Death over time: brief notes about death and dying in the West

Abstract

This literature review deals with death and the changes in its concept and meanings over time, aiming to relate this to the different social organizations and issues that involve individuality and human finitude. It intends to arouse the reflection about this theme respected by all of us, and related to our own contingency. In this sense, the article provides several perspectives through different authors' voices, seeking to understand how we arrived at this contemporary stage where death must be forgotten at any cost. It is a forbidden subject even inevitably being part of our daily lives, and its guardians must increasingly insure the non-participation and non-involvement of the people. Therefore, understanding the past stages of death, from its proximity to its banishment from the social life, is a necessary condition to analyzing our own end, and the end of our own individuality.