Classic anthropological theories to help understand caregiving and dying during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 global pandemic engendered a new social order, the ultimate shape and permanence of which is still unknown. What is known is that in the short term, experiences of caregiving and dying were profoundly reshaped in reaction to this new contagious threat and the effects of that reshaping are still being felt. Though these changes have been unprecedented, foundational anthropology theories continue to have relevance and can aid understanding. Our own expertise is in researching and theorizing how societies organize death and dying — their “death systems” — and the cultural beliefs that emerge to make sense of people’s experiences.

Rights

© 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/19428200.2022.2119753

Repository URI

https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/278199/