For those interested in what happens in a Thanatology class...
HSRV 321 A Death and Dying SPRING 2026 – Dr. Trammell
Mass Death Event (MDE) Notes
Defined as an unusually high number of deaths due to the same general cause compressed into a relatively finite period of time (ex. The Black Plague)
America’s first major death event (and I could include the pre-American mass death of native Americans) was the Civil War (1861-1865), as we’ve briefly discussed
Mass death events are also defined by the out-of-proportion effects they have on cultural norms and society more broadly (ex. Pompei in ancient Rome)
Historically, MDEs result in people/society re-evaluating what a “normal” life and death is, and can be associated with collective mourning (as opposed to small group or individual mourning), psychological numbness (becoming less sensitive overall to death), a shared sense of cynicism or caution about the future, and depending on the perceived source of the cause of the MDE, a political realignment to shift blame (ex. The Chinese “allowed” COVID to escape from a lab…)
MDEs are more disruptive to families since they not only are more likely statistically to have suffered a close individual loss or losses, but also to be suffering along with everyone the collective trauma, as well—this disrupts what would be called “normal” personal/micro mourning processes, and perhaps even dilutes or overshadows them in some cases (ex. Decisions to not hold funerals during COVID)
MDEs also can (not always) result in renewed religious efforts to explain why such a bad thing happened to presumably good people (ex. The Romans were convinced after MDEs that they had displeased the gods)
Why are MDEs important to study?
Hopefully they are rare occurrences, and therefore require closer scrutiny as outliers or at least highly undesirable events
They can reveal normal social processes working under extreme stress, pressure, and accelerated circumstances, perhaps allowing unique sociological insights
They take a unique but oft studied social phenomena (life and death) and temporarily make it more easily examined at both the macro and micro level
MDEs often exacerbate the outlines and outcomes of inequality already present
They are in essence a window that opens occasionally and allows us to see things that are typically more obscured by the layers of normality
MDEs test social structures and institutions under stress and hence allow new ways to examine or evaluate them
None of this should even vaguely suggest that anyone would want to experience or create an MDE—political leaders who do so are typically judged harshly by history. But your generation having lived through COVID should have a sociological view of MDEs as part of your survival kit for the 21st century.
Future death questions:
Are there ways to die that haven’t been invented or imagined yet?
Are there funeral practices and mourning rituals that haven’t been invented or imagined yet?
Do you agree with Durkheim’s provocation that religion and culture are one and the same? If so, even in part, how do MDEs fit in with that?
How likely is science/medicine to change our death and dying paradigm (fears, expectations, practices, etc.)?
What will be the next “big thing” related to death and dying? (ex. We are running out of room on earth; should we bury people on the moon?)
