DEATH AND DYINGLittle Theoretical Work. Interest in death and
dying was varied and diverse during the 1970s and
1980s, and no widely accepted conceptual frame-
work for its study emerged, except that Kathy
Charmaz published a seminal book titled The So-
cial Reality of Death in 1980. Sociologists had been
critical both of the title and content of Kubler-
Ross’s widely read book On Death and Dying (1969)
but they recognized the appeal of the subject
matter (Riley 1968, 1983). In earlier decades death
had been typically viewed as a social transition, as a
‘‘rite de passage,’’ but new threads running through
the literature were emerging. Formal ‘‘arrange-
ments’’ were being negotiated prior to death, dy-
ing persons were generally more concerned about
their survivors than they were about themselves,
dying individuals were able to exercise a signifi-
cant degree of control over the timing of their
deaths, tensions typically existed between the re-
quirements of formal care and the wishes of dying
patients, and similar tensions almost always exist-
ed between formal and informal caregivers—be-
tween hospital bureaucracies and those significant
others who were soon to be bereaved (Kalish
1985a, 1985b; Riley 1970, 1983).
Little systematic attention from sociologists,
however, had emerged. The Encyclopedia of the
Social Sciences (1968) contained but two entries,
both on the social meanings of death. Similarly,
there are only two indexed references in the 1988
Handbook of Sociology (Smelser 1988): one to pover-
ty resulting from the death of breadwinners, the
other to the role of death in popular religion.
Sociologists had failed to generate any overarching
theory. There have been, however, many attempts.
Several kernels illustrate the broad range of these
theoretical efforts. Parsons (1963) related the chang-
ing meanings of death to basic social values;
Mannheim (1928, 1952) used mortality to explain
social change; Renee Fox (1980, 1981) found that
‘‘life and death were coming to be viewed less as
absolute... entities... and more as different points
on a meta-spectrum..a new theodicity’’; Dorothy
and David Counts (1985) specified the role of
death in the various social transformations from
preliterate to modern societies; Paul Baker (1990),
following Lloyd Warner (1959) and others (e.g.
Kearl and Rinaldi 1983) elaborated the long-recog-
nized theory that images of the dead exert pro-
found influences on the living, and Michael Kearl
wrote a more general statement in 1989. And
more recently, Fulton has published an essay on
‘‘Society and the Imperative of Death’’ (1994) in
which he discusses the role of such customs and
rituals as the Mardi Gras, the bullfight, the ‘‘Dani’’
of primitive societies, and other symbolic events in
which either societal survival or individual salva-
tion is at stake.One exception to these various theoretical
efforts is found in the sustained work of Marshall
and collaborators. Starting in 1975 with a seminal
article in The American Journal of Sociology, fol-
lowed by his book Last Chapters (1980), he collabo-
rated with Judith Levy in a review titled ‘‘Aging
and Dying’’ (Marshall and Levy 1990). Marshall
began his work with an empirical field study of
socialization for impending death in a retirement
village, followed by a compelling theoretical essay
on age and awareness of finitude in developmental
gerontology, and has been consistently engaged in
such theoretical efforts. His basic postulate is that
‘‘awareness of finitude’’ operates as a trigger that
permits socialization to death.Empirical Research Largely Topical. In con-
trast to theoretical work, the empirical literature
shows that sociological research on death and
dying has been, and largely continues to be, essen-
tially topical. Studies range widely, from the taboo
on death to funerals and the social ‘‘causes’’ of
death (Riley 1983; Marshall and Levy 1990). They
include the following examples:Planning for Death. A national survey con-
ducted in the late 1960s showed that the great
majority of Americans (85 percent) are quite real-
istic and consider it important to ‘‘try to make
some plans about death,’’ and to talk about it with
those closest to them (Riley 1970). In addition,
bereavement practices, once highly structured,
are becoming increasingly varied and individually
therapeutic; dying is feared primarily because it
eliminates opportunities for self-fulfillment; and
active adaptations to death tend to increase as one
approaches the end of the life course (i.e. the
making of wills, leaving instructions, negotiating
conflicts).Death and Dying in a Hospital. Among such
studies, a detailed account of the ‘‘social organiza-
tion’’ of death in a public hospital describes rules
for dealing with the corpse (the body must be
washed, catalogued, and ticketed). Dignity and