List and describe at least four factors that have contributed to changes in death customs from the nineteenth century to the present. Which factor do you think has been most important and why?
Four factors that have contributed to the changes in death customs since 1900 to the current time are life expectancy and mortality rates, geographic mobility and inter-generational contact, life extending technologies, the internet and digital technology. Life expectancy since 1900 has increased dramatically from an average age of forty seven to seventy nine. If you happen to live in Japan the age you might be expected to reach would be eighty three, the longest life expectancy worldwide. The mortality rates decreased dramatically as well through the introduction and use of vaccines which reduced almost eliminating some of the infectious diseases that caused shorter life spans. Today death is more apt to occur from a chronic disease as opposed to infectious disease.
Geographic mobility with its reduced connection to the generations created a distance that families prior to the 1900's were not familiar with. Families were close and there for all events, births, deaths, weddings, and everything in between. They supported one another and generations were taught the acceptable way to celebrate and how grief was handled within each family.
Life extending technologies remove families from that care that at one time was performed by the family. When end of life care was delivered by the immediate family, now machines saw when all life has left the body, death is not called until such an event has occurred. This is the medicalization of death, and as the text says it takes it away from the view of the public, and family as well.
The internet, digital technologies dramatically change how grief can be displayed in the digital community, it allows for a support net if you will of those wishing to share death information and support networking. It allows for connection for those who might not otherwise be able to be there for family or friends.
Which factor do I think has been the most important? I think the one that delivered the biggest change that really changed customs of death would have been the geographic mobility. It began the cycle of change for families and limited the sharing of customs that may have been passed down through the generations.
DeSpelder, L.A., Strickland, A.L.(2015 )The Last Dance:Encountering Death and Dying, (10th Ed) New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.