of your mother... if you grow up nurtured well with a mom, you're going to accept that death is a part of life and not live you're life afraid of it. if you don't, you're more negative -idea of view of death is more effected by nurture than nature - psychoanalysis point of view, less speculative -looks into the children's inner world that we haven't ever looked into before -kids aren't strong enough to take responsibility for their -feelings, can't control their activities, no command over the actions of others- immature ego -result: the kid lives with an inner sense of chaos that other animals are immune to -the morbidly minded argument- even though people may be accepting of death like the healthy minded argument says, everyone is afraid of death or "terror" as he says -author agrees with this idea more -Zilboorg- says that the fear of death is an expression of the instinct of self preservation, the fear of death has to be present behind all our normal functioning in order to be armed toward self preservation but it can't be present constantly because then we can't function -the paradox: the ever present fear of death in the normal biological functioning of our instinct of self preservation as well as our obliviousness to this fear in our daily life -this is the argument stemmed from biology and evolution- basic and involved in all discussions -the disappearance of the fear of death- we have nightmares about dying a lot when were young, but then the vast majority of people move on and get over it, but that doesn't mean that the fear is gone. -repression is a negative force that lives on life energies and uses them creatively, its also a force that opposes life energies

● what if death wasn't a part of life? like if people just lived forever ○ immortality would be the end of us psychologically ● our culture is based on striving for immortality and shapes everything we do and believe in- find religions, write poems, etc and if we were immortal all of that production would just stop ○ reminding people that they're going to die has a huge impact on political and religious views ■ judges were asked to look into a hypothetical case about prostitution. half the judea were reminded of their mortality before the case and the others weren't. those who were reminded set a bond 9 times higher than thought who hadn't ● people cling more to their own beliefs when reminded of mortality and more negative about those who threaten those values ○ christianity and islam overtly flaunt their death defying promise- eternal bliss ○ the arts do too ● what would happen to all our death defying systems if there wasn't any more death? ○ we would have no need for progress for art, faith, or fame, we would have nothing to do, action would lose its purpose

● Prevention: 1. Feminism: empower power, give them economic power to give them more say or hope, so they're not just prostitutes -Can't just wait for the movement the change -Part of society needs to be changed in order for feminism to happen -Structural things like poverty are important for other changes to be made 1. Health education: educate people very explicitly by condom use, etc. Also by advertising -"Good people didn't get AIDS", didn't want to talk about it, lots of denial -Some people argue it's an ideal issue, ST so we need to focus on explicitly AIDS prevention, LT focus on structuralism issues (need more money) ● People scapegoat who is the problem, people have misinformation and blame other people ○ People don't want to think about people doing drugs, sex, etc ● Epidemics have always terrified humans ○ Bubonic plague in mid 1300s, leprosy, cholera, syphilis ○ AIDS now ● 1st AIDS case in 1959 from a man in the Congo, maybe from a virus existing in '40s or '50s ● In '99, proved virus spread from chimps to humans in southern Cameroon. Hunters killed these chimps and the AIDS got in their blood ● In '78, gay man in the US, Sweden, and Haiti started showing signs of AIDS, called GRID (gay related infectious disease) ● When found in babies, changed to AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) ● In '83, found out HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) caused AIDS ● Stonewall Riots fostered a new pride in being gay ○ Many people feared and ridiculed them, some religions blamed gays for AIDS ■ Gay men and activists thought they were stupid ● Transmitted in 3 ways: blood, semen, or babies during birth/breast feeding ● Without treatment, HIV causes weakening of immune system so can't ward off normal infections, Would only take 9.5 years to get AIDS if don't treat it ● US blood banks became a concern of spreading AIDS ● By '85 became heterosexual disease ● ACT-UP: to help people with AIDS ● '96: protease inhibitors to help patients survive AIDS, but not cure it ● Dr Acer infected 100-150 male patients by having gay sexual relations ● 3 ethical issues stopping spread of AIDS: 1. Homosexuality: teach gay men how to practice safe sex, their sexual orientation appears to be a resisted discovery rather than a choice. It's a mix between a "gay gene" and a person's experiences 2. Needle exchange programs: give drug users a clean needle and syringe 3. HIV exceptionalism: weren't contract tracing for HIV, so people died ● By '01, infected 40M people. After 25 years of hearing about it, AIDS killed 25M people ● $20B/year for treatment ● Global bioethics comes into attention: how can we spend so much $ at end of life when millions of people die of preventable diseases. Waste of resources ● Educational prevention: in late '80s, Thailand modeled how to arrest HIV with condom policy and ads. Also Uganda + Brazil ● Empower women to prevent themselves from getting infected by HIV ● Most HIV infections are women, African men think sex with a virgin will cure HIV, and sex with a young girl is unlikely to infect them ● Commercial sex industries and corrupt gov make it hard to do good places ● Spread of AIDS could be because of evil structures of society (poverty, racism etc), and they need to change

Senicide, geronticide ● Put them in oil bath, give them coconut oil to drink. They get bad fever and die that night or the next day ● Old people, poor family, don't have the resources to provide for the old people ● Thalakoothal: coconut killing ● A lot of traditional cultures around the world where don't critically evaluate it, but because it's the way its always been done ● Some people left before we could make it ● awareness of mass media and how it shapes us ● Its expensive to keep the elderly alive when they cant care for themselves even if they're not sick so people want to put them in baths to peacefully kill them ○ Interesting because this is what is done when people are born and when they get married, the coconut oil is just added here ● This is taking place in parts of India ○ We have a problem with this because its out of our comfort zone- people there don't really second guess it ● The elderly sometimes chose to leave so that their loved ones wouldn't have to do that to them ○ Element of choice see if religion plays a role in people using chemo or dying early

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● Loving and serving others is the only way to live on after you die, our society is ultimately futile. Do what makes you happy and forge your own path, rather than following the norm. Chase a dream that's yours ● book was a way to live on for Morrie ● Mitch was a very well known writer before this ● you can foster your own culture ● structure is agency: free will + determinism. If we walk out of the room, free will to do it but we don't ○ structure: norms are structured: the way we behave and act ○ agency: we can step outside that, we don't have to just do it ● have to see that death is happening in order to live your life, don't be in denial like most people ● men tend to be more feminism when we get older, women get more masculine ● dependency: no shame in depending on others when dying ● be thankful for life and friends ● his evolution of the way he sees religion changes his role in accepting death ● sociological theory: front stage and back stage, enjoyed attention he was getting from TV viewers, etc. Playing a certain role ● 205 week bestseller, 14M copies, translated into 41 languages

● without the fall or death and danger, you can't appreciate the sweetness and beauty of life ● Better to embrace the mystery of where we're going rather than seeing life as a problem to solve, not the best way to live. Embrace the mystery, a lot to do with religion and the afterlife ● Experience of dying is a mystery - whether atheist or religious ● Social immortality: things you did in your life you are remembered for

● In 1900s, half the deaths occurred from diseases, etc before the age of 15 ○ Today, death is highly concentrated in elderly from heart disease, cancer, etc ○ Used to die at home, now half in nursing homes ● This removes death from a normal, visible part of life ● If dying, placed in nursing homes to remove them from society ● If a prisoner, placed in outskirts in remote jail. Many die there, big fear ○ Dying in prison = confirmation of a wasted life ● Total institutions: aspects of daily life are controlled by staff members ○ Hospitals, nursing homes, prisons ○ Dying in this experience has become a common fact of American life ● Prisons have their own socioeconomic pecking order, systems of justice, language, etc ○ Survival of the fittest ○ Also everything seems to be magnified ● Causes of death: natural, AIDS, execution, homicide, other ● More inmates are growing old in prison and dying ● Many inmates lose contact with family members in jail à no family members to claim the body when dead, inmates and prison staff have to ● Increased number of deaths from natural causes ● Suicide is a common threat in prison system, especially in winter ○ 3rd highest cause of death in prisons ○ Highest for new prisoners with history of drug use ● Staff don't like death penalty, develop relationships with the prisoners also ● 5 methods of execution, make sure its done painlessly or quickly ○ Staff is trained to do it first, so do it well ○ Not a common cause of death in most states, Texas and Virginia have the most ● AIDS caused dramatic increase in jail deaths in the 80s

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• Comparison of what was going on in the UK and US • US funeral industry takes advantage of people financially • Use guilt to make them pay more • Keeping up with the joneses

• Borneo - the Berawan tribe • 4 stages • 2nd stage - could last 8 months or years o Storing the body in a longhouse o Allows family to prepare financially o Body needs to completely decomposed • Endo-cannibalism o Eating the decomposed liquids of a body o Eating family members • Exo-cannibalism o Eating members of the community out of respect • 3rd Stage- lavish celebration in the longhouse o Dead person present o Dead person could be in a jar - cleaned the bones • Thought that regular burial was similar to creating zombies o Felt that embalming dead people preserved them and did not allow them to go to the land of the dead o Horrified by American funeral practices

• Sutte o Hindu o Men would die and the widows would throw themselves on the funeral pyre • Parsis - Hindus o Predates Christianity o Oppose cremation o Tower o Vultures eat the body o Wont contaminate the water, soil, or the air o Shortage of vultures today • Ossuary? o Bury people there for years until it filled up and then would make a new one but then when that was filled up the first pit was only bones now so they go back and dig them up and put the bones in an ossuary