Social death

Social death is a term used to describe the condition of people not accepted as fully human by wider society. Used by sociologists like Zygmunt Bauman and historians of the holocaust to describe the part played governmental and social segregation in that process. Examples of social death are:

*Racial exclusion, persecution, slavery, and apartheid.
*Governments can exclude individuals or groups from society. Examples: Protestant minority groups in early modern Europe; ostracism in Athens; criminals; prostitutes, outlaws
*Change in the identity of an individual. This was a major theme during the Renaissance.

It could be said that the degeneration theory and theories similar to this theory are the most extreme examples of social death. The idea of degeneration has been popular in both right-wing and left-wing politics. Both left-wing and right-wing politics have used the word decadence to describe social groups whose social, moral, religious, æsthetic, or political commitments tend towards the inhibition of any or all forms of progress (the left) or towards the undermining of fundamental forms of order (the right). In either political optic, the forces of decadence may be internal or external; internally, the members of political opposition may represent those who have allowed essential ideals to lapse from their view of the world; externally, members of another society may be considered as cherishing ideals which introduce forces of collapse into the worlds wherein they are immigrants.

Other definitions of social death

ee also

* Cherem
* Excommunication
* Exile
* Expulsion
* Ostracism
* Shunning
* Slavery

References

* Claudia Card, [http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/hypatia/v018/18.1card02.html "Genocide and Social Death"] , Hypatia, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 2003)
* [http://www.iceol.duke.edu/lastmiles/papers/10.html "Family and Psycho-Social Dimensions of Death and Dying in African Americans"] , Key Topics on End-of-Life Care for African Americans, Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life and the Initiative to Improve Palliative Care for African Americans
* Brian Garavaglia, [http://www.socialworker.com/home/component/magazine/Avoiding-the-Tendency-to-Medicalize-the-Grieving-Process-Reconciliation-Rather-Than-Resolution/ "Avoiding the Tendency to Medicalize the Grieving Process: Reconciliation Rather Than Resolution"] , The New Social Worker Online, Summer 2006
* John Edwin Mason, [http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/mason.html "Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa"] , ISBN 0-8139-2178-3
* Jaap W. Ouwerkerk, et al., [http://www2.psych.purdue.edu/~kip/Announce/SSSP2004.htm "Avoiding the Social Death Penalty: Threat of Ostracism and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas"] , The 7th Annual Sydney Symposium of Social Psychology: The Social Outcast: Ostracism, Social Exclusion, Rejection, & Bullying, Mar. 16-18, 2004 ( [http://www.psychology.msu.edu/social/people/faculty/articles/OuwerkerkEtAl.prepublicationDraft.doc Alternate link] )
* Orlando Patterson, [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/PATSLA.html "Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study"] , ISBN 0-674-81082-1
* Matelita Ragogo, [http://www.aegis.com/news/ads/2002/AD021716.html "Social Death Part of AIDS Tragedy, Says HIV-Positive Advocate"] , Agence France Presse, Sept. 9, 2002
* Deborah C. Reidy, [http://akmhcweb.org/Articles/StigmaisSocialDeath.htm "Stigma is Social Death: Mental Health Consumers/Survivors Talk About Stigma In Their Lives"] , Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web
* Stuart Waldman, [http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.asp?sid=B3WWBH27UHMS9LQG9TV5JXA0DBQS8E31&ID=61616 "Surviving a Fate Worse than Death: The Plight of the Homebound Elderly"] , Loss, Grief & Care: A Journal of Professional Practice Vol. 6, No. 4 (May 14, 1993), ISSN 8756-4610
* Trish Williams, [http://www.losingtom.org/death/death.html "Death, Dying and Grieving"] , Losing Tom: A Documentary Film