For your cultural group presentation, you will research and present demographic information, attitudes, and death related practices for your selected cultural group. Review the following resources available from the Eckerd Library and online to get started with your research.
Resources for group project:
Special Reports & Websites
Library Databases for Statistics and Demographics
Relevant Books & eBooks in the Collection
Find more using the following:
Use OneSearch to find additional articles and books that might provide more insight into the specific culture you are researching. Consider your search terms and keywords:
Dying = end of life care ~ palliative care
Burial ~ cremation
Rituals = rites ~ offerings ~ customs
Dead ~ ancestors
“Native american” ~ Hopi
Wiccan ~ Pagan
DEATH MAKES LIFE POSSIBLE follows cultural anthropologist and scientist Marilyn Schlitz, Ph.D., as she explores the mysteries of life and death from a variety of perspectives and world traditions. Sparked by her own near death experience as a teenager, Schlitz has been delving into the nature of consciousness and death for the past three decades.
The film looks at how popular culture deals with the ever-present fear many have about our own mortality. Interviews with mental health experts, cultural leaders, and scientists explore the meaning of death and how we can learn to live without fear. The interviews and evidence presented are interwoven with personal stories of people facing their own death as well as those who report encounters beyond death. The narrative is illustrated with vivid imagery.
Running Time
58 mins
Year
2013
Situated by the bank of the holy Ganges, Varanasi, also known as Kashi and Benares, is one of the oldest living cities in the world. Founded approximately 3,000 years ago, the city is the religious and cultural capital of India—considered by many to be the holiest place on earth. Every year Hindus in great number go there to die, believing that cremation in that place of renewal provides an immediate entry to heaven. Shot on location, this program celebrates life and death, examines the Hindu beliefs and rituals about life and death, and discusses how these forces have sustained Varanasi through history. (53 minutes)
A deeply moving and revelatory documentary that captures the last years of five individuals in the process of dying. In preparation for this unique project, the filmmakers trained to be end-of-life doulas and documented hundreds of hours of interactions with their subjects. The Doula works with the dying person, along with those surrounding them, to help design, guide and support their wishes for whatever a "good death" might mean for them.
"In our culture, almost everyone fears death," says Ram Dass, the noted spiritual teacher and author, and one of this documentary's subjects. By approaching death as closely as possible, END OF LIFE allows for viewers to reflect on their own feelings and responses to the human body and mortality.
Official Selection at the New York Film Festival.
Running Time
92 mins
Year
2017
Film databases: