Waubonsee Community College

Farewell to the world, a history of suicide, Marzio Barbagli ; translated by Lucinda Byatt

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 322-398) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Farewell to the world

bibliography

899949887

Marzio Barbagli ; translated by Lucinda Byatt

a history of suicide

In this comparative study, sociologist Marzio Barbagli examines suicide as a socio-cultural, religious, and political phenomenon, exploring the reasons that underlie it and the meanings it has acquired in different cultures throughout the world. Drawing on a body of research carried out by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, and psychologists, Barbagli argues that a satisfactory theory of suicide cannot limit itself to the two causes highlighted by French sociologist Émile Durkheim--namely, social integration and regulation--but must rather provide a new account that links the motives for and significance attributed to individual actions with the people for and against whom individuals take their lives.--From publisher description

Part I. In the West : The worst sin and the gravest crime : The rise in suicide: 'a most tragic fact' ; When did the figure start to rise? ; The reasons for this growth ; Past reactions ; Punishments for those who killed themselves or attempted to do so ; Dishonourable burial ; On the formation of Christian ethics regarding voluntary death ; Chastity, rape and adultery ; Arabs, Christians and martyrs ; Christian beliefs regarding the causes of suicide ; Despair and the Redcrosse Knight ; Pre-Christian beliefs on the consequences of suicide ; Suicide as theft and desertion ; A 'new crime, that would hardly be believable' ; Internal and external controls -- The key to our prison : The lawfulness of suicide ; A changed sensitivity in the literature ; A new name for an old deed ; Natural and supernatural causes ; Melancholy, hypochondria and hysteria ; Depenalization de facto ; Depenalization de jure ; Saving endangered lives ; The freedom to take one's own life -- Killing God, oneself and others : Two opposite trends ; Two channels of a single stream ; Public and private crimes ; What brought about these changes? ; At the forefront of change ; Despair, anger, hatred -- When poverty does not protect : Sociology's 'one law' and what remains ; When the Jews lost their 'ancient immunity' ; The effects of nazism and fascism ; Concentration camps and prisons ; The Great Wars ; Emigrations ; Suicide is a 'White thing' ; Has suicide become a little less male? ; Sexual orientation ; Economic depressions and crises of prosperity ; The unforeseen consequences of the shift to methane ; The trend inversion in central and northern Europe ; The medicalization of suicide and its effects ; The treatment of pain and other illnesses ; The steep rise in Eastern Europe -- Part II. In the East : Before becoming a widow : Sati ; The rite ; The effects of polygamy ; Funeral and wedding ceremonies ; For love or through coercion? ; Suicides: condemned and admired ; The origin and spread of sati as a custom ; Sati or widow ; A clash of cultures -- Making the strong and powerful tremble : The past ; Chinese peculiarities ; Continuity and change ; Old people and filial devotion ; Suicide among Chinese women ; Mao Zedong and the May Fourth paradigm ; The cultural repertoire of suicides ; The state and honouring the virtuous ; After a husband's death ; Differences compared to sati ; Following the death of a fiancé ; A way of not submitting to enemies ; After assault and sexual violence ; Against arranged marriages ; The origin of the changes ; Against oneself and others ; Female suicide in the last two decades -- The body as a bomb : Suicide attacks and terrorism ; The modern phenomenon of suicide missions ; The rationality of weak players ; Nationalism and religious differences ; The globalization of suicide missions ; Cyberspace ; Becoming a suicide bomber ; For a noble cause ; An army of roses -- Conclusions -- Appendix : Statistics on suicide