CCOG for SOC 234 archive revision 201403
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- Effective Term:
- Summer 2014 through Summer 2021
- Course Number:
- SOC 234
- Course Title:
- Death: Crosscultural Perspectives
- Credit Hours:
- 4
- Lecture Hours:
- 40
- Lecture/Lab Hours:
- 0
- Lab Hours:
- 0
Course Description
Intended Outcomes for the course
The student will be made aware of the diverse ways in which people experience and respond to
the cultural universal of death. Crosscultural and crossdisciplinary study of this phenomenon will
invigorate and energize the student’s learning experience. The student will have a better
understanding of their own heritage regarding death, as well as that of others. This course will
create the conditions to elicit not only an interest in the rites and rituals of others, but will also
create a forum to discuss the student’s own perceptions regarding mortality.
Course Activities and Design
Lectures, discussion, text reading and review, films and other media, visiting speakers, in -lass
exercises, individual projects.
This course is intended to be taught in conjunction with Anthropology 234, Death: Crosscultural
Perspectives . Both instructors are present and participate simultaneously in the course
presentations. These instructors should have a clear idea of how they will mutually give and take,
acting with recognition of each other as they present the content of the course. They are highly
encouraged to make extensive use of films and guest speakers (e.g. Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic,
Jewish, Native American, etc.) as elements of their course presentation. A blend of film,
multidisciplinary instruction and a thought-provoking text makes the course an exciting learning
experience.
Outcome Assessment Strategies
The instructors will assess student learning through a variety of evaluation tools including
projects, quizzes and exams. In addition, instructors are encouraged to integrate the following
types of tasks and learning experiences to assess student achievement in a more comprehensive
manner:
Short position papers on specific concepts, themes and issues
Oral presentations
Service-learning tasks
Student-instructor conferences and work reviews
Video projects, oral histories and interviews
Research or term papers (e.g. how their families views and deals with death)
Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)
Course Content:
1. The nature of death as a cultural universal
2. The diversity within and between cultures regarding the experience and response to death.
3. The nature of funerary ritual, its history and functions
4. Discussion of world historical thinkers on the subject of death and the implication of their
thought on our own sense of mortality
5. Presentation of varying cosmologies and their implications for living and dying.
6. Changing national and cultural patterns of response to death
Competencies and Skills Resulting:
Understanding death as a cultural universal and what this implies
Knowledge of the varied ways in which societies experience and respond to death
Awareness of their own family heritage regarding their experience and response to death
Ability to apply a range of historical thinkers’ ideas regarding death to their own
experiences and insights
欧洲杯决赛竞猜app_欧洲杯足球网-投注|官网ing a greater awareness of one’s mortality and hence, living more competently
Understanding the process of death and its corresponding loss and thus function with
greater compassion in living
Ability to reflect on and approach the human condition in a crosscultural and crossdisciplinary manner
Recommended Text:
World Philosophers on Death, edited by D. J. Ciraulo, Kindall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2004,
ISBN 0-7575-0834-5