Our ancestors experienced death more frequently, and more often firsthand, than we do today. The reasons for this include changes in life expectancy and mortality rates, the causes of death, geographical mobility, displacement of death from the home to the hospital and other institutional settings, and advances in life-sustaining medical technologies.
Attitudes toward death are expressed through language, humor, mass media, music, literature, and the visual arts.
Since the 1960s, education about dying, death, and bereavement has achieved widespread acceptance.
Although many people no longer consider death and dying as taboo topics, society as a whole continues to manifest features of death denial that hinder open discussion and acceptance.
