Unknown Sea

The Unknown Sea: Navigating Death, Dying, and Bereavementprovides a compact, comprehensive text for studying social attitudes, cultural perspectives, and social-institutional factors associated with death and dying. It explores aspects of end-of-life issues, bereavement, and the afterlife from a teaching perspective, engaging gerontology students at any level of study.This textbook dives deep into the global diversity of grief experiences, something most textbooks neglect. Instead of focusing primarily on the thanatology of a white, middle-class experience, The Unknown Sea centers the many diverse cultural, ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic perspectives that shape the meaning of death across the world.Social Science and Sociology instructors teaching end-of-life and grief subjects often struggle to find a textbook that effectively fits their course due to most books being either too expensive, too large, written for upper-division courses, or poorly designed. The Unknown Seafills this gap in the published materials currently available, particularly for instructors of introductory or lower-division courses. Students in these courses deserve access to high-quality instructional materials that serve the needs of their instructors course design and are affordable.The Unknown Sea containsthe following features:Eleven chapters on the major areas covered in death and dying coursesExpansive real-world examples centering diverse experiences with death and dyingMacro and micro analysis of topic and core conceptsA variety of call-out boxes and sidebars to enhance understanding of difficult or specific topicsFull-color images and original data visualizationsChapter discussion questions, suggested activities, and further readingA glossary and index of key termsA comprehensive bibliography intended to support assertions in the text and provide an additional reading list