Project Description

Interest in the varied dimensions of death and dying has led to the development of death studies that [Page xxxiii]move beyond medical research to include behavioral science disciplines and practitioner-oriented fields. As a result of this interdisciplinary interest, the literature in the field of death and the human experience studies has dramatically increased during the past 20 years. Death-related terms and concepts that encompass global beliefs and traditions, death denial, and social movements as well as interdisciplinary and practitioner-oriented perspectives on death now hold important ecological, family, economic, medical, legal, religious, and global social-psychological consequences. Examples include death-related terms and concepts such as angel makers, appropriate death, Chinese death taboos, death anxiety, the postself, body farms, dance of death (danse macabre), equivocal death, end-of-life decision making, near-death experiences, cemeteries, ghost photography, halo nurses, memorials, viatical settlements, second burial, suicide, medical mistakes, advance directives, caregiver stress, SIDS, cryonics, cyberfunerals, global religious beliefs and traditions, and death denial. As a result, many terms and phrases are now part of common social discourse and media reporting. But the lexicon relating to dying, death, and the emotions, activities, and policy relating to the human experience is expansive, thus lending itself to the need to establish consistency in vocabulary of death meanings. The Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience does so, and this two-volume library reference is enriched through important multidisciplinary contributions and perspectives as it arranges, organizes, defines, and clarifies a comprehensive listing of approximately 330 death-related issues, concepts, perspectives, and theories for use by students and scholars, while facilitating a more refined and sensitive understanding of the field for an increasingly interested public.

Development of the Project

The initial list of entries was compiled through a search of learned journals and topic-specific textbooks. Such searches were useful for identifying the classic concepts, theories, and terms, but suggestions that identify emerging concepts and work currently being conducted came from an even more valuable resource, namely the members of the encyclopedia's editorial board and from scholars and practitioners who recommended prospective entries be considered even after a final list of topics had been compiled. Thus, the richness of the total list of entries results from the interest and input of the many individuals who have so freely given to this project.

Authorship of the entries was developed in a similar manner. Recognized contributors to the area of thanatology study were requested to offer their considerable insight and talent by crafting entries. In turn, the authorship list was expanded as networks were identified and specific authors were invited to participate. Ultimately, interest in this project was to take on a life of its own as the project became international in scope.

The Reader's Guide

Developed around 16 categories, the Reader's Guide includes approximately 330 entries, many of which address traditional death- and dying-related topics. But, in addition, a special focus on the human experience enhances the overall substance of this work. This important focus on the human condition blends an interesting array of new topics with traditional entries to create a unique dimension to the study of death and dying.

Conceptualization of Death, Dying, and the Human Experience: This introductory category offers the definition and conceptualization of death and the human experience from the interdisciplinary perspectives that are representative of the Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience.These areas include the humanities, social sciences, religious perspectives, medical sciences, and legal approaches to understanding the increasingly complex issues involved in death and dying and for those who must continue to function in the aftermath of the death of a loved one. Special focus is accorded the secular scientific approach with topics that include forensic anthropology, forensic science, and the process leading to the medicalization of death and dying.

Arts, Media, and Popular Culture: This category consists of the kinds of entries that lend insightful discussion of the display and depictions of death in art, literature, photography, sculpture, architecture, wax museums, and museums of death. A more contemporary characterization of death is noted in entries that address popular culture movies and video games with a death theme.

Causes of Death: This category consists of entries that address issues of social and historical significance as well as important contemporary policy implications. The leading worldwide causes of death are prominently represented. This section also include entries pertaining to capital punishment and prison deaths, drug use and abuse, man-made and natural disasters, spontaneous combustion, subintentional death, domestic and international terrorism, and tobacco use.

Coping With Loss and Grief: Special attention is cast toward the living as they try to cope with issues attendant to dying and death. Included in this category is historical coverage of grief, bereavement, and mourning, each of which is found in abundance in the contemporary experience. Ranging from entries titled Denial of Death and Death Anxiety to those of Gold Star Mothers, Instrumental Grieving: Gender Differences, the Postself, and Widows and Widowers, this section includes entries that address the individual microlevel and macro-level human experiences and the consequences relating to dying and death.

Cross-Cultural Perspectives: This is a category of exceptional entries that lends credence to the ancient beliefs, traditions, and practices and perspectives toward dying and death, and those among the indigenous tribes of Australia and North America. A compendium statement of the social, cultural, and moral views is found within The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying entry. Included also is a cross-cultural perspective of the death care industry, the social functions of death, and Chinese death taboos. Such entries add a special tone to these international orientations.

Developmental and Demographic Perspectives: This category is represented by entries that cover the stages of life and the relational effects of mortality rates when variables such as age, life expectancy, marital status, gender, and social class on death rates are controlled. Other factors include the effects of death on the family composition, theories of population growth and decline, and sexual activity.

Disposition of the Deceased: Representing one of the larger Reader's Guide categories, this section encompasses entries on the historical practice of mummification in ancient Egypt and the more contemporary entries up to the societal need to commemorate its heroic fallen warriors with entries such as Cemeteries and Columbaria, Military and Battlefield and the Tomb of the Unknowns. The recent movement to establish green burial and virtual cemeteries and the personal need to remember family pets through burial in pet cemeteries also have representative entries.

Funerals and Death-Related Activities: This category identifies the importance of death on the body politic through its social cultural rituals. This is aptly demonstrated with entries that cover clothing and fashion, cosmetic restoration, the death notification process, and the funeral industry.

Legal Matters: This category includes topics such as the death certificate, equivocal death, forensic science, the legalities of death, and the psychological autopsy. Topics of more recent social significance include living wills and advance directives and viatical settlements.

Mass Death: This noteworthy category of topics holds historical and contemporary significance it that it covers the conditions that result from war, terrorism, and disease. The additional inclusion of tragic events such as school shootings, genocide, and the Holocaust make this a section that will draw attention to what has been referred to as the inhumanity of the human species toward its own.

Process of Dying: From entries such as The Art of Dying (Ars Moriendi) and Quality of Life, Halo Nurses Program, and Life Review to the entry Persistent Vegetative State, this category of the Reader's Guide is designed to keep readers reading one interesting topic after another. It is full of history of the hospice movement and addresses the influence advancing technology has on preserving life as well as maintaining the dignity of the dying.

Religion: The institution of religion has important implications for dying and death and for those who are interested in eschatology. Included are entries that address the major world religious beliefs and traditions as well as the spiritualist beliefs of the more ancient past. The perspective of nonbelievers also is offered.

Rituals, Ceremonies, and Celebrations: Celebrating the past includes honoring the dead. These entries [Page xxxv]nicely complement the previous classification of religious oriented entries while also offering a convenient category of topics that describe crosscultural events such as Day of the Dead, funeral conveyances, Ghost Month, Halloween, Memorial Day, and holidays of the dead. The concept of postself and the funerary custom of sin eating make this a most interesting category of entries.

Suicide, Euthanasia, and Homicide: A set of topics with a sociohistorical and legal legacy, many of the entries in this section suggest the same may be true for the contemporary experience. Suicide was once considered illegal behavior, and the penalty for a failed suicide attempt was, ironically, death. At another point in time, the penalty for a successful suicide was state confiscation of the deceased's property, a clear detriment to survivors. Euthanasia or an easy death is a cause for ethical outcry and for some individuals a moral outrage, while the homicide concept represents a variety of contemporary subcategories that address different interpretations of those acts that result in the taking of the life of another.

Theories and Concepts: The foundation of an area of study lies in its theories and concepts; the same is no less true for thanatology. This section presents topics that conceptualize and portray death and the human experience with an interdisciplinary sociocultural perspective that also includes topics on demography, education, economics, and history.

Unworldly Entities and Events: The final category represents the unusual, but may, for some readers, represent one of the more interesting categories. These well-written entries include Curses and Hexes, Frankenstein, Ghost Photography, Ghosts, Witches, and, finally, Zombies, Revenants, Vampires, and Reanimated Corpses.

Visual Aids

The selective use of charts, figures, graphs, tables, and pictures (e.g., the use of a life table for the entry Life Expectancy) is designed to enhance the reader's impression of the topic. Although tables usually contain an array of interesting descriptive and inferential information such as is found in the entry Death, Line of Duty and the entry Life Expectancy, most of the information of this nature has been integrated within the well-developed descriptive narratives crafted by the contributing authors who are so well versed in their topic that visual aids are not necessary. Where these visual aids are utilized, however, the effect is most dramatic. One such example is that of the entry Clothing and Fashion, Death-Related, which has a pictorial display of individuals who have fashioned their burial cloths. Another example is the Funeral Conveyances entry for which many exquisite pictures of hearse wagons and other modes of transportation of the dead are provided.

A Scholarly Library Reference and Resource for the Novice and Other Interested Readers

The Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience is intended as a resource for the upper division undergraduate student as well as others interested in this intriguing area of study. With such an array of topics that include traditional subjects and important emerging ideas, the encyclopedia will undoubtedly enhance the research efforts of the undergraduate who seeks to develop that challenging class paper. Lay readers also will find much to stimulate their thoughts. For the graduate student and the faculty member who strive to secure a compendium statement for lectures or for establishing a basic research agendum, this encyclopedia will prove to be a most useful resource.

The Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience is the result of the contributions of many people. The entries were crafted by individuals who are well known and well versed in the complexities of the dying and death arena. Many of the contributors to this encyclopedia have long been recognized as the founders of, and contributors to, this important area of teaching and research study. In addition, a number of in-service practitioners who do not always receive appropriate recognition are well represented; in this instance their entries blend nicely within the overall structure of the encyclopedia. Finally, some very interesting and intriguing entries have been created by rising scholars whose current efforts lend themselves to potential national and international recognition in the near future.

Dennis L. Peck