death system
the dynamic patterns through which a society mediates its relationship with mortality in order to remain viable as a culture and meet the needs of the individual. All cultures have a death system whose primary functions are warning and prediction, prevention, care for the dying, disposing of the dead, social consolidation after death, killing, and making sense of death. How these functions are performed is significantly influenced by a number of factors, including economic priorities, religious values, traditions of discrimination and enmity, and level of technological development. [first described in 1977 by Robert J. Kastenbaum]