IN_FINITE. Living with Death.

INTRODUCTION
LIVING WITH DEATH.
A HUMAN DRAMA
Detlef Vögeli
“This is the paradox: he [man] is out of nature
and hopelessly in it; he is dual, up in the stars and yet
housed in a heart-pumping, breath-gasping body that
once belonged to a fish and still carries the gill-marks to
prove it. His body is a material fleshy casing that is alien
to him in many ways – the strangest and most repugnant
way being that it aches and bleeds and will decay
and die.” 1
Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death
Homo sapiens is probably the only animal that knows it
will die. Only humans are aware of their own existence –
and therefore also of their vulnerability and transience.
We know that our life is finite; and at the same time, like
all living things, we have an instinctive drive to survive.
We must live with death.
The cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker argued that
the fear of death determines all human behaviour. This
fear and the longing for immortality are the main driving
forces of human activity. Both the noblest and the most
repulsive forms of human endeavour stem from the
awareness that we are mortal. The knowledge of death
has shaped the course of human history, giving rise to
culture, civilization, science and world views. Humans
have woven stories and rituals to make the inexplicable
comprehensible, the unbearable bearable, and to give
meaning to our finite lives.
The scientific-biological understanding of physical
death as the end of human existence that prevails in
enlightened, secularized societies is more recent.
According to his standard work on the history of death
published by French historian Philippe Ariès in 1977,
death had been “expatriated” from modern Western society
in the course of the 20th century: “Until the age of
scientific progress, human beings accepted the idea of
a continued existence after death.” 2 Death, he states, is
integrated into the cultural narratives of society, a part of
the social world of meaning. Ariès describes pre-modern
death as “tame” and modern death as “wild”. 3
Despite all scientific progress, death remains a phenomenon
that is beyond our understanding. We know
less about the moment after death than about anything
else. Death is perhaps the last inaccessible frontier of
knowledge-based society.
Talking about death requires allowing and enduring
polyphony and ambiguity. To ponder one’s own death
and finitude is to reflect on the human relationship to
the world, a locating of our lives within the community,
within society, within the universe. When we talk about
ideas of life with and after death, we are talking about
world views – beyond right and wrong. The knowledge
of the transience and fragility of human life and all living
things confronts us with existential and ethical-moral
questions.
The contributions in this book are an invitation to approach
the finiteness of life from various perspectives.
They offer insights into different worlds of imagination
and experience. Documentary contributions from the exhibition
in_finite. Living with Death are complemented by
introductory essays and photo spreads. The focus is on
the question of our personal and social relationship with
finite nature. The publication spans an arc from individual
death to the impending extermination of the species
Homo sapiens as a result of the sixth mass extinction.
Historical and cultural evidence suggests that humans
have always done everything possible to postpone
or overcome death – both factually and symbolically
( Stephen Cave, p. 24).
In many cultures, death was and is understood as a
change of state, a transition into another form of existence.
The promise of a life in the hereafter provides
meaning and orientation – be it the idea of a paradise
in Islam or Christianity, a moks· a in Hinduism, nirvana in
Buddhism, or an ancestral world in the Yoruba religion.
The aim is to lead a good life according to certain rules,
to follow one’s personal dharma, to live in a God-conscious
way. Death embeds the individual within a larger narrative,
within a cosmology that provides a framework for
behaviour and promises existence in a better world as a
reward (Contemporary Notions of the Hereafter, p. 29).
Dying and death are universal facts; the way we deal with
them is culturally and individually shaped (Helaine Selin,
Robert M. Rakoff, p. 72). What counts in the last days,
hours and minutes before death? What do people regret
on their deathbed? What comforts them? How universal
is the process of dying? What role do cultural and reli gious
beliefs play at the end of life? Twelve individuals who
accompany others to death at the end of their lives talk
about their experiences and rituals (World Death Conference,
p. 75).
The neurologist and stroke researcher Jens Dreier
has observed what happens in the brain during the final
phase of dying. He speaks of the final wave of release
before death. What happens after death at the level of
consciousness remains a mystery: “Everything that is
accessible to us happens while the patient is still alive.
What might happen afterwards is not accessible to science”
(Jens Dreier, p. 102).
Rituals can provide comfort during the process of dying
and beyond death. The bioarchaeologist Liv Nilsson
Stutz examines how the universal crisis of death is dealt
with in different cultures and the significance of the ritual
care of the corpse. Behind the diversity of funeral rituals
in different cultures lies a universal human need in the
face of death. Beneath the surface, she explains, “we
also discover that our vulnerability is the same, and the
need to make sense of the world and what is happening
to us is a shared human condition. It is in these moments
that we can see ourselves in the other, and the other in
ourselves. It is encounters like this that we can begin to
grasp our shared humanity and the responsibility that
that entails” (Liv Nilsson Stutz, p. 112).
Death unites us – and death divides us. Although no
one is privileged enough to escape physical death, we
are not all equal in the face of death. Social and geographical
origins determine statistical life chances.
Living conditions are also reflected in the conditions of
death. Hygiene, affluence and medical care, as well as
social and political conditions, determine how directly
we are at the mercy of death. We are all living longer than
ever before. However, the gain in lifespan is unequally
distributed. People born in Nigeria, for example, have
a life expectancy of less than fifty-three years, while in
Germany it is currently over eighty years. People in the
poorer regions of the world are already, and will continue
to be, the main victims of climate change (Infographics,
p. 123).
We count the dead and investigate the causes of
death in order to better protect human life in the future.
According to international humanitarian law, the dead
must be identified and buried. The forensic anthropologist
Cristina Cattaneo has been working since 2013 to
identify the nameless people who drowned in the Mediterranean
Sea while attempting to flee to Europe. Identifying
the dead is a question of human dignity – but it
is also important for the bereaved so that they can have
certainty and say goodbye (Cristina Cattaneo, p. 148).
In psychology, “ambiguous loss” is the phenomenon of
losing a loved one without knowing whether or not they
are still alive. This uncertainty delays the grieving process
and can lead to unresolved grief. “Grief is the most
intense emotional pain we know,” explains the psychotherapist
Julia Samuel. She has been accompanying
people in grief for more than three decades. In an interview,
she explains how we can live with this pain – and
why we should once again give death and mourning more
space in our society (Julia Samuel, p. 154).
However, death does not fit into an enlightened, rational
world – not into the idea of the mastery of nature,
according to which there are no natural limits that cannot
be overcome at some point by science and technology.
The successful development of Homo sapiens is also a
history of this idea. The discovery of fire gave humans
more energy than their muscles could provide. Today,
16 INTRODUCTION DETLEF VÖGELI 17