How We Die: the Social Stratification of Death (IN: Endings. A Sociology of Death and Dying, by M C Kearl)

Arguing that death is the central force shaping social life & order, the author draws on the social sciences, the natural sciences, economics & psychology to provide a broad sociological perspective on the interrelationships of life & death, showing how death contributes to social change & how the meanings of death are generated to serve social functions. In his discussion of suicide, Kearl reviews the spectrum of theories on suicide & then reviews adolescent & elderly suicide, respectively.