Anthropology of death and dying

Death is a universal human condition and as such, it has garnered large amounts of philosophical and theological reflection. Death is sometimes called "the great equalizer", as human differences become irrelevant faced with mortality. From an anthropological standpoint however, we know that this is not the case. On the contrary, human mortality demands interpretation and all known cultures have rituals, prescriptions and prohibitions in connection with the end of life. At the same time, as researchers have pointed out, how we approach death may not primarily be about dying itself. Rather, it concerns the maintenance of the collective and cosmology, purity and impurity (danger), ideas of what a good or righteous life looks like, the relationship between individual and community, and the values that a given culture hold dear. This makes death a particularly interesting topic for the humanities and social sciences. In this course, we use an anthropological perspective and ethnographic research to investigate selected topics surrounding death and dying. Examples may be medicalized dying and assisted dying, representations of death in popular culture, burial rituals and dying in the context of migration.

After completing this course, you are expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes, defined as knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

• Knowledge of some central topics in anthropological research on death and dying.
• The ability to view these in a larger disciplinary perspective.
• Knowledge of concrete ethnographic examples of how death and dying are culturally shaped and understood.

Skills

• are able to relate critically to academic texts in a constructive manner.
• have acquired the ability to identify, analyse and interpret different practices and/or representations of death and dying.
• are able to explain, discuss and correctly reference information and academic materials.
• have acquired training in academic writing.

General competence

• are able to relate critically to and to question taken for granted practices and assumptions.
• have an understanding that there are many ways of being in the world.
• are able to communicate academic materials such as theories, empirical examples and/or problems both in writing and verbally.

Lectures, seminars and a compulsory assignment. Learning activities and compulsory assignments might start before the semester registration deadline. The course is taught in Norwegian, but some lectures might be in english.