A history of dying spanning 2 million years ? Gives broad
inclusive context to all former histories of death and dying ?
Accessible to the general reader
內容簡介:
Our experiences of dying have been shaped by ancient ideas about
death and social responsibility at the end of life. From Stone Age
ideas about dying as otherworld journey to the contemporary
Cosmopolitan Age of dying in nursing homes, Allan Kellehear takes
the reader on a 2 million year journey of discovery that covers the
major challenges we will all eventually face: anticipating,
preparing, taming and timing for our eventual deaths. This is a
major review of the human and clinical sciences literature about
human dying conduct. The historical approach of this book places
our recent images of cancer dying and medical care in broader
historical, epidemiological and global context. Professor Kellehear
argues that we are witnessing a rise in shameful forms of dying. It
is not cancer, heart disease or medical science that presents
modern dying conduct with its greatest moral tests, but rather
poverty, ageing and social exclusion.
目錄:
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. The dawn of mortal awareness
2. The otherworld journey - death as dying
3. The first challenge - anticipating death
4. The emergence of sedentism
5. The birth of the good death
6. The second challenge - preparing for death
7. The rise and spread of cities
8. The birth of the well-managed death
9. The third challenge - taming death
10. The exponential rise of modernity
11. The birth of the Shameful death
Conclusion
Bibliography