Course overview
Life and death are the core universals for human beings, yet are the context for key contemporary debates, and a wide variety of practices and beliefs historically and culturally. Debates on such key topics as reproductive technologies, organ transplantation, and the 'good death' often encapsulate central social and cultural assumptions. This course explores such debates and assumptions through an examination of the cross-cultural nature of life and death in both western and non-western societies. Both birth and death have been core concerns of anthropology throughout its history, and continue to be the focus of research. Dominant themes of this course are the practices and beliefs at the start of life (conception, and birth), as well as at the end of life, including how connections are forged or severed between the living and the dead (aging, the process of death, grief, funerals and memorials, and the afterlife).
Course learning outcomes
- Introduce students to the anthropological literature on life and death.
- Increase students’ understanding of how people define and deal with life and death.
- Broaden students’ knowledge of cultural variation in how connections are forged or severed between the living and the dead.
- Introduce or deepen student’s knowledge of life & death in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies.
- Engage students in contemporary debates that relate to life and death.
- Develop students’ awareness of, and ability to critically reflect on the politics of life and death in their own cultural background.
- Develop students’ critical thinking and digital research skills on a topic of interest related to life and/or death.