Why study death? What is death? What is good death, brain death, undead? All living things experience death, but humans are unique because we purposefully bury our dead, often accompanied by ceremony or other rituals. We build pyramids for some people, while others are buried in unmarked graves. Some societies have yearly celebrations of the dead, others visit cemeteries on a daily basis, and still others never speak the name of the dead again. Why is there so much variation among people when it comes to death? Together we will explore these questions, examining how culture has a significant impact on a biological process. We will explore what death is from both biological and cultural perspectives, and we will examine how perspectives of death can and do change over time. Offered irregularly.