Death and Bereavement Across Cultures

270 Pages·1997·1.28 MB·English

by  Colin Parkes

Death and Bereavement
Across Cultures
All societies have their own customs and beliefs surrounding death. In
the West, traditional ways of mourning are disappearing, and
although Western science has had a major impact on how people die, it
has taught us little about the way to die or to grieve. Many whose
work brings them into contact with the dying and the bereaved from
Western and other cultures are at a loss to know how to offer
appropriate and sensitive support.
Death and Bereavement Across Cultures provides a handbook to
meet the needs of doctors, nurses, social workers, hospital chaplains,
counsellors and all those involved in the care of the dying and bereaved.
Written by international authorities in the field, this important new text:

• describes the rituals and beliefs of major world religions;
(cid:127) explains their psychological and historical context;
(cid:127) shows how customs are changed by contact with the West;
(cid:127) considers the implications for the future.

Death raises questions which science cannot answer. Whatever our
personal beliefs we can all gain from learning how others view these
ultimate problems. This book explores the richness of mourning
traditions around the world with the aim of increasing the sensitivity
and understanding which we all bring to the issue of death.
Edited by Colin Murray Parkes, Consultant Psychiatrist at St
Christopher’s Hospice, Pittu Laungani, Reader in Psychology at South
Bank University and Bill Young, Consultant Child and Adolescent
Psychiatrist at St Christopher’s Fellowship, London.

Death and Bereavement
Across Cultures
Edited by
Colin Murray Parkes, Pittu Laungani
and Bill Young

London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.

© 1997 Colin Murray Parkes, Pittu Laungani and Bill Young
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Death and bereavement across cultures/edited by Colin Murray Parkes,
Pittu Laungani, and Bill Young.
Includes bibliographical references (pp. 244–51) and index.
1. Death—Psychological aspects. 2. Bereavement—Psychological aspects.
3. Death—Cross-cultural studies. 4. Bereavement—Cross-cultural studies.
5. Mourning customs.
I. Parkes, Colin Murray. II. Laungani, Pittu. III. Young, Bill.
BF789.D4D343 1996
306.9–dc20 96–7558

ISBN 0-203-43519-2 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-74343-1 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-13136-7 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-13137-5 (pbk)
Contents
Notes on contributors vii
Part I A conceptual framework: historical and cultural themes
1 Introduction 3
Colin Murray Parkes, Pittu Laungani and Bill Young
2 Culture and religion 10
Colin Murray Parkes, Pittu Laungani and Bill Young
Part II Major world systems of belief and ritual
3 Grief in small-scale societies 27
Paul C.Rosenblatt
4 Death in a Hindu family 52
Pittu Laungani
5 A death on the roof of the world: The perspective of
Tibetan Buddhism 73
Uwe P.Gielen
6 Jewish views and customs on death 98
Ellen Levine
7 Christianity 131
Harold Ter Blanche and Colin Murray Parkes
8 The many facets of Islam: Death, dying and disposal
between orthodox rule and historical convention 147
Gerdien Jonker
vi Contents
9 Secularization 166
Tony Walter
Part III Practical implications and conclusions
10 Childhood, death and bereavement across cultures 191
Bill Young and Danai Papadatou
11 Help for the dying and bereaved 206
Colin Murray Parkes
12 Conclusions I: Implications for practice and policy 218
Pittu Laungani and Bill Young
13 Conclusions II: Attachments and losses in
cross-cultural perspective 233
Colin Murray Parkes
Bibliography 244
Index 252
Notes on contributors
Uwe P.Gielen, Professor of Psychology, St Francis College, Brooklyn
Heights, New York, USA.
Gerdien Jonker, Dusseldorfer Strasse 4, 10719 Berlin, Germany.
Pittu Laungani, Reader in Psychology, South Bank University,
London, UK.
Ellen Levine, Director of Psychosocial Oncology Research, Medical
Center Research Institute, San Francisco, California, USA.
Danai Papadatou, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of
Athens, Greece.
Colin Murray Parkes, Consultant Psychiatrist, St Christopher’s
Hospice, Sydenham, UK.
Paul C.Rosenblatt, Professor of Anthropology, College of Human
Ecology, St Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Tony Walter, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Reading,
Reading, UK.
Bill Young, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, St Christopher’s
Fellowship, London, UK.
Harold Ter Blanche, Grimsby Health Trust, District General Hospital,
Grimsby, South Humberside, UK.

Part I

A conceptual framework:
historical and cultural
themes