California University of Pennsylvania
Guidelines for New Course Proposals
University Course Syllabus
Approved: 2/4/13
Department of Modern Languages, Philosophy and Socio-Cultural Studies
A.

Protocol
Course Name:
Anthropology of Death and Dying
Course Number: ANT 455
Credits:
3 credits
Prerequisites:
None
Maximum Class Size (face-to-face): 30 students
Maximum Class Size (online): Not currently seeking approval for online instruction
(Choose which one is appropriate or both if applicable)

B.

Objectives of the Course:
• Students will examine the connections between the major subfields of anthropology
(cultural, biological, archaeological, and linguistic) with other areas of study (e.g., art,
literature, biology, legal studies, sociology, film, music, psychology, and
communications) in relation to the topic of death and dying through discussion,
research, and writing assignments.
• Students will explain the similarities and differences in death-related practices and
beliefs of various cultures and time periods.
• Students will summarize the role of society in understanding and approaching death
and how it varies between cultures.
• Students will relate the mourning and coping strategies of the different cultures under
study.
• Students will examine the debates surrounding death-related topics found across
cultures and time periods.

C.

Catalog Description:
This seminar course explores death and dying from multiple cultural perspectives, utilizing
both scientific and humanistic approaches in anthropology and related fields. This course
investigates varied cultural views on the causes, meanings, and impacts of death and dying on
humans, from the earliest archaeological evidence to modern times.

D.

Outline of the Course:
1)
What is death?
2)
Cultural perspectives on the causes of death
3)
Socialization of death across cultures
4)
Causes of death in different cultures
5)
Archaeological populations and death
6)
Cross-cultural variation in socially sanctioned deaths
7)
Memorialization of the dead across cultures (e.g., ancestor worship, burial structures,
artwork, symbolism, mortuary artifacts, etc.)
8)
Cross-cultural differences in handling death
a. Death of a child versus an adult
b. What is a “good” death?
c. How to mourn
d. The afterlife

E.

Teaching Methodology:
9)
Traditional Classroom Methodology
a. A variety of teaching methods will be utilized in this traditional, face-to-face
course.

b.

10)

F.

These methods include, but are not limited to, lectures, PowerPoint presentations,
assigned readings, case studies, videos, group work, in-class discussions, field trips,
and student research.
Online Methodology
a. This course is not going to be offered for online instruction. If it were, it would
utilize online variations of the above, adhering to the Quality Matters Statement
below.
Quality Matters™ Statement – The online course follows the standards of the Quality
Matters™ rubric.

Text
Sample texts that could be utilized for this course include:
Dickinson, GE and Leming, MR. (2014). Annual Editions: Dying, Death, and Bereavement.
New York, NY; McGraw-Hill.
Green, JW. (2012). Beyond the Good Death: The Anthropology of Modern Dying.
Philadelphia, PA; University of Pennsylvania Press.
Meagher, DK and Balk, DE (eds). (2013). Handbook of Thanatology. New York, NY;
Routledge.
Morris, I. (1992). Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity. New York, NY;
Cambridge University Press.
Parkes, CM, Laungani, P, and Young, B (eds). (1997). Death and Bereavement across Cultures.
New York, NY; Routledge.
Robben, A. (2005). Death, Mourning and Burial: A Cross-Cultural Reader. Malden, MA;
Blackwell Publishing.
Rostar, M and Teodorescu, A (eds). (2011). Dying and Death in 18th-21st Century Europe.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK; Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Seeman, ER. (2010). Death in the New World: Cross-Cultural Encounters, 1492-1800.
Philadelphia, PA; University of Pennsylvania Press.

G.

Assessment Activities:
1)

2)

H.

Traditional Classroom Assessment
a. Proposed activities include:
i.Exams and quizzes
ii.Discussion participation (in-class and D2L discussion board)
iii.Journal and reflective essays
iv.Research papers
v.In-class presentation
vi.In-class group work
b. Individual instructors may customize different activities.
Online Assessment
a. This course is not intended for online instruction.
b. If it were offered online, it would utilize similar assessment strategies, adapted for
an online environment.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:

OSD
Revised December 2012

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Students with disabilities:
•

Reserve the right to decide when to self-identify and when to request accommodations.

•

Will register with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) each semester to receive
accommodations.

•

Might be required to communicate with faculty for accommodations, which specifically involve the
faculty.

•

Will present the OSD Accommodation Approval Notice to faculty when requesting
accommodations that involve the faculty.
Office for Students with Disabilities

Requests for approval for reasonable accommodations should be directed to the Office for Students with
Disabilities (OSD). Approved accommodations will be recorded on the OSD Accommodation
Approval notice and provided to the student. Students are expected to adhere to OSD procedures for
self-identifying, providing documentation and requesting accommodations in a timely manner.
Contact Information:
•
•
•
•
•

Location:
Phone:
Fax:
Email:
Web Site:

Azorsky Building – Room 105
(724) 938-5781
(724) 938-4599
osdmail@calu.edu
www.calu.edu (search “disability”)

*************************************************************
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Announcement – Academic Syllabus Attachment
I.

Supportive Instructional Materials, e.g. library materials, web sites, etc.
Cal U Library Subject Page for Anthropology: http://library.calu.edu/anthropology
Includes links for Anthropology-related article index search tools, such as
AnthroSource, SocINDEX, and OneSearch, as well as links to specific (and general)
Anthropology journals
Films on Demand (available via Cal U Library homepage) has multiple videos available on the
topics of death and dying across multiple disciplines, cultures, and time periods.
Atwell, KA and Conner, MD (eds). (1991). The Kuhlman Mound Group and Late Woodland
Mortuary Behavior in the Mississippi River Valley of West-Central Illinois.
Kampsville, IL; Center for American Archaeology.
Beck, LA (ed). (1995). Regional Approaches to Mortuary Analysis. New York, NY; Plenum
Press.
Boyle, JM and Morriss, JE. (1987). The Mirror of Time: Images of Aging and Dying. New
York, NY; Greenwood Press.

Bradbury, M. (1999). Representations of Death: A Social Psychological Perspective. New
York, NY; Routledge.
Brokopp, JE (ed). (2003). Islamic Ethics of Life: Abortion, War and Euthanasia. Columbia
SC; University of South Carolina Press.
Brooks-Gordon, B (ed). (2007). Death Rites and Rights. Oxford, UK; Hart.
Burtchaell, JT. (1989). The Giving and Taking of Life: Essays Ethical. Notre Dame, IN;
University of Notre Dame Press.
Cantor, NL. (1987). Legal Frontiers on Death and Dying. Bloomington, IN; Indiana
University Press.
Chatterjee, SC, Patnaik, P, and Chariar, VM (eds). (2008). Discourses on Aging and Dying.
Los Angeles, CA; SAGE Publications.
Colby, WH. (2006). Unplugged: Reclaiming our Right to Die in America. New York, NY;
American Management Association.
Conklin, BA. (2001). Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in the Amazonian
Society. Austin, TX; University of Texas Press.
Corr, CA and Balk, DE (eds). (1996). Handbook of Adolescent Death and Bereavement.
New York, NY; Springer.
Cressy, D. (1997). Birth, Marriage and Death: Ritual, Religion, and Life-Cycle in Tudor and
Stuart England. New York, NY; Oxford University Press.
Crissman, JK. (1994). Death and Dying in Central Appalachia: Changing Attitudes and
Practices. Urbana, IL; University of Illinois Press.
Cunnington, P and Lucas, C. (1972). Costume for Births, Marriages, and Deaths. London,
UK; A & C Black.
Davies, DJ and Mates, LH (eds). (2005). Encyclopedia of Cremation. Burlington, VT;
Ashgate.
Dederian, K. (2001). Leaving Words to Remember: Greek Mourning and the Advent of
Literacy. Boston, MA; Brill.
DeSpelder, L. and Strickland, AL. (1983). The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying.
Palo Alto, CA; Mayfield Publishing Co.
Dudley, W (ed). (1992). Death and Dying: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA;
Greenhaven Press.
Engel, WE. (1995). Mapping Mortality: The Persistence of Memory and Melancholy in Early
Modern England. Amherst, MA; University of Massachusetts Press.
Effros, B. (2003). Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle
Ages. Berkeley, CA; University of California Press.
Erasmo, M. (2012). Death: Antiquity and its Legacy. New York, NY; Oxford University
Press.
Fredman, G. (1997). Death Talk: Conversations with Children and Families. London, UK;
Karnac Books.
Goody, J. (1962). Death, Property, and the Ancestors. Stanford, CA; Stanford University
Press.
Hacilili, R. (2005). Jewish Funerary Customs, Practices, and Rites in the Second Temple
Period. Boston, MA; Brill.
Horacek, BJ. (1978). Death and Dying: Gerontology Readings for Health Professionals.
Omaha, NB; University of Nebraska.

Hughes-Wright, R. (1996). Lay Down Body: Living History in African American Cemeteries.
Detroit, MI; Visible Ink Press.
Huntington, R and Metcalf, P. (1979). Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary
Ritual. New York, NY; Cambridge University Press.
Jacobi, KP. (2000). Last Rites for the Tipu Maya: Genetic Structuring in a Colonial
Cemetery. Tuscaloosa, AL; University of Alabama Press.
Jalland, P. (2002). Australian Ways of Death: A Social and Cultural History 1840-1918. New
York, NY; Oxford University Press.
Kalish, RA (ed). (1980). Death and Dying: Views from Many Cultures. Farmingdale, NY;
Baywood Publishing Co.
___. (1981). Death and Ethnicity: A Psychocultural Study. Farmingdale, NY; Baywood
Publishing Co.
Kanawati, N. (2001). The Tomb and Beyond: Burial Customs of Egyptian Officials.
Warminster, UK; Aris and Phillips.
Kearl, MC. (1989). Endings: A Sociology of Death and Dying. New York, NY; Oxford
University Press.
Kendall, CB and Wells, PS (eds). (1992). Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton
Hoo. Minneapolis, MN; University of Minnesota Press.
Kubler-Ross, E. (1969). On Death and Dying. New York, NY; Macmillan.
Kyle, DG. (1998). Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome. New York, NY; Routledge.
Linzer, N. (1984). Suicide: The Will to Live versus the Will to Die. New York, NY; Human
Sciances Press.
Long, SO. (2005). Final Days: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life. Honolulu, HI;
University of Hawai’i Press.
Maddrell, A and Sidaway, JD. (2010). Deathscapes: Spaces for Death, Dying, Mourning, and
Remembrance. Burlington, VT; Ashgate.
McCane, BR. (2003). Roll Back the Stone: Death and Burial in the World of Jesus.
Harrisburg, PA; Trinity Press International.
Mda, Z. (1995). Ways of Dying. New York, NY; Oxford University Press.
Mitford, J. (1963). The American Way of Death. New York, NY; Simon and Schuster.
Parker-Pearson, M. (2000). The Archaeology of Death and Burial. College Station, TX;
Texas A&M University Press.
Parkes, CM, Laungani, P, and Young, B (eds). (1997). Death and Bereavement Across
Cultures. New York, NY; Routledge.
Puckle, BS. (1968). Funeral Customs: Their Origin and Development. Detroit, MI; Singing
Tree Press.
Quilter, J. (1989). Life and Death at Paloma: Society and Mortuary Practices in a PreCreamic Peruvian Village. Iowa City, IA; University of Iowa Press.
Reardon, WJ. (2004). The Death of the Popes: Comprehensive Accounts Including Funerals,
Burial Places and Epitaphs. Jefferson, NC; McFarland and Co.
Rehm, R. (1994). Marriage to Death: The Conflation of Wedding and Funeral Rituals in
Greek Tragedy. Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press.
Richardson, R. (2000). Death, Dissection, and the Destitute. Chicago, IL; University of
Chicago Press.
Royce, AP. (2011). Becoming an Ancestor: The Isthmus Zapotec Way of Death. Albany,
NY; State University of New York Press.

Scott, JL. (2007). For Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors: The Chinese Tradition of Paper Offerings.
Hong Kong; Hong Kong University Press.
Simmons, WS. (1970). Cautantowwit’s House: An Indian Burial Ground on the Islands of
Conanicut in Narragansett Bay. Providence, RI: Brown University Press.
Sloan, C. (2002). Bury the Dead: Tombs, Corpses, Mummies, Skeletons and Rituals.
Washington, DC; National Geographic.
Sloane, DC. (1991). The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History. Baltimore,
MD; Johns Hopkins University Press.
Stern, KB. (2008). Inscribing Devotion and Death: Archaeological evidence for Jewish
Populations of North Africa. Boston, MA; Brill.
Thomas, TK. (2000). Late Antique Egyptian Funerary Scultpure: Images for This World and
the Next. Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press.
Additional Information and Supporting Materials on the Topic can be found on the following
websites:
American Psychological Association webpage on death and dying:
http://apa.org/topics/death/index.aspx
Elisabth Kubler-Ross Foundation webpage on death and dying:
http://www.ekrfoundation.org/five-stages-of-grief/
.
Medline Plus End of Life Issues:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/endoflifeissues.html
Additional Information for Course Proposals
J.

Proposed Instructors:
Anthropology faculty may teach this course.

K.

Rationale for the Course:
This course was created to help fulfill a need in the new General Education Special
Experience Course offerings. Most of the current special experience courses are
major-specific and have multiple pre-requisites, including hidden pre-requisites. This
means that students in a major that does not have a specific special experience course
(e.g., Liberal Studies and Business) will struggle to find a course to satisfy this
general education requirement. This is especially taxing for transfer students entering
the university with more than 30 credits.
This course is also tailored to meet the Multicultural Awareness division of the new
Ethics and Multicultural (EMEL) list requirements under the review General
Education System. Current offerings on this list are limited. Since EMEL courses
must appear in another General Education category (not including Special
Experience), the course will be submitted for review to be included on the Social
Sciences general education menu.
This course is appropriate for all students regardless of major and will provide a
venue for them to explore and discuss a topic that is often shunned in Western
culture—death. Death is the one thing that unites all humans since none of our kind is
immortal. It provides a central theme by which to expose students to different
cultural views and ways to evaluate their own cultural perspectives on the topic.
This 400-level seminar in Anthropology also provides an option for a substitution
within the Anthropology major as the need arises. With the small (yet growing)
nature of the major, advisors often find the need for a substitution course, especially
for transfer and change-of-major students who arrive in the program out of sync with
the usual course rotations. In the past, the most often used substitution course was

ANT 379 (Special Problems in Anthropology), which is not the best fit for replacing a
400-level course.
L.

Specialized Equipment or Supplies Needed:
No specialized equipment or supplies are needed for this course.

M.

Answer the following questions using complete sentences:
1.

Does the course require additional human resources?
No additional human resources are required.

2.

Does the course require additional physical resources?
No additional physical resources are required.

3.

Does the course change the requirements in any particular major?
No, the course does not change the requirements in any particular major.

4.

Does the course replace an existing course in your program?
No the course does not replace an existing course in the anthropology program.

5.

How often will the course be taught?
The course will be taught every other year. If the number of anthropology faculty is
increased, the course may be taught on an annual basis. Currently, a more frequent
rotation cannot be supported by the number of anthropology faculty available.

6.

Does the course duplicate an existing course in another Department or College?
No, this course does not duplicate an existing course in another Department or College.
Please see the appended documentation of support from other programs who were
contacted to ensure sufficient differences with this proposed course.

N.

If the proposed course includes substantial material that is traditionally taught in another
discipline, you must request a statement of support from the department chair that houses that
discipline.
Gerontology, Social Work, and Psychology were consulted and have no issues with the
proposed course. Supporting documentation is attached.

O.

Please identify if you are proposing to have this course considered as a menu course for
General Education.
This course will be considered for inclusion as a Special Experience Course and for
inclusion on the Social Sciences menu and Ethics and Multicultural list. The
objectives of this course were intentionally designed for alignment with the stated
goals of these General Education areas.

P.

Provide Approval Form (electronically).

Additional Guidelines
The following are additional guidelines that you must follow which will expedite your course
proposal. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in the return of the proposal to the
department.
1.

Be sure that your proposal is in the correct format (Guidelines for New Course Proposals)
and that all questions have been completely answered.

2.

Be sure that you have completed and attached the Application to Establish a New Course
form and/or the Advisement Sheet Revision form and that the appropriate signatures
have been affixed. Please send through the process electronically (the preferred method)

or by paper. No items will be placed on the agenda until the Chair of the UCC is in
possession of these forms.
3.

Be sure that you include an updated advisement sheet for any course that is being
required by the department or is classified as a restricted elective. In addition, you must
include an electronic copy (MS Word or PDF) of the current advisement sheet(s) with
your proposal. Be certain that all advisement sheets affected by the proposed course
change be included with your proposal.

4.

When submitting materials for consideration by the Curriculum Committee, you must
provide an electronic copy of each item to be reviewed to the Chairperson.

5.

All completed items must be in the hands of the Chairperson of the Curriculum
Committee a minimum of one week prior to the next regularly scheduled meeting.

6.

Any department requesting a course name change, number change, prefix changes, credit
changes, etc. must submit this request on the Application to Establish a New Course
Form and submit electronically.

7.

New advisement sheets, major proposals, minors, LOCs, Certificates, or changes to
advisement sheets will become effective the fall semester following committee approval.
The advisement sheets must also include the committee approval date and the
effective date on the advisement page. Submit this request on the Advisement and /or
Program Changes form.

8.

New courses will become effective the semester following committee approval.

9.

Any references listed must be in the appropriate bibliographic format for the discipline.

10.

Online courses should follow the Quality Matters™ rubric and is posted on the UCC
website. Be sure that you include the online teaching methodology statement (refer E.2
above) that refers to the Quality Matters™ rubric.

11.

All course objectives must follow Bloom’s Taxonomy learning domains located on the
UCC website.