RELIGST 2N03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Livor Mortis, Algor Mortis, Rigor Mortis

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELIGST 2N03
• Professor: Sherry Smith

Document Summary

Religion plays an important role in making it meaningful and for making guidelines. In addition to the church, the family and community played major roles. Dying, death, and grieving came to be managed increasingly by medical professionals (doctors, nurses, examiners, etc) and grief workers (social workers and psychologists). Medical professionals tended to define death, dying, and grieving as medical problems that can be cured by medical interventions. They recommended counselling and prescription drugs to help with grieving. If someone thinks that they can no longer take care of themselves they consider themselves dead, even though they"re biologically alive. It"s something that our minds have constructed from our experiences, guesswork, and even our ignorance. Death is subject to the same rules and limitations as any other concept that we may have. Death varies because it is a symbolic construction. Death and dead are concepts that are still under construction and subject to challenge.