This course takes a sociological perspective on the subject of death. This means that the course is not designed to be therapeutic (e.g., it does not teach students how to grieve "properly" nor does it offer a systematic method for coping with death). Instead, we will adopt an analytical approach and examine the social aspects of death and dying. We will focus specifically on the variations in the ways that human beings interpret, react to, and deal with the biological phenomenon of death. Course topics include how the definition of death has become problematic, the demographics of death, cultural and historical variations in funeral rites and explanations of death, the American funeral industry, treatment of the dying, and other end-of-life issues.