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Death, Grief and Mourning
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205 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 17, 2019
An interesting study, thought a bit old, but i found the results wuitw accurate as they were in 1968. The book is written with interesting data about how people mourn, but mostly how British people mourn. I could relate to a lot of social behaviors mine and of other surrounding me or towards me when i’m grieving. An unusual read, the language used was obviously a bit focused on the study, but there are many fragments from study participants’ conversation.
August 24, 2025
October 10 | 3.0
Gorer’s “The Pornography of Death” posts a discussion on the rules, or taboos, of seemliness — what does society, across its many cultures, consider worth talking about in public or private spheres. He notes a difference between obscenity and pornography, where obscenity is reacted upon by the public, meanwhile pornography is kept private, concomitant to society’s prudery. Gorer shows a shift in society’s prudery on topics such as sexuality and death, where in the 19th century sex was hushed and death discoursed openly, yet today sexuality is much more vibrant in public discussion and death is seen as “unmentionable.” Death has become a topic of prudery with the notion that it is a natural process, which adds an essence of disgust or corruption, and denies or hides the process’s significance to society. Advances in societal entertainment and healthcare have aided this shift, where publicized deaths were “forbidden” or horrendous in nature. Death and sex and their related fantasies for society then have taken a place as something consumatory that focuses more on the action (of sex or dying) and less on the emotion (love or grief); this effectively obscures the emotion and society’s reaction to these stories when they happen in their own lives. Death censorship is ineffective, as it will surreptitiously cycle back from its spot of social prudery into the public eye.
Gorer’s “The Pornography of Death” posts a discussion on the rules, or taboos, of seemliness — what does society, across its many cultures, consider worth talking about in public or private spheres. He notes a difference between obscenity and pornography, where obscenity is reacted upon by the public, meanwhile pornography is kept private, concomitant to society’s prudery. Gorer shows a shift in society’s prudery on topics such as sexuality and death, where in the 19th century sex was hushed and death discoursed openly, yet today sexuality is much more vibrant in public discussion and death is seen as “unmentionable.” Death has become a topic of prudery with the notion that it is a natural process, which adds an essence of disgust or corruption, and denies or hides the process’s significance to society. Advances in societal entertainment and healthcare have aided this shift, where publicized deaths were “forbidden” or horrendous in nature. Death and sex and their related fantasies for society then have taken a place as something consumatory that focuses more on the action (of sex or dying) and less on the emotion (love or grief); this effectively obscures the emotion and society’s reaction to these stories when they happen in their own lives. Death censorship is ineffective, as it will surreptitiously cycle back from its spot of social prudery into the public eye.
September 19, 2024
Solid anthropology, and seems to avoid the trap of making any definite claims about what the data Must Mean and instead proffers multiple suggestions and interpretations.
I wonder how a similar, data-and-survey-driven study would play out in the modern US
I wonder how a similar, data-and-survey-driven study would play out in the modern US
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews