ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Taphophobia, Medicalization, Blunt Trauma
14 Apr 2013
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Influenced by beliefs about life, death and the hereafter. Death is an enfeebled form of life. Traditional medical view- lack of respiration, pulse, and heartbeat. If there is no pulse then the heart is no longer functioning. A rope placed in the hands of the coffin occupant could be pulled to ring the bell above ground. Came up with a criteria for doctors to make sure the patient was dead. 3, no reflexes: light in the eyes (stimuli) 4, a flat eeg (electrical activity in the brain) 5, no circulation to or within the brain. Criteria because not knowing if someone is dead causes some issues with organ donors. Comem transient vegetative state, locked-in syndrome, permanent vegetative stat, persistent vegetative state. In the past, the doctors presence at the deathbed was rare. Eventually became a status symbol to die under medical care. Death may be prevented (or at least delayed) by medicine.
