The Known and The Unknown: An Exploration of Attitudes Towards Death, Dying, and Grieving

Abstract

<p>In this thesis, I discuss the notions of the denial and fear of death which are part of the North American attitude. As a contrast, I present Mayan attitudes and feelings towards death, dying, and grieving which tend to be accepting of death as a change, and therefore not as a thing to be afraid of. In this section I present the Mayan "naturalistic" way of looking at death and their feeling of communitas during the liminal stage of death. The next section deals with the topic of palliative care as an example of dealing with a difficult process through a comparable communitas in delaing with suffering and hope. These two cultural samples demonstrate that people dealing with the dying can learn from other cultures and that our "culture at large" can also benefit through finding out how other people deal with death, dying and grieving (O'Connor 1991).</p>