Cultural models of dying

Abstract

Pre-exital dying in Germany, as a vital conjuncture, possesses certain culture-specific and historically embedded guidelines of action and meaning-making. In this chapter, I will argue that decisions and meaning-making in dying take place alongside specific cultural models (Shore 1996). The introduction of the concept of cultural models is followed by an exploration of what counts as a ‘good’ dying in Germany and beyond, according to the existing literature. Subsequently, I will propose my own addition to how dying ‘well’ can be conceptualized in the case of contemporary Germany: Dying in dignity, introduced as the umbrella model of dying ‘well’ in Germany, is the unquestionable aim of each person involved in a dying process, and the prerequisite of any ’good‘ dying. By drawing on examples out of my fieldwork, I intend to show that there seem to be two especially important models which form essential parts of dying in dignity – the cultural models of autonomy and serenity. Both can inspire one and the same thought or action and melt with each other, and they also might appear as two parallel ways leading to dying ‘well’. However, they can be interpreted as conflicting as well, and even one and the same model can result in two totally different interpretations concerning how to deal with a concrete situation.