Sociology of Religion Commons^™

Death Comes Alive; Technology And The Re‐Conception Of Death, Karen Cerulo, Janet M. Ruane

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Browse through your local bookstore, or glance at a nearby movie marquee. Skim the pages of your nightly newspaper or the listings in your television guide. American culture's current focus poses a surprise. The popular eye is centered on a topic more taboo than the steamiest sexual encounter, more solemn than the deepest economic depression, and more universal than the common cold. The current decade reveals a remarkable up- surge in our collective attention toward death. Indeed in the 1990s, Americans have become nearly obsessed with a world that lurks beyond life as we know it.