Death & Dying (Thanatology)

"The Airy Tomb" is the longest poem from R. S. Thomas's first collection of verse The Stones of the Field (1946). It is a story of a lonely life of Twm, one of the many Welsh farmers who appear in Thomas's early work. The poem describes two very different approaches to the mystery of death. The first relates to death as it displays itself in nature. Since Twm is instinctively well attuned to its rhythms, he finds this kind of death normal, a natural conclusion to every individual existence. The other kind of death which he saw both his parents succumb to is death and interment as they occur within the context of a given culture, which dismays Twm by its unlikeness to the first type of death. The rite of burial in the ground is particularly disturbing for him. The main focus of this article is to compare and contrast these two stances and tease out their philosophical ramifications.

This article examines how 'safety case' experts working on Finland’s nuclear waste repository project at Olkiluoto summoned, conjured, or channeled memories of Seppo—a deceased colleague whose ‘specter,’ as some put it, still ‘haunts’ their scientific community. For some, Seppo’s postmortem presence manifested as gaps in knowledge left behind by an expert often reluctant to document the methodological assumptions underlying his knowledge-practices. For others, it manifested as anecdotes about Seppo’s stubbornness, irritability, and intellectual intensity as well as his more jovial demeanor during sauna nights, workplace parties, or trips abroad. Still others caught themselves asking ‘What Would Seppo Do?’ while troubleshooting at work. Inspired by anthropological and philosophical work on ancestors and haunting, the article unpacks how the multi-millennial time horizons of nuclear waste risk, the intergenerational time horizons of expert succession, and the everyday time horizons of a single expert life-course shared entwined fates. It focuses less on what knowledge disappeared when an expert’s body died – or how it could have been preventatively backed-up or managed – and more on what has lived on of the expert in and through surviving colleagues. Analysis of 'afterlives of expertise' like these can, it concludes, provide insights for a current moment of intergenerational transition in nuclear energy sectors in Europe, North America, and beyond.

One way to examine the enigmatic meaningfulness of human life is to ask under which conditions persons ask in earnest for assistance to die, either through euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. The counterpart of intolerable suffering must consist in some form of, however minimal, flourishing that makes people want to go on with their lives, disregarding other reasons to reject assisted dying that have more to do with religious prohibitions. To learn more about why persons want to hasten death during the last days, weeks or months of their lives, what kinds of suffering they fear and what they hold to be the main reasons to carry on or not carry on living, the paper offers some examples from a book written by the physician Uwe-Christian Arnold. He has helped hundreds of persons in Germany to die with the aid of sedative drugs the last 25 years, despite the professional societies and codes in Germany that prohibit such actions. The paper discusses various examples from Arnold’s book and makes use of them to better understand not only why people sometimes want to die but what made their lives meaningful before they reached this final decision.

Przysługujący widmom wywrotowy, niemalże rewolucyjny potencjał został odsunięty oraz zagubiony poprzez pozbycie się tej kontrowersyjnej kategorii z terytorium metafizyki i zbyt pośpieszne odesłanie jej do przestrzeni badań nad literaturą, sprowadzając ją jedynie do roli użytecznego, bezpiecznego narzędzia interpretacji.

Książka Andrzeja Marca odzyskuje niepokojący charakter widmontologii i ponownie wprowadza widma do myśli metafizycznej. Czym nawiedzona i przeniknięta jest tradycyjna metafizyka, co właściwie ją dręczy, nie daje spokoju oraz nieustannie podmywa jej stabilność?

Kategoria widma Derridy posłużyła Marcowi przede wszystkim do rozważań nad charakterem współczesności i przeobrażeń, jakie dokonały się w obrębie myśli ponowoczesnej. Współczesna kultura, zdaniem Marca, stała się miejscem powstawania widm, nieustannie powracających z przeszłości. Uznając, że nie jesteśmy już w stanie tworzyć utopijnych wizji przyszłości, autor stara się zdać sprawę z widmowego charakteru współczesnej kultury, analizując m. in. strategie vintage, retro, nurt no future w kulturze lat 70. czy nurt fantastyki naukowej w literaturze.

The Anointing of the Sick is possibly the most underappreciated and understudied sacrament. In To Die Is Gain, Roger Nutt seeks to bring greater attention to and appreciation for the Anointing of the Sick. Beginning with an examination of cultural perceptions of dying, death, and burial, To Die Is Gain exposes the ways in which contemporary atheism and physicalism mark a clear divergence from ancient attitudes. In contrast to contemporary hopelessness, the Anointing of the Sick is a powerful counter witness that highlights the great dignity of the human person and the depth of Christian hope. Unlike the cures to particular ailments facilitated by modern medical science, in Holy Anointing Jesus gives his dying followers the healing graces that they need to pass from this life to the next in loving union with Him. As Nutt exposes the biblical and traditional foundations of this sacrament, he corrects common misconceptions and malpractice of this sacrament, especially the ways in which Vatican II is often misleadingly enlisted to support a broadening of the sacrament from end-of-life situations to non-life threatening illnesses. Finally, Nutt carefully describes the graces and effects of the Anointing of the Sick and richly expounds the theological depth of the rite of the Anointing of the Sick. The result is that readers can confidently say with St. Paul that "To die is gain' (Philippians 1:21).

Baril, Alexandre (2018). « Conférence d’honneur : “Vivre avec” la mort : développer une éthique de la reconnaissance et de la responsabilité envers les personnes suicidaires », The Poetics and Ethics of “Living With”: Indigenous, Canadian and Québécois Feminist Production Today/Les poétiques et éthiques du « vivre avec » : Productions féministes autochtones, canadiennes et québécoises de nos jours, Colloque organisé par le Canadian Literature Centre of the University of Alberta, Banff Centre, Banff, 13 octobre.

DEATH AND THE INTERMEDIATE STATE: COMPARISON OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC, ORTHODOX, AND PROTESTANT DOCTRINAL VIEWS ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN’S ETERNAL STATE

PAPER TYPE:  Synthesis and Expository

THESIS STATEMENT:  The study will contrast and compare Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant doctrines concerning death and the intermediate state, with the purpose of understanding what happens to the soul upon death, the intermediate state, the resurrection of the body, and how its implications affect the way we live our lives in preparation for our eternal life. 

ABSTRACT:  Death is as much a part of life as life itself.  One day, everyone will die, and until that day, most will encounter the death of a friend or a loved one.  For unbelievers, death is tragic, and yet for Christians, death is the servant who ushers us into God’s presence.  However, erroneous beliefs abound to the point of superstition.  In Kallistos Ware’s article, ‘One body in Christ’: Death and the communion of the saints, he described how little the immanence of death is discussed in Western churches and how we should instead discuss it as a vital part of life, rather than something that hits us when we least expect it. 

When Christians fail to properly understand death, the intermediate state, and the resurrection to come, it minimizes the missional impact of the church on our culture.  In N.T. Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, Wright explains the importance of understanding the resurrection in such a way that it influences the way we live in the body and propels us to a greater emphasis on building the Kingdom. 

Different theological views abound when the intermediate state is compared between the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant faiths.  Roman Catholicism teaches Purgatory as the state where the souls are purged from venial sins. Alan Schreck’s book, Basics of the Faith: A Catholic Catechism describes the purging process, not as a second chance, but as an exercise of God’s infinite mercy.  Richard P. McBrien’s book, Catholicism, explains the doctrine from Scripture and its development from its patristic roots. 

Kallistos Ware’s book, The Orthodox Way, describes “A journey into the infinite” (Ware, 137) and how this concept befuddles our “fallen imagination” (Ibid.).  Constantine N. Tsirpanlis, Introduction to Eastern Patristic Thought and Orthodox Theology, argues against the doctrine of Purgatory outright, claiming that no eastern or western patristic father taught the this doctrine. 

From an Anglican Protestant perspective, Wright described paradise as the Christian’s state of blissful rest, but not sleep, but in a state of conscious presence with Christ, awaiting the final resurrection.  What we believe about the resurrection, ought to shape the way that we view the mission of the church and the manner in which we live in the body until we meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the veil of death.  Death is the servant who ushers us into the very presence of Christ and is nothing to fear.

Książka w sposób kompleksowy prezentuje problematykę postawy wobec śmierci w cyklu życia człowieka. Zawiera, po pierwsze, pogłębione studium teoretyczne integrujące w obrębie modelu Erika Eriksona najważniejsze odkrycia konceptualne i empiryczne w zakresie psychologii śmierci. Po drugie, na bazie psychoterapeutycznych doświadczeń autora zilustrowane i omówione zostały problematyczne aspekty postawy wobec śmierci, charakterystyczne dla różnych faz cyklu życia. Po trzecie, prezentuje przeprowadzone przez autora badania korelacyjne nad psychospołecznymi uwarunkowaniami postawy wobec śmierci w okresach adolescencji oraz wczesnej, średniej i późnej dorosłości, a także nad różnicami w zakresie postawy tanatycznej w badanych fazach życia. Zawarte w książce studia teoretyczne i kliniczne oraz badania korelacyjne pozwoliły sformułować wnioski praktyczne odnoszące się do pomocy psychologicznej osobom w różnych okresach rozwoju oraz wyznaczyć kierunki przyszłych badań nad problematyką postawy wobec śmierci w biegu życia człowieka.         

„Książka jest rzetelna naukowo, bogata treściowo, ciekawa i dobrze napisana. Cechują ją wysokie walory poznawcze i aplikacyjne. Dostarcza wielu przesłanek do pracy podejmowanej przez psychologów i psychoterapeutów. (…) Dla wielu współczesnych śmierć – choć nieunikniona – stanowi temat tabu. Marcin Sękowski je przełamuje, przedstawiając profesjonalnie problem stosunku do śmierci i jego osobowe uwarunkowania”.
prof. dr. hab. Maria Ledzińska (Uniwersytet Warszawski)


„Monografia będzie przydatna wszystkim osobom zajmującym się problemami osób, które stykają się z kwestią śmierci. Może służyć studentom, badaczom i praktykom w dziedzinach nauk społecznych i nauk o życiu, a także osobom uczestniczącym w ruchu hospicyjnym. (…) Pokazana w książce perspektywa ujmowania postawy wobec śmierci w cyklu życia człowieka pozwala na lepsze zrozumienie nas samych w sytuacji granicznej”.
dr hab. Paweł Izdebski, prof. UKW (Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy)

Marcin Sękowski – psycholog, psychoterapeuta, doktor nauk społecznych w zakresie psychologii, adiunkt w Instytucie Psychologii Akademii Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. Marii Grzegorzewskiej w Warszawie. Jego zainteresowania naukowe obejmują przede wszystkim problematykę tanatologiczną, w tym zagadnienia postawy wobec śmierci, ryzyka samobójczego i żałoby. Publikował m.in. na łamach „Death Studies” i „Omega: Journal of Death and Dying”.

Starting with ancient ideas on death and the afterlife, the book explores the teaching of the major world religions concerning the afterlife, considers near-death, psychic and paranormal experiences, and examines the case for reincarnation. The strengths of the various religious claims are then tested by reference to the character of the prophets of each tradition, and this is followed by an objective summary of the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Alison, who had begun her journey as an atheist, brings everything together by sharing her decision to place her faith in the Christian hope – it is, she concludes, the only one which seems to stand up to rigorous examination.

Originally published in both English and Chinese, What Happens When We Die? has helped thousands of people to find a new and life-changing confidence as they face up to the reality of death. This new edition was published in 2021 in both digital and print format by The Mathetes Trust, and is available from www.mathetestrust.org or on Amazon.

The Bamiléké of Cameroon have long believed that after the corpses of their ancestors have rotted they can be exhumed and the skulls used to communicate with the spirits of the dead, as well as their godhead, to receive spiritual guidance. The religious rite, which has necromancy at its fulcrum, is of ancient origin and the Bamiléké have practiced it for thousands of years. Urbanisation has impinged upon the Skull Cult as it is forbidden to move ancestral skulls, which must at all times remain in the natal village of the deceased. Nevertheless, city-dwellers who are beset by misfortune may travel to the birth places of their ancestors to honour them and perform rites to propitiate them. However, although urbanisation has adversely affected the practice, it is the Catholic Church that has most infringed upon the Skull Cult. Due to pressure from the officiants of the local Catholic Church, which has labelled the skull cult 'barbaric' and even Satanic.

Политички ангажман Мартина Хајдегера или "случај Хајдегер" више је од пола века повод за дебату око његовог дела. Дијапазон становишта врло је широк и протеже се од становишта да Хејдегерово филозофско дело представља
надолазећу идеологију нацизма, преко становишта да је то само заблуда филозофа слична Платоновој у Сиракузи, до оних који у Хајдегеровом политичком ангажману виде његов покушај да немачки Универзитет заштити од експериме-
ната нацистичког режима. Наше интересовање биће усмерено на Хајдегерово учење о смрти у "Бивствовању и времену". У његовој анализи овог феномена или егзистенцијала многи су видели својеврсну етику смрти која је инспирисала масовну производњу смрти у нацистичким конц-логорима. Иако нема онолики значај у анализи тубивствовања као тубивствовање-у-свету, брига и времени-
тост, анализа смрти заузима важно место у његовом делу. Смрт представља пут од бриге према временитости и у њој се чини ослобађање од неаутентичног бивствовања ту-бивствовања и од безличности. Човек је бивтсвовање-ка-смрти. Кроз смрт се ту-бивствовање ослобађа онога "ту" и открива хоризонт бивствовања у Постојећем, а слобода за смрт постаје слобода од фактичке смрти. Хајдегерово учење је најцеловитија анализа смрти од антике и средњовековља, али и најболнија за човека, јер филозофска вера у бесмртност (вечност) душе бива замењена становиштем по коме је смрт највиша инстанца човековог бивствовања, његова закљученост и оствареност.

The political engagement of Martin Heidegger or "Heidegger's case" is for more than a half of century the reason of the scholarly debate about his work. There are wide ranges of attitudes about his work: from those, which in his work see the incoming ideology of nazi movement; the moderate stances see in his political engagement just an error of a philosopher like Plato's in Syracuse. The attempts to justify his political engagements show that Heidegger tried to protect German University from the experiments of Nazis regime. We will focus in this article on Heidegger's analysis of the phenomenon of death in his Being and Time. In his analysis of the phenomenon of death many scholars have seen the ethics of death, practiced in the massive production of death in Nazis' concentration camps. In spate of the fact that analysis of death is not one of the main pillars of his work such as: Being-in-the-world, Care and Temporality, death has great significance. Death is the way from Care to Temporality and in death Dasein finds the liberation from the inauthentic being and they-self. Man is being-towards-death. Through death Dasein is liberating from the "Being-there" and opens the possibility of Being-a-whole. The freedom-towards-death is a connection to potentiality-for-Being. The Heidegger's analysis of death is the most expanded elaboration of death after the Antiquity and Middle Ages and the most painful because the faith in immortality (eternity) of human soul is replaced with a standpoint in which the death is the highest possibility of human being.

We're all going to die, and you'd have thought that we'd have got used to the idea by now.  So, why is managing loss so difficult, and how do our after-death beliefs frame the way in which we re-integrate into normal life? This three part paper addresses the profound emotions experienced during bereavement, investigates the eschatology of differing religions, and finally attempts to produce a practical overview for those who work closely with people who may soon face life's greatest adventure.

Death is a uniformly upsetting phenomenon for the individuals of every society; however, the ways in which the idea of death handled varies according to society's psychological, religious and moral norms. The present inquiry was an exploratory survey aimed to explore fears related to death and dying among the Pakistani Muslim population. Sample of (N=251) completed Death and Dying Questionnaire (DDQ), originally designed for the present study. DDQ showed internal consistency (α=.811). The majority agreed on the meaninglessness of life without death (26.7%), death as a painful event (25.9%) and end at the start of a new journey (29.9%). Mixed opinions were obtained for the quality of death. A higher agreement was shown for punishment after death (36.7%) and witnessing other's death (32.3%). Mixed opinions were obtained for the inability to accomplish the future task and fulfilling the needs of family members after death.

INTRODUCTION 5
CHAPTER 1: WHAT IN CREMATION IS GOING ON? 7
CHAPTER 2: THE ORIGIN AND PRACTICE OF CREMATION 15
CHAPTER 3: THE HISTORIC JUDEO–CHRISTIAN VIEW ON CREMATION 27
CHAPTER 4: THE REASONS FOR CREMATION EXAMINED 39
CHAPTER 5: IS CREMATION A PROPER PRACTICE? 63
CHAPTER 6: WHAT ABOUT EMBALMING? 73
CHAPTER 7: WHAT ABOUT ORGAN DONATION? 82
CHAPTER 8: WHAT IS CYRONIC SUSPENSION? 87
CHAPTER 9: CANNIBALISM: ARE YOU SERIOUS? 93
CHAPTER 10: ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS 98
APPENDIX 1: CREMATION STATISTICS IN THE UNITED STATES 108
APPENDIX 2: VARIOUS RELIGIONS ON CREMATION 112
ANNOTATED SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 115
BIBLIOGRAPHY 117
GLOSSARY 128

http://www.amazon.com/Cremation-Going-Christian-Mortem-Decisions-ebook/dp/B00P24PNM4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1433031797&sr=1-1

In debates over medically assisted dying right to die activists are often accused of embracing anunbridled neoliberal individualistic ethics that devalue life and reject notions of community andcare. Through an ethnographic study of activists in North America and Australia, this articleaims to complicate this point of view by showing how they are deeply invested in what it meansto act morally in the world vis-a-vis their relationships with others and how they envisage thisissue within an ethics of care. Although activists are often accused by opponents of delegitimis-ing the ageing process and relying on atomised individual values, in depth interviews with rightto die activists reveal complex, ambiguous and contradictory reflections on the ageing processas a dominant source of suffering while defending an ethics of care and life. In the end, this arti-cle argues that the right to die paradoxically constitutes an ethics for living.

CATALOGUE OF THE EXHIBITION "THE LIFE AFTER DEATH" IN THE FRAME OF THE CULTURAL CAPITAL OF EUROPE PAFOS2017 AND AARHUS2017. A CULTURAL APPROACH TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE DEAD'S MEMORY THROUGH ART AND BURIAL CUSTOMS IN CYPRUS AND DENMARK FROM ANTIQUITY TILL NOWADAYS/ ΚΑΤΑΛΟΓΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΚΘΕΣΗΣ "Η ΖΩΗ ΜΕΤΑ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΝ" ΣΤΑ ΠΛΑΙΣΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΤΙΚΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΕΥΟΥΣΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΕΥΡΩΠΗΣ ΠΑΦΟΣ2017 ΚΑΙ ΩΡΧΟΥΣ2017. ΜΙΑ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΙΚΗ ΠΡΟΣΕΓΓΙΣΗ ΣΤΗ ΔΙΑΤΗΡΗΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΑΝΑΜΝΗΣΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΤΕΘΝΕΩΤΩΝ ΜΕΣΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΤΕΧΝΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΙΣ ΤΑΦΙΚΕΣ ΠΑΡΑΔΟΣΕΙΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΚΥΠΡΟ ΚΑΙ ΤΗ ΔΑΝΙΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΤΗΤΑ ΕΩΣ ΤΙΣ ΗΜΕΡΕΣ ΜΑΣ

Based on the research on continuing bonds (CB) with a deceased person to date, the reports of clinicians, and the contemporary theory of attachment, two dimensions of CB were distinguished: (i) a concrete CB, essentially characteristic of unresolved and prolonged grief, and (ii) a symbolic CB, specific to grief resolution. The psychometric properties of the Continuing Bonds Scale (CBS) were examined in a sample of persons from Poland (N = 244) bereaved after the death of a family member from 0.5 to 18 years before the survey (M = 3.45, SD = 2.25). In the first sub-sample (n = 141), the exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure of the CBS: the concrete and the symbolic dimension of the CB with the deceased. In the second sub-sample (n = 103), a good fit of this two-factor model of the CBS was determined by confirmatory factor analysis. At the bivariate analysis level, the concrete CB with the deceased positively correlated with attachment anxiety, and negatively with grief resolution and time since loss; the symbolic CB negatively correlated with attachment avoidance. When predicting grief resolution for two dimensions of CB (controlling for adult attachment, and sociodemographic and loss-related variables), concrete CB was a negative predictor, and symbolic CB was a positive predictor of the outcome variable. The reliability of the CBS subscales was acceptable. The CBS is a valid and reliable measure of two different CB dimensions. The model of concrete and symbolic CB with the deceased was discussed in the light of the current results and contemporary attachment theory.

The subject of truth telling is complex. Truth in itself, is subjective and at its core, a philosophical conundrum. The extent to which truth is subjective can be determined by what an individual’s base reality is and how in touch with their own reality they are.
Aside from this, we have the existence of what we perceive as facts and if a person is intermittently disassociated from their own reality, their ability to relay accurate facts as truth is quite diminished. Then we have the dilemma of what is fact. Most dictionaries describe ‘truth’ as the quality or state of being true: ‘he had to accept the truth of her
inevitable demise’. Therefore, it is that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality. Accordingly, a ‘fact’ is described as a thing that is known or proved to be true. ‘The MRI clearly shows bone metastases’. Therefore, it is information used as evidence or as part of a report.

"THERE ARE CERTAIN THEMES OF WHICH THE INTEREST IS ALL-ABSORBING, but which are too entirely horrible for the purposes of legitimate fiction. These the mere romanticist must eschew, if he do not wish to offend, or to disgust. They are with propriety handled only when the severity and majesty of truth sanctify and sustain them. We thrill, for examp]e, with the most intense of "pleasurable pain", over the accounts of the Passage of the Beresina, of the Earthquake at Lisbon, of the Plague at London, of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, or of the stifling of the hundred and twenty-three prisoners in the Black Hole at Calcutta. But, in these accounts, it is the fact-it is the reality-it is the history which excites. As inventions, we should regard them with simple abhorrence. I have mentioned some few of the more prominent and august calamities on record, but in these it is the extent, not less than the character of the calamity, which so vividly impresses the fancy. I need not remind the reader that, from the long and weird catalogue of human miseries, I might have selected many individual instances more replete with essential suffering than any of these vast generalities of disaster." - Edgar Allan Poe

Literary discourses often seek to explore the emotional motley experienced by individuals while encountering death and dying. Representations by literary artists offer a virtual space wherein readers partake of the conclusive episode in a character's lived experience. However, does a reader in the process imagine and accept his/her own cessation? Or does it always have to be an "other" being at whose death we are present as voyeurs? Freud in his 1918 work "Reflections on War and Death" observed: "We cannot, indeed, imagine our own death; whenever we try to do so we find that we survive ourselves as spectators." While we recognize death as the annihilation of others, we take the possibility of our own demise as somehow being unnatural. We engage in a death denial syndrome which for instance becomes the basis of the story by Leo Tolstoy titled "The Death of Ivan Ilych". This paper is a study of the literary representations of an intrinsic human tendency leaning towards denial whose basis might be social rather than purely an instinctual inclination. How do literary works perceive the truth of transience? Do these representations serve as a complementary projection of reality and reveal the socio-cultural repercussions of anthropological claims to immortality? Can literature aid in overcoming the existential dread associated with the notions of death and dying? By evoking both the aesthetic and the pathological notions of death as represented in certain select literary works, this paper looks at the paradox of mortality and the role of literature in creating a forensic field that seeks to understand and acknowledge death as the unavoidable, all pervasive entity. The paper challenges the clichéd envisioning of death as the grim reaper and replaces it with a perception of death as the rounding off of an eventful life. The argument will be substantiated by references made in particular to Karel Čapek's play The Makropulos Affair (1922), José Saramago's

This is a contemplative article that examines the question of whether we have a right to end our lives at our own will and timing, that deals briefly with Joiner's Theory of Suicide and that provides a metaphysical answer and demystifies suicide and sheds light on the question whether God will punish suicide.

"Many social media tools and services are free to use. This fact often leads users to the mistaken presumption that the associated data generated whilst utilising these tools and services is without value. Users often focus on the social and presumed ephemeral nature of communication – imagining something that happens but then has no further record or value, akin to a telephone call – while corporations behind these tools tend to focus on the media side, the lasting value of these traces which can be combined, mined and analysed for new insight and revenue generation. This paper seeks to explore this social media contradiction in two ways. Firstly, a cursory examination of Google and Facebook will demonstrate how data mining and analysis are core practices for these corporate giants, central to their functioning, development and expansion. Yet the public rhetoric of these companies is not about the exchange of personal information for services, but rather the more utopian notions of organising the world’s information, or bringing everyone together through sharing.

The second section of this paper examines some of the core ramifications of death in terms of social media, asking what happens when a user suddenly exists only as recorded media fragments, at least in digital terms. Death, at first glance, renders users (or post-users) without agency or, implicitly, value to companies which data-mine ongoing social practices. Yet the emergence of digital legacy management highlights the value of the data generated using social media, a value which persists even after death. The question of a digital estate thus illustrates the cumulative value of social media as media, even on an individual level. The ways Facebook and Google approach digital death are examined, demonstrating policies which enshrine the agency and rights of living users, but become far less coherent posthumously. Finally, along with digital legacy management, I will examine the potential for posthumous digital legacies which may, in some macabre ways, actually reanimate some aspects of a deceased user’s presence, such as the Lives On service which touts the slogan “when your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting”. Cumulatively, mapping digital legacy management by large online corporations, and the affordances of more focussed services dealing with digital death, illustrates the value of data generated by social media users, and the continued importance of the data even beyond the grave."

Der Aufsatz gilt dem Vokabular der narrationsbezogenen Lebensendforschung. Nach der Exposition einiger narratologischer Grundkonzepte verfolgt er zwei Interessen: Zunächst formuliert er Beobachtungen zur Erzähl-Begrifflichkeit ausgewählter Forschungsbeiträge und zeigt, dass sich ein offensiverer Rekurs auf das Instrumentarium der Erzähltheorie im interdisziplinären Diskurs als produktiv erweisen kann. In einem zweiten Teil diskutiert er die Begriffe der „Sterbeerzählung“ und des „Sterbenarrativs“ und macht Vor-schläge, wie sie, nuanciert aufeinander bezogen, als Basisvokabular der narrationsbezogenen Lebensendforschung fungieren und weiter ausdifferenziert werden können.

I argue that fear of death is what informs our attitude towards the pandemic. I distinguish three different types of fear of death, viz. vegetative, general, and prospective fear. Prospective fear of death is the fear to die soon (in the near future), while not being in any acute danger. This is the type of fear the pandemic induces in us. I argue that behind prospective fear of death is the fear to realize that one hasn't live as one should and that there is no time left to correct the mistake.

In the 40 years since the Maimonides studies (1,2) it has become clear, through both scientific research and first hand reports, that individuals can become telepathically linked in dreams, and can even experience one another in a consensual way in a shared intersubjective dreamspace. However, considering the fact that many animals dream physiologically just as humans do, it should not surprise us that, given the strong bonds between humans and their animal companions, that psi-dreaming might connect humans with other species as well. This presentation will explore human-animal psi-dreaming, and invites participants to share their own interspecies dreams.

LOUIS-VINCENT THOMAS (1922-1994) commence sa carrière sur le continent africain et y étudie tout à tour les systèmes de pensée, les représentations, la notion de personnalité, les idéologies, les mythes, les rites et les symboles. Une idée-force résulte de ces premiers travaux : « La mort n'est pas le contraire de la vie mais peut-être sa condition fondamentale ». Dès lors, la question de la finitude devient le cœur de ses recherches, mêlant diverses disciplines, approches et thématiques. Et c'est ainsi que l'initiateur de la thanatologie, voyageant dans les chemins de l'imaginaire, de la science-fiction, des obsessions, du quotidien, des corps et des mythologies, a tissé une science et un art de la mort dans la vie.
Plus de vingt ans après sa disparition, nous proposons d'effectuer un retour sur l'œuvre féconde de ce penseur pluriel et insaisissable. Par la rencontre des trois générations – tous domaines confondus – qui lui ont succédé, cet hommage vise à percevoir les résonances de son héritage et les empreintes de sa personnalité, de son itinéraire et de ses recherches. Le présent ouvrage réunit donc des contributions hétéroclites en donnant la parole à ses élèves, ses proches et collègues, mais aussi à celles et ceux qui, sans l'avoir connu, poursuivent à leur manière les chemins que l'anthropologue a ouverts.

Without exception, all people are faced with the inevitability of death, a stark fact that has immeasurably shaped societies and individual consciousness for the whole of human history. Mirrors of Passing offers a powerful window into this oldest of human preoccupations by investigating the interrelationships of death, materiality, and temporality across far-flung times and places. Stretching as far back as Ancient Egypt and Greece and moving through present-day locales as diverse as Western Europe, Central Asia, and the Arctic, each of the richly illustrated essays collected here draw on a range of disciplinary insights to explore some of the most fundamental, universal questions that confront us.

Døden er et mysterium. Vi vet vi skal dø, men ikke når og hvordan. Vi vet heller ikke hva som skjer når vi dør. Forfatterne hevder at døden har gjennomgått en sekularisering som åpner opp nye problemstillinger. Hvordan skal døden håndteres? Er vi dømt til å leve med dødsangst? Og kan døden være positiv? Boken innbyr til filosofisk refleksjon, og benytter dessuten historie, sosiologi og medisin til å gi ulike perspektiver på døden.

https://www.universitetsforlaget.no/hva-er-doden