Death Rituals: U.S. and Muslim Practices Compared

Introduction to Death as a Ritual

A ritual is an observable behavior exhibited by a society. There are many different types of rituals, ranging from simple ones that a person engages in on a day-to-day basis to more complex ones, such as rite-of-passage ceremonies in which boys are initiated into adulthood (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2016). Researcher Kastenbaum (2012) defines dying as one of the many transitions that everyone must experience. He further states that death often commences as a psychosocial incident before organ systems shut down. Death itself, however, is felt in both the social and personal spheres of an individual's life (p. 112).

Kastenbaum explains that death and dying have been medicalized in the United States, and that this medicalization has worked to insulate medical doctors and policymakers from fully appreciating the mortal realities of death. There are three trajectories toward death that typically end in healthcare facilities.

Practices Associated with Death and Dying in the United States

Unexpected quick trajectories: Healthcare workers know, but do not necessarily expect, that death might occur at any time. Something happens when a patient suddenly enters a crisis, resulting in sudden death.

Expected quick trajectories: Workers know that death is coming and make the most of the time remaining. Hospital staff may decide to undertake a risky procedure that might save the patient or might place him or her in an even riskier situation, resulting in death. There is a great deal of observation in this trajectory. At times, hospital staff conclude that nothing more can be done and that the best course of action is to make the patient as comfortable as possible and to await death.

The lingering trajectory: In this case, hospital staff display a distinctive behavior because they sense that the patient's life is slowly fading. Caregivers try to keep the dying patient comfortable, but they believe they have done all they can and that the patient has reached a logical end of a long struggle (pp. 117–118).

These trajectories demonstrate that medical models encompass the dying and death of persons, and that individuals who are dying are cared for by healthcare providers. However, since healthcare givers are responsible for all patients, they cannot remain with every patient during their final moments, as they have other duties to fulfill (Kastenbaum, 2012, p. 120).

All the practices involved in the three trajectories can be regarded as rituals. As defined earlier, a ritual involves the repetition of a certain behavior, and the practices described here are clearly repeated for many patients when staff suspect that death is approaching. Kastenbaum (2012) explains that these nursing practices have historical roots in the care of important figures in society, and that it was caregivers — not priests — who originally helped individuals through the dying process (p. 112).

According to Gire (2014), regardless of where we are born, how we are raised, or what kind of lives we live, the one thing that unites us all is the fact that we will all eventually die. This universal reality connects every culture in the world. Yet despite this shared fate, different cultures conceptualize and explain the process of death in markedly different ways.