ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the death culture in North America at the end of the twentieth century. This living of dying and grieving has been called a death system. The term "death system" was coined by Dr. Robert Kastenbaum to describe the manner in which we live our dying. The chapter shows that there are other ways of looking at death, dying, and bereavement than the ways that we have learned. It also shows that death cultures differ because of four major factors—life expectancy, exposure to death, perceived control over the forces of nature, and understanding of what it is to be an individual human person. The chapter discusses the historical development of Western attitudes toward death, examines the effects of the death attitude system by showing the interaction between the North American death system and those most affected by it and proposes suggestions for an appropriate death attitude system.
