SOCIOLOGY OF DEATH AND DYING

SOC 3345

 

Professor C. Allen Haney, Ph.D., M.P.H. C.C.S

Phone = 743-3960

e-mail = soc1b3@bayou.uh.edu

web page = www.uh.edu/~chaney

office hours = 2:00 - 5:00 Monday and Wednesday or by appointment

office = 471 PGH

 

Course Description:

            This course deals with trends and patterns of behavior where death and dying are the primary phenomenon under consideration. This course will investigate such topics as; historical perspectives, cultural definition, social changes, demographic patterns, medical technology and emerging and changing ceremony and ritual. (There are no prerequisites other than upper the successful completion of the basic English and Math courses. Having had Introductory Sociology or Psychology will be an advantage also computer literacy would be very valuable.

 

Required Text:

Understanding Dying, Death, and Bereavement (3rd Edition), by Michael R. Leming and George E. Dickenson, Harcourt Brace, 1994.

 

Course Requirements:

    1. You will be responsible for the assigned readings on the day indicated in the class schedule. I expect you to keep up with the readings so that we can discuss the material in class. Your participation in this class will be part of your grade.
    2. In addition you will be require to complete some homework or field work. In addition I will be inviting some visiting experts to give lectures on occasion. Attendance is mandatory. If you make me look bad by not showing up I will become very angry. Furthermore, for those who can handle it, I will try to arrange some field trips. These are educational and important but due to their nature they will be optional. I will try to schedule these after school hours or on weekends .
    3. By no later than 28 January 1998 you must have access to the world web so that you can do the required assignments, keep track of changes in the course schedule, and communicate with me. (An account with the University of Houston is available free of charge and can be accessed from off-campus.)

 

Course Requirements:

    1. There will be one extensive and comprehensive final examination of an objective type will be given on the assigned final examination day. This will be fifty percent (50%) of your total grade. ( Here is a clue. It will rely upon "recall and recognition type answers.

      2.  

    2. During the course you will have two (and possibly more ) class projects to complete. Some of these will be class endeavors where we all do the same thing but your MAJOR project You will work out the details of these with me individually and obtain my approval by securing a signed outline or overview of your project. These projects may take the form of a photo essay of local and regional cemeteries, or of road side shrines / memorials. (You might, for example ride to Waco to see the fence around the Branch-Davidian compound. Some of you might be interested in an historical sociological analysis of some major catastrophe such as the Texas City Explosion, the Challenger Explosion, The Massacres at Luby’s in Killien Tx., or a study of the "artifacts" left at the Vietnam wall. Some of you might decide that for you major project to build a web page of death and dying related material. Others might like to do a content analysis of the obituaries which appear in the Houston Chronicle or even investigate and catalogue the various cyber memorials which have sprung up on the web. After the course gets going we will discuss this in more detail. Your major project alone will constitute 25 percent of your grade. The remaining 25 percent will come from class participation/preparation, and your minor projects, Minor projects might be writing a sociological movie review of some feature film in which death is a central thematic element. (Note: when I talk about a photo essay don’t feel that you must go beg, borrow or steal some high dollar video equipment or a fancy 35 mm Nikon. The one-time use. disposable camera available at Target, Walmart, Eckards, etc. will do the job well.
    3. Please find a seat in which you are comfortable and try use it every class period. That will make it easier for me to learn your names and thus include you in class discussions.

 

Tentative Class Schedule

Jan     21    Introductory comments, discussion of syllabus, and course content

23 Chapter 1. The American Way of Death

26 Chapter 1. Continued

28 Movie I. Web Assignment I

30 Discussion of Movie I and Web Assignment I

Feb 02 Chapter 2. Understanding the Social Meaning of Dying and Death Note: This and the next two classes are curcial to the sucessful    completion of both minor and major projects as well as Web Assignments

04 Chapter 2. Continued. The Nature of Social Constructions

06 Chapter 2. Continued. Sociological Perspectives

09 Chapter 3. Children and Death Web Assignment II

11 Chapter 3 Continued. and Discussion of Web Assignment II

13 Movie II.

16 Discussion of Movie

18 Chapter 4. Developmental Perspective on Dying and Death… Web Assignment III

20 Chapter 4. Continued. Discussion of Web Assignment III

23 Discussion of Capital Punishment Web Assignment IV

25 Film: Execution Protocol

27 Discussion of Capital Punishment and Web Assignment IV

Mar     02    Chapter 5. Religion and Death Attitudes

04 Chapter 5. Continued

06 Guest Speaker

09 Chapter 9, Suicide Note: Between this date and April 6, you should plan to visit the Funeral Museum. Web Assignment V.

11 Chapter 9 continued and discussion of Web Assignment

13 Chapter 10, The Anthropology of Death Ritual Web Assignment VI. Rather than examine how different cultures try to use death rituals, I want you to find out how companies and corporations have evolved death rituals. For example, TWA maintained a web page on Flight 800 and the Union Pacific Railroad has erected a monument to train personnel who died in accidents.

16 Spring Break

18 Remember,

20 Party Responsibly

23 Chapter 6. The Dying Process

25 Chapter 6. Continued.

27 Chapter 11. The History of Bereavement and Burial Practices in American Culture

30 Guest Speaker

Apr 01 Movie III

03 Field Exercise

06 Chapter 12. The Funeral: Expression of Contemporary American Bereavement. Web Assignment VII

08 Chapter 12. The Funeral: Expression of Contemporary American Bereavement. Web Assignment VIII

10 Chapter 12. Continued. Discussion of Web Assignment

13 Chapter 13. The Bereavement Process

15 Chapter 13. Continued

17 Chapter 10. Anthropology of Death Ritual (Revisited)

20 More on cross cultural and trans-historical death ritual

22 Chapter 7. The Hospice Approach . Web Assignment IX

24 Guest Speaker

27 Chapter 8. Euthanasia and Biomedical Issues. Web Assignment X

29 Discussion of Web Assignments IX and X .

May     01    Movie IV

04 Last Class, Major Project Due. Wrap-up, Discussion of Movie IV, and Summary