Birth and Death: Social Construction at the Poles of Existence

Birth and death are distinguished from other points of status passage because they connect humanity with the unknown. Comparing the social structuring of birth and death, this paper proposes a more general realm of study: transitions into and out of life. After a discussion of the changes in the experience of birth and death fostered by modernization, the similarities of these experiences are explored in six general categories: the role of the dying and birthing individual, the place of the family in these transitions, the control of information surrounding the event, medical components of the experience, collective action pertaining to birth and death, and the uses of ritual. The reasons for the similarities in the structuring of birth and death are examined as are the benefits of comparing these two events.