Le travail du médecin légiste est présenté dans ce livre par une femme médecin, le docteur Silke Grabherr. Elle explique les règles de la thanatologie auxquelles est soumis le corps de tout être humain la mort venue, et comment les causes, les conditions et la nature de la mort peuvent ainsi être déterminées.
Cette ouvrage présente une réflexion autour du fait de mourir dans un contexte médical comme nouvelle pratique admises par les sociétés occidentales au XXIe siècle. L'auteur s'interroge sur le lien entre cet habitus et le déni global de la mort en Europe et en Amérique du Nord.
Journalism has taken on a new form in the age of new media, allowing anyone to not only report the news, but to provide visual proof of it, uncensored and freely available. When this visual proof began to allow people to see death in its entirety, various communities began to form to not just view these videos but to also ensure their availability and continuation. This essay is about those communities and how they operate.
Humans were once considered unique in having a concept of death but a growing number of observations of animal responses to dying and dead conspecifics suggests otherwise. Complex arrays of behaviors have been described ranging from corpse removal and burial among social insects to quiet attendance and caregiving among elephants and primates. Less frequently described, however, are behavioral responses of individuals from different age/sex classes or social position toward the death of conspecifics. We describe behavioral responses of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) to the deaths of a dominant silverback and a dominant adult female from the same social group in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and the responses of Grauer's gorillas (Gorilla b. graueri) to the corpse of an extra-group silverback in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. In gorillas, interactions between groups or with a lone silverback often result in avoidance or aggression. We predicted that: (i) more individuals should interact with the corpses of same-group members than with the corpse of the extra-group silverback; (ii) adult females with infants should avoid the corpse of the extra-group silverback; and (iii) in the mountain gorilla cases, individuals that shared close social relationships with the dead individual should spend more time with the corpse than other individuals in the group. We used a combination of detailed qualitative reports, photos, and videos to describe all occurrences of affiliative/investigative and agonistic behaviors observed at the corpses. We observed similar responses toward the corpses of group and extra-group individuals. Animals in all three cases showed a variety of affiliative/investigative and agonistic behaviors directed to the corpses. Animals of all age/sex classes interacted with the corpses in affiliative/investigative ways but there was a notable absence of all adult females at the corpse of the extra-group silverback. In all three cases, we observed only silverbacks and blackbacks being agonistic around and/or toward the corpses. In the mountain gorilla cases, the individuals who spent the most time with the corpses were animals who shared close social relationships with the deceased. We emphasize the similarity in the behavioral responses around the corpses of group and extra-group individuals, and suggest that the behavioral responses were influenced in part by close social relationships between the deceased and certain group members and by a general curiosity about death. We further discuss the implications close interactions with corpses have for disease transmission within and between gorilla social groups.
Behavior analysts often invoke the "Dead Man Test" as a means of distinguishing behavior from other things, but the assumption underpinning this test, that behavior is absent in vitality-challenged individuals, lacks systematic empirical support. In a field experiment, three individuals who reasonably could be considered as deceased each were observed under three conditions in which behavior might have been observed. None was detected. These results are consistent with predictions derived from the Dead Man Test, although, due to limitations of the experiment, that foundational concept of behavioral measurement cannot yet be considered as validated.
Document essentiel, constat de fin de vie, il porte la signature du médecin qui constate le décès et le déclare.
Indispensable, sans lequel l'inhumation du corps ne peut être réalisable, sa production sous la forme d'un certificat médical doit être établie par le médecin désigné par l'officier d'état civil qui l'a chargé de s'assurer du décès (décret n°60285).
[Début de l'article]
ANDERSON, James R. ; BIRO, Dora ; PETTITT, Paul Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 05/09/2018, vol.373, n°1754, p. 1-5
Societies, including those of humans, have evolved multiple ways of dealing with death across changing circumstances and pressures. Despite many studies focusing on specialized topics, for example necrophoresis in eusocial insects, mortuary activities in early human societies, or grief and mourning in bereavement, there has been little attempt to consider these disparate research endeavours from a broader evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary thanatology does this by adopting an explicit evolutionary stance for studies of death and dying within the sociological, psychological and biological disciplines. The collection of papers in this themed issue demonstrates the value of this approach by describing what is known about how various nonhuman species detect and respond to death in conspecifics, how problems of disposing of the dead have evolved in human societies across evolutionary time and also within much shorter time frames, how human adults' understanding of death develops, and how it is ultimately reflected in death-related language. The psychological significance and impact of death is clearly seen in some species' grief-like reactions to the loss of attachment figures, and perhaps uniquely in humans, the existence of certain psychological processes that may lead to suicide. Several research questions are proposed as starting points for building a more comprehensive picture of the ontogeny and phylogeny of how organisms deal with death.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.
PETTITT, Paul Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 05/09/2018, vol.373, n°1754, Pagination inconnue
Palaeoanthropology, or more precisely Palaeolithic archaeology, offers the possibility of bridging the gap between mortuary activities that can be observed in the wider animal community and which relate to chemistry and emotion; to the often-elaborate systems of rationalization and symbolic contextualisation that are characteristic of recently observable societies. I draw on ethological studies to provide a core set of mortuary behaviours one might expect hominoids to inherit, and on anthropological observations to explore funerary activity represented in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, in order to examine how a distinctly human set of funerary behaviours arose from a more widespread set of mortuary behaviours. I suggest that the most profound innovation of the hominins was the incorporation of places into the commemoration of the dead, and propose a falsifiable mechanism for why this came about; and I suggest that the pattern of the earliest burials fits with modern hunter-gatherer belief systems about death, and how these vary by social complexity. Finally, I propose several research questions pertaining to the social context of funerary practices, suggesting how a hominin evolutionary thanatology may contribute not only to our understanding of human behavioural evolution, but to a wider thanatology of the animal kingdom.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.
HUSBAND, E. Matthew Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 05/09/2018, vol.373, n°1754, Pagination inconnue
As a human-specific trait, language offers a unique window on human cognition. Grammatical constraints on the ways we speak about events, for instance, have long been thought to reveal the representational formats that our minds impose on the ways that we think about events. In recent research, verbs that name events of death have stood out as key counterexamples to standard theories of the grammatical constraints on possible verbs. The special status of these thanatological verbs raises two important questions: why, given the vast number of verbs in any language, is it that verbs of death hold this special status, and what do they tell us about the restrictions on the representational format for possible verbs? This paper reexamines the evidence coming from verbs of death, confirming that they are counterexamples to standard theories, but that their behaviour suggests a more revealing constraint on our mental representations-that our minds impose strict restrictions on the format of asserted meaning. Thus, the constraints on linguistic representation and the human mind offer a unique perspective on the mental representations of thanatological phenomena.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.
Burials of the Late Palaeolithic (14 000-11 600 cal years before present, henceforth BP) are a rare phenomenon in Europe. Several sites possess burials of single and double individuals. As with the preceding Magdalenian, the burial of more than two individuals in the same grave cutting seems to be unusual, but does occur occasionally. The deposition of isolated and disarticulated human remains with or without cut marks seems additionally to belong to the Magdalenian context. In the final Palaeolithic phase (13 000-11 600 cal years BP) there is evidence for cemetery-like clusters of burials, which contrast to the Magdalenian evidence, instead showing some similarities with the succeeding Mesolithic. The earliest Mesolithic burials 11 600-10 500 cal BP) are a very rare phenomenon, covering a short time span between the beginning of the Preboreal and the beginning of the Boreal phase of the early Holocene. Here the evidence includes single inhumations, cemetery-like structures and a number of isolated human remains. Caves and rock shelters were the most common places for inhumations in both the final Palaeolithic and the early Mesolithic. Although the number of sites with a chronological continuity from the LUP to the Early Mesolithic burial is low, several aspects indicate a general continuity in burial patterns over this period. Apart from this continuity, the Mesolithic burials in general seem to represent a new level of diversity in burial practices.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.
GONCALVES, André ; BIRO, Dora Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 05/09/2018, vol.373, n°1754, p. 1-12
Evolutionary thanatology benefits from broad taxonomic comparisons of non-human animals' responses to death. Furthermore, exploring the sensory and cognitive bases of these responses promises to allow classification of the underlying mechanisms on a spectrum from phylogenetically ancient to more derived traits. We draw on studies of perception and cognition in invertebrate and vertebrate taxa (with a focus on arthropods, corvids, proboscids, cetaceans and primates) to explore the cues that these animals use to detect life and death in others, and discuss proximate and ultimate drivers behind their capacities to do so. Parallels in thanatological behaviour exhibited by the last four taxa suggest similar sensory-cognitive processing rules for dealing with corpses, the evolution of which may have been driven by complex social environments. Uniting these responses is a phenomenon we term 'animacy detection malfunction', whereupon the corpse, having both animate and inanimate attributes, creates states of fear/curiosity manifested as approach/avoidance behaviours in observers. We suggest that integrating diverse lines of evidence (including the 'uncanny valley' effect originating from the field of robotics) provides a promising way to advance the field, and conclude by proposing avenues for future research.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.
Evolutionary thanatology includes the study of necrophoresis-the removal of dead individuals by the living among social insects. In human societies, "necrophoresis" is performed via the funeral ceremony. In pre-modern societies, relatives and local community members helped to conduct funerals. In this way, holding a funeral was a form of mutual help, a social exchange of duty and responsibility essential to individuals. These societies developed systems to ensure the survival of humans as social animals based on mutual trust built over long periods of time within the same community. Contemporary societies are undermining these systems. Compared to funerals in pre-modern societies, holding a funeral in a modern society is a complicated process that requires professionals with specialized knowledge and skills. If people feel they can face mortality without support from relatives or the local community, and that they cannot necessarily expect a future return on the effort invested in community-based social relationships, they may begin to disengage from such relationships. In the context of modernization, the clearest changes in collective funerary behaviours include decreased funeral attendance and the above-mentioned outsourcing of funerary services. As such, it can be said that bonds with the dead changed completely under modernization, especially in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. To establish a sociology of death with a clearer focus on how funeral ceremonies have been affected by modernization, there is a need for research concerned with human behavioural changes regarding the treatment of corpses-that is, a "funeralogy". Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate how modernization has complexified the handling of deceased bodies as death-related services have become commoditized and outsourced while, at the same time, local communities are becoming disengaged from their traditional roles in funeral ceremonies. To this end, fieldwork was conducted in several countries. Moreover, data from surveys conducted by the Social Well-Being Research Consortium in Asia in five East and Southeast Asian countries were quantitatively analysed. The findings highlight the modernization of funerals with the outsourcing of funeral services from the perspective of socio-economic development.This article is part of the theme issue "Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals".
Les études thanatologiques des dernières décennies montrent que, dans les pays de l'Europe nord-occidentale, l'histoire des politiques mortuaires à l'époque contemporaine est l'histoire de la pérégrination du corps mort d'un espace à l'autre. La fosse collective du cimetière paroissial jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe siècle ; la tombe individuelle pour tous du cimétière communal laïc et public, à partir du Décret de Prairial an XII (1804) ; l'urne après la pratique de la crémation des cadavres dans les années 1880 ; la dispersion des cendres dans le néant, autorisée par le législateur de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, sont les lieux réservés au corps des morts. Ce qui progressivement a engendré l'exigence de la réorganisation de l'adieu au défunt (à savoir le rite funèbre), ainsi qu'une nouvelle élaboration de sa mémoire. De nos jours, un riche éventail des modes de destination du corps mort ainsi que les multiples possibilités d'orchestration de l'adieu au défunt (organisé par les familles ou par l'individu lui-même de son vivant) se présentent sur le devant de la scène. Les individus hésitent entre la tentation du néant et le désir de laisser des traces, poursuivant, comme le disait Norbert Elias, "le fantasme de l'immortalité". Inhumation, crémation, cendres dispersées, toutefois malgré cette orchestration minutieuse de l'après mort, l'individu ne saura jamais quelle mémoire on conservera de lui, car en fin de compte, la mémoire des défunts est confiée à la générosité de ceux qui restent, sans assurance pour l'éternité.
Lucain, dans la Pharsale, livre une authentique réflexion sur la mémoire. C’est de ce postulat qu’est née la présente étude, dont le but premier est d’examiner comment le poète met à nu les mécanismes de la construction et de la préservation mémorielles, questionnant ainsi le rapport ontologique entre le souvenir et son objet.
Les problématiques qu’aborde la réflexion lucanienne concernent aussi bien la relation que les vivants instaurent avec les défunts, y compris dans sa dimension idéologique, que les enjeux mémoriels de la parole poétique, ou ce lien spécifique entre mémoire et regard que détermine l’acte de reconnaître autrui. On discerne dans cet aperçu la richesse du champ d’étude que ce livre s’est donné pour tâche d’explorer, s’appuyant sur un travail de contextualisation qui tient compte des données littéraires, historiques, mais aussi anthropologiques. Après avoir d’abord considéré le traitement par Lucain du motif traditionnel des ruines et des monumenta, l’ouvrage s’attache aux protagonistes que le poète met en scène face à la question de leur mémoire future. Le processus de reconnaissance des vivants et des morts, tel qu’il apparaît dans la Pharsale, constitue le troisième et dernier volet de son enquête.
[Résumé éditeur]
Si l'histoire de la mort a suscité de nombreux travaux, celle du sort réservé au corps mort reste méconnue. Jusqu'au XVIIIe siècle, l'Eglise se charge de l'ensevelissement des corps dans les églises, chapelles ou cimetières adjacents, en veillant à sacraliser ces espaces funéraires. Mais l'urbanisation, l'influence des scientifiques et des philosophes et les exigences de santé publique entraînent une série de mesures administratives.
Le mouvement hygiéniste souligne au XIXe siècle les problèmes de séparation définitive des vivants et des morts et du choix de l'emplacement du cadavre. Dans le cimetière public et laïc, une nouvelle célébration de la mémoire voit le jour. A partir des années 1870, des médecins positivistes prônent la crémation des corps au nom de la santé publique et revendiquent la liberté d'expérimentation, tout en demeurant attachés au respect du culte des morts.
Historiens, sociologues et anthropologues mêlent leur regard pour penser le temps et les formes du passage de la communauté des vivants à l'univers de la mémoire.
La thèse du tabou de la mort s’est imposée en France entre le début des années 1970 et celui des années 1990. Elle a été portée par un certain nombre d’acteurs sociaux qui, en la construisant, ont justifié l’intervention d’acteurs non religieux, dont l’État, dans ce secteur des derniers instants de l’individu. Cet article voudrait examiner les conditions qui ont permis à cette thèse du tabou de s’imposer. C’est notamment parce que le savoir produit se refusait officiellement à soutenir des entreprises plus militantes, parce qu’il prétendait à son autonomie, qu’il a pu être utilisé comme une ressource par certains acteurs du champ religieux, naturalisant en retour la thèse du tabou.
Le temps d’un soin de conservation, un voyage au pays des morts, avec pour guide un jeune thanatopracteur en quête de réponses aux
nombreuses questions, qui se présentent inévitablement à quiconque observe la dépouille d’un semblable.
[Résumé producteur]
Envisageant ses aspects les plus divers, tant historiques et culturels que médicaux et sociologiques, l'auteure dresse un tour d'horizon de la question de la mort et de sa place dans la société contemporaine caractérisée par une population vieillissante. L'ouvrage invite à penser la mort et la fin de vie.