| cause of death | Condition or circumstance that results in death.
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| cultural lag | A situation whereby a society falls behind in dealing with new social problems that result from technological advances and rapid social changes.
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| danger-of-death narratives | Stories or accounts of close calls with death.
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| death education | Formal or informal instruction about dying, grief, and related topics.
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| death notice | A standardized report giving brief details about a person’s life and published, usually in small type in a single column, in a newspaper after his or her death. See also obituary.
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| death talk | Language about death, especially the use of metaphors, euphemisms, and slang.
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| demographics | The size, shape, distribution, and other statistical information about a population.
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| Dies Irae | Literally, "Day of Wrath"; a musical symbol of death; a spoken, chanted, or sung segment of the mass for the dead. See also dirge.
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| dirge | A solemn and mournful song or hymn expressing grief; often accompanying funeral or memorial rites. See also Dies Irae.
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| elegy | A song or poem expressing sorrow in a pensive or reflective manner and commemorating a person’s life and death.
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| epidemiologic transition | An historical shift in disease patterns causing a redistribution of deaths from the young to the old.
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| euphemisms | Substitution of indirect or vague words or phrases for ones considered harsh or blunt.
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| gallows humor | Humor that makes use of incongruity or inconsistency to transgress or extend the boundaries of social norms concerning death with the aim of defusing anxiety or putting fearful possibilities in a manageable perspective; also known as black humor.
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| geographical mobility | Demographic pattern whereby large segments of a population move frequently.
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| hibakusha | A Japanese word meaning "explosion-affected"; originally used to describe survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; more broadly, refers to pervasive anxiety about the threat of annihilation.
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| institutional denial | Socially institutionalized avoidance of death-related thoughts and emotions.
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| kanikau | A traditional Hawaiian poetic lament, carefully composed or spontaneously created, commemorating a person’s death.
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| lament | A musical expression of ritual leave-taking; an emotionally moving expression of loss and longing.
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| life expectancy | The number of years a newborn child is expected to live based on statistical averages.
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| life-extending technologies | Medical techniques and associated devices employed to sustain functioning of the biological organism.
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| managed death | The attempt to control or seek mastery of the threat of death or the circumstances of dying by application of medical technology and by personal and social choices.
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| mean world syndrome | A situation in which the symbolic use of death contributes to a "discourse of fear" leading to a heightened sense of danger and irrational dread of dying.
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| mortality rates | A statistical measure used to compare the frequency of deaths occurring due to different causes or among different populations.
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| obituary | An account of a person’s life and death printed in a format similar to other feature stories. See also death notice.
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| postmodernism | Characterized by a reappraisal of taken-for-granted beliefs and an exploration of and openness to ideas and customs from all historical periods and cultures.
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| public vs. private loss | A distinction between the public and private aspects of a loss-event whereby the private sorrow of the bereaved may either conflict with or be comforted by the dimensions of the loss as a public event.
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| revictimization | A situation in which media coverage or publicity about a horrific death evokes a "second trauma" for the bereaved in addition to the initial trauma of the loss itself.
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| sites of memory | Focal points for public grief and mourning, as well as memorialization.
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| thanatology | The interdisciplinary study of death as a significant aspect of human existence and concern.
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| vigilante stories | Stories, such as detective novels, in which a hero strives to avenge evil while becoming corrupted by a self-justifying morality that results in perpetuating violence.
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