ABSTRACT
The topic of death and dying is not something that has been of interest only to writers
and scholars in the late 20th century. From the earliest beginnings of civilization, people
have been faced with death and the questions of why it occurs, what it means, and how to
cope with it. Primitive people encountered death almost daily, and the members of early
cultures and societies were undoubtedly keenly aware that it was their fate to die
someday. Because one’s life expectancy at birth was less than 20 years in ancient times,
that day was not long in coming.
