One Man's Death: His Family's Ethnography

Abstract

In this anthropological study, five individual discussions about the death of a family member are woven into a single ethnographic account. The data are analyzed to discover whether euphemisms or metaphors are employed when describing the death. The premise upon which the conclusions are based is that euphemisms supply an inexact description of happenings and processes, whereas metaphors which describe one domain of experience in terms of another, make meanings more comprehensible, not only to those of the same culture, but also cross-culturally. The data reveal that every family member who has completed the grieving process uses a different metaphor when describing “death.” These metaphors imply “growth” or “change.” The data suggest that euphemisms for death are utilized when the grieving process has not been completed.