Myth-conceptions about death

Abstract

This paper concerns the meaning of death. Meaning is a social-symbolic phenomenon provided by man. It does not reside in that to which mean ing is given. Meaning is socially constructed. The meaning of anything, then, is always potentially challengeable and changeable. Distortions or myth-conceptions of one type or another may be incorporated in the ac cepted meaning of anything. The meaning of death is no exception. In the United States, death is a topic surrounded by a symbolic taboo screen that colors the way in which it is perceived and, in fact, discourages looking directly at the phenomenon. Questions likely to identify myth conceptions, then, are frequently not even asked. Any characteristic such as a taboo screen that contributes to ambiguity of perception facilitates the development of a variety of interpretations of what is perceived and a variety of experiences with that phenomenon. The taboo characteristic of the experiences of Americans with death has facilitated the develop ment of certain myths, which it is the purpose of this paper to discuss. The origins of the myths are not known, although hypotheses about them have been developed in some cases. Efforts have been made especially in the last ten years or so to remove some of the taboo or negative definitions of death. Various social scientists