Victoria Georgievna Semenova,
Doctor of Economics, Institute of Demographic Research, Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Svetlana Anatolyevna Vangorodskaya,
Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Institute of Demographic Research, Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Belgorod State National Research University, Belgorod, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Perception of Death as a Measure of the Value of Life against the Backdrop of the Epidemiological Transition
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2024-3-1
The article examines the problem of the perception of death as a mirror reflection of the value of life against the backdrop of the epidemiological transition. Based on a comparison of the historical periodization of the perception of death by F. Aries with the main stages of the epidemiological transition identified by A. Omran, a conclusion was made about the correspondence of objective and subjective criteria for the perception of death at all stages of historical development. It was revealed that the evolution of attitudes towards death at the first, longest stage of the epidemiological transition occurred against the background of the absence of any significant shifts in life expectancy and was due to historical changes in society with minimal social differences in mortality patterns. The general vector of the evolution of the perception of death can be considered its personification, and the attitude towards human life as one of the highest values was finally formed at the final stages of the epidemiological transition, when mortality from a huge range of pathologies was classified as preventable by medicine and healthcare. It is concluded that at present, in the most developed post-industrial countries, a kind of dead end of epidemiological development is emerging, characterized by a decrease in life expectancy due to senile dementia. The approaches to maintaining an ever-expanding group of these patients that exist in modern society place a moral and financial burden on families, and an economic burden on society. It seems that it is psychoneurological pathologies (Alzheimer’s disease with all its manifestations) that will become the main problem of medicine in the 21st century.
Publishing: 28/06/2024
The article has been received by the editor on 31/03/2024
How to cite: Semenova V.G., Vangorodskaya S.A. Perception of Death as a Measure of the Value of Life against the Backdrop of the Epidemiological Transition // Historical Courier, 2024, No. 3 (35), pp. 11–23. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2024/ISTKURIER-2024-1-01.pdf]
Links: Issue 3 2024
Keywords: value of human life; attitude towards death; evolution of mortality models; theory of epidemiological transition; evolution of the perception of death; psychoneurological pathologies