SOC246H1 Lecture Notes - Multiple Choice, Euthanasia, Death Drive
Document Summary
Death was centred around religion, and mystical passageways, that per- meated western life in early centuries. He"s saying that institutions have created a distance in reality. Ex. a building in which we pump in air and control the sterile environment we are very much separated from nature, which is what giddens is trying to say institutions do to our existential reality. 1 anthony giddens, modernity and self-identity, stanford, ca: stanford university press, pg. This is clearly very different from how life was even 100 years ago. 1/3 of all deaths had been among children. So much more death now is among older people, so less people now experience actually seeing death than before. Emphasis on the medical and scientific understanding of death. Technology in the mid 20th century allowed a distinction between cardiopulmonary function and brain function. Medical and scientific aspects over mystical or magical notions.
