ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Persistent Vegetative State, Status Symbol, Taphophobia

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHROP 1AA3
• Professor: Andrew Wade

Document Summary

Death is an enfeebled form of life: ghosts. Death is a continuation of life: ancient egyptians and mummification. Death is waiting: death is inevitable. Death is cycling and recycling: reincarnation. Traditional medical view lack of respiration, pulse, and heartbeat. This lead to the creation of wakes (to make sure) The harvard criteria for death: unreceptive and unresponsive, no spontaneous movement or respiration, no reflexes, a flat eeg (electrical activity in the brain, no circulation to or within the brain. Locked-in syndrome: conscious but cannot move at all (only eyes) Doctor"s presence at the deathbed was rare. Status symbol to die under medical care. Natural death death at the end of a long life as the result of a clinically identifiable disease. Rituals to transition the deceased from the world of the living to the world of the dead (e. g. , wake", burial, crenation) Rituals to reintegrate survivors back into the community (e. g. , cleansing")