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A FAIRHAVEN COLLEGE INTERDISCIPLINARY CONCENTRATION

BRITTANEY SCHUNZEL, FALL 2011


CHAIR: MARIE EATON
COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
LESLIE CONTON, JOHN FEODOROV

TITLE:

The Final Taboo: Perspectives on Death and Dying through


Creative Dialogue, Social Structure and Psychology
The subject of death is clearly pervasive in every culture and one that all
human beings must come to terms with at some point in their lives. Our
relationships to mortality are reflected in every aspect of our culture, through our
art, mythology, religion, practice of medicine, and philosophies about well-being.
Although death is the ever-present question on many of our minds public discussion
of it is still shrouded in taboo. Were told that death is too dark a subject to bring up
in conversation and its reflected in our cultures production-oriented disposition
that when finding ourselves in states of grieving, we must get over it and move on.
Because this critical topic is often not talked about, I wish to pursue the topic of
death, both academically and on a personal spiritual level, through the lenses of
creative dialogue, social order and law, and also psychology and well-being.
As a child, questions of my own mortality haunted my everyday existence,
however, I was unable to find anyone willing to speak with me about it. This inward
burning question left me feeling disconnected from the people in my life and the
society Ive been living within, as I didnt understand why no one seemed to be
asking these questions. What happens when we die? What is it like to live while
dying? What other forms of death can a person experience besides just physical? As
I got older, I found more people willing to engage with me on these questions, which
eventually led me to pursue them through more academic and artistic means. I
became involved with Hospice where I found a community of individuals concerned

not only with asking the same questions for themselves, but allowing space for
others who are actively facing their demise to pursue them as well.
Much of our lifestyle in the United States and the Western world is deeply
rooted in our inability to face our mortality. I want to understand how this
developed. It is apparent in our obsession over curative medicine, fixations on
looking young, and repression of the topic in dialogue through literature, education
and media. Through my Hospice work Ive found how absolutely essential it is for
this current collective attitude to be honestly looked at and addressed, whether it be
through artistic representation, public conversations, academic work, or a
combination of all the above. This is a subject we all have to face at some point in
our lives, so why not try working through it together right now?

Approaching Death through Creative Dialogue:


Dialogue is essential for both education and healing. Through working with
patients in Hospice, Ive observed how essential it is for dying individuals to express
their life experiences. Thus, Ive found that dialogue can be a quite helpful healing
agent for grieving the impending loss of ones self. I plan to further my
communication skills through studying active listening and interviewing with a
course on Oral History. This skill also becomes essential when I travel to other
cultures to explore these questions of death and dying. Having communication and
listening skills is crucial, especially considering inevitable language barriers and
maintaining cultural sensitivity in order to learn more about cultural beliefs and
death around the world.
While verbal dialogue is an effective means for acknowledging and exploring
death with other people, it is not the only effective means for communication. In the
summer of 2011, I was involved with a dance production called Leave My Shoes at
the Door with Kuntz & Company. Through this production we choreographed

movement and dance which illustrated our personal stories with death and dying
and then performed them in front of Bellingham audiences. This was my first
attempt at public dialogue about death through means of non-verbal
communication. My discovery, through discussion with the audience, was that this
type of non-verbal interpretive dialogue was exceptionally well-received and its
non-verbal interpretive nature served as a catalyst for the audiences personal
experiences to manifest through the work. This is the beauty of art-- that people can
connect to one another without having had the same life experiences or ideas as the
other viewers or even the artist. How can I use creative expression to connect with
dying people or grieving people who may be four times my age with very different
life experiences than my own? To explore this further I will create an ISP, Death and
Art, in order to explore this relationship further.
Mythology is the stories we create which help us conceptualize where we are
and where we are going and is therefore vital for setting up and understanding a
framework of our personal and familial lives and our roles in society. What are the
working myths of our present-day Western society and how are individuals
adhering to them and enacting them in their everyday lives? If I am to understand
why an individual, or a collective of individuals, thinks or behaves the way they do, I
must understand their mythos, the stories they tell themselves about their
interactions with their environment and other people. Similarly, I must also
understand my own mythos and how this may color my own discriminations,
inclinations, and values in relation to someone else. How does our mythologies
about what happens beyond death affect our present day living? What can the
presence of death teach us about how to live meaningful lives? In order to gain
credit for the acquisition of this knowledge, I plan to take a course in Myth and
Mythology.

Death through the Lenses of Culture and Social Structures:


So much of how we come to know and conceptualize death comes from the
more subliminal messaging of our culture through the laws we enact, social customs
we create and how we approach the subject through media and social custom. We
can see this in the ways we commemorate our dead, laws dictating the way we are
supposed to die and how we should be buried, the absent depictions of death during
wartime, and public discussion through schools and families. In what ways do we
receive these messages and what are healthy reactions to them? I intend on
studying how we relate to these messages through the courses Psychology and the
Law, Anthropology of Death and Dying, and Family and Kinship Organization. I
want to better understand how an idea or value judgment gains popularity and
becomes a common practice within a cultural system. It is important to study how
we learn these value judgments about death from our own families and social
networks as the media and legal system are not the only means for learning social
norms regarding death. Such questions include: How do enactments such as Death
with Dignity reflect our current conceptions of dying and quality of life? In what
ways do we socially and legally define a human life and humane treatment of that
life? What is considered healthy in regards to personal passage into death for the
dying individual and grieving from those left behind from culture to culture?
Due to the specific nature of this topic, I anticipate having to create ISPs in
order study it in more depth. Rites of passage are an integral piece of our
understanding of death as they generally involve a rebirthing or transformation of
the ego in order to pass into the next stage of life. This involves a type of death, or
letting go, in order to be birthed into the next stage of life. This ritualistic death
becomes a crucial ritual for a maturing individual to fully assume adulthood in their
society. I plan to create an ISP studying Cross-Cultural Rites of Passage and also
study Shamanic Perspective of Dying with Leslie Conton after taking her course on
Cross-Cultural Shamanism.

Psychology and Wellbeing:


Much of what we learn from death contributes to how we develop beliefs and
practices for what constitutes a good life or sense of wellbeing. How does
realization of mortality, or the Western conception of a finite timeline, propel us
towards living fully present and pursuing healthy lifestyles? And similarly, how do
Eastern conceptions of an infinite timeline and cycles of rebirth propel us towards
living fully present and pursuing healthy lifestyles? What are ways in which people
across the planet deal with grief, both in terms of the individual and the collective?
And how does denial or acceptance of death, or letting go, affect the psychology of
an individual?
To explore these questions, I will continue my work with Whatcom Hospice
to maintain direct involvement with families and patients to experience the many
ways people in my society deal with end of life issues as they pertain to the loss of
loved ones and the loss of self. I will also study what other people have learned
about these issues by taking courses in somatic psychology, healing, and mental
functioning/disfunctioning. How does our adherence to curative medicine shape our
collective mindset about the quality and prolonging of life and vice versa? What are
causes of depression and how is grieving similar or dissimilar? How is an
individuals grief, or expression thereof, different cross-culturally? What do we
consider healthy mourning in the United States and how does that compare to the
rest of the world?

Senior Project:
As I am very interested in cross-cultural exploration of death ritual,
perceptions and taboo, I plan to eventually apply this to travel, whether within the
time-frame of my stay here at Fairhaven or after. My Senior Project will be
educational in application. This may involve one or several media, whether it is
through artistic representation, such as showing a collection of creative work,

leading a seminar or teaching a class on campus, or involving myself with another


organization that is publically addressing end of life issues. Whatever the
application, creating a dialogue in some shape or form is necessary due to the nature
of this work.

Conclusion:
As we are encroaching upon a time that our largest existing generation, the
Baby Boomers, are nearing the last transitions of their lives, we will soon be forced
to confront death in a new way as the subject will no longer be avoidable. I am
preparing myself for the new ways we may come to conceptualize death as much of
our population is soon to be in the pervasive company of its presence. This not only
effects those dying, but their loved ones, as well the importance and placement of
medical treatment in our country, and the work those who are dying are leaving
behind and passing along. I feel confident that the questions I am pursuing
throughout the rest of my degree and beyond will be absolutely pertinent to the
future in whatever application I chose.

COURSE LIST:
Approaching Death through Creative Dialogue:
COMPLETED:
WWU
WWU
WWU

FAIR 423K
FAIR 336V
FAIR 275U

Space Place and Imagination


Art and the Other
Poetry and the Creative Process

SPRING 2011
FALL 2010
SPRING 2010

5
4
4

S
S
S

Studies in Myth and Mythology


Oral History
Death in Art

FALL 2011

4
4
3

S
S
S

TO BE COMPLETED:
WWU
WWU
WWU

FAIR 325J
FAIR 388M
FAIR 300

NON-CREDITED EXPERIENCE:
Leave My Shoes by the Door Dance Production, Kuntz and Company, August-October 2011
Traveling to Thailand and India with Institute for Village Studies: Study of Religion, Winter Quarter 2010

Death through the Lens of Law and Social Structures:


COMPLETED:
WWU
SCCC
WWU

FAIR 201A
ANTH 201
FAIR 393B

International Human Rights


FALL 2009
Intro to Cultural Anthropology
FALL 2007
Rights Liberty and Justice in the United States SPRING 2010

5
7.5
4

FAIR 200
FAIR 419F
ANTH 351
PSY 344

ISP: Cross-Cultural Rites of Passage


Cross Cultural Shamanism
Family and Kinship Organization
Psychology and the Law

3
5
5
5

FAIR 343R
ANTH 301

Death and Dying


Anthropology of Death and Dying

S
3.9
S

TO BE COMPLETED:
WWU
WWU
WWU
WWU
ONE OF:
WWU
WWU

SPRING 2012

4
5

FALL 2010
FALL 2007
FALL 2010

4
7.5
2

S
3.7
S

4
4
4
2
5

S
S
S

Psychology and Wellbeing:


COMPLETED:
WWU
SCCC
WWU

FAIR 243T
PSY 215
FAIR 300

Awareness through the Body


Abnormal Psychology
Hospice: Palliative Care

TO BE COMPLETED:
WWU
WWU
WWU
WWU
WWU
ONE OF:
WWU
WWU

FAIR 341R
FAIR 444U
FAIR 419F
FAIR 200
ANTH 352

Psychology of Mindfulness and Wellbeing


Depression: Causes, Cultures and Treatments
Cross-Cultural Shamanism
ISP: Shamanic Perspective of Dying
Cross-Cultural Study of Aging

FAIR 413E
ANTH 424

Curers, Clients and Culture: Cross Cultural Perspectives on Health and Illnesses
Medical Anthropology
5

NON-CREDITED EXPERIENCE:
Volunteering for Hospice, Whatcom Hospice, Summer 2010-Present
36-hour training course for Hospice Volunteering, August 2010

Senior Project:
WWU

FAIR 401

TOTAL CREDITS: 98
ISP CREDIT: 8

Senior Project

WINTER 2012

NON-FAIRHAVEN CREDIT: 40

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