53 ( 1 ) 120

Aries, P., 1975, Essais sur l'histoire de la mort en occident, Paris: Editions du Seuil., 1977, L' Homme devant la mort, Paris: Editions du Seuil. Becker, E., 1973, The Denial of Death, New York: Free Press. Berger, P. L., 1967, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, New York: Doubleday & Co.. Elias, N., 1982, Uber die Einsamkeit der Sterbenden, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Glaser, B. G. and A. L. Strauss, 1965, Awareness of Dying, New York: Aldine: Gorer, G., 1955, "The Pornography of Death," Encounter, 5: 49-53. Reprinted in: G. Gorer, 1965, Death, Grief and Mourning in Contemporary Britain, London: Cresset, 169-75., 1965, Death, Grief and Mourning in Contemporary Britain, London: Cresset. Jankelevitch, V., 1966, La mort, Paris: Flammarion. Kellehear, A., 1984, "Are We a 'Death-Denying' Society? : A Sociological Review," Social Science and Medicine, 18 (9) : 713-23.

Mellor, P. A., 1993, "Death in High Modernity: The Contemporary Presence and Absence of Death," D. Clark ed. The Sociology of Death, Oxford: Blackwell, 11-30. Mellor, P. A. and C. Shilling, 1993, "Modernity, Self-Identity and the Sequestration of Death," Sociology, 27 (3) : 411-31. Seale, C., 1998, Constructing Death: The Sociology of Dying and Bereavement, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Strauss, A., 1993, "Foreword," D. Clark ed., The Sociology of Death, Oxford: Blackwell, ix-x. Walter, T., 1991, "Modem Death: Taboo or not Taboo?," Sociology, 25 (2) : 293-310. \, 1996, The Eclipse of Eternity: A Sociology of the Afterlife, Basingstoke: Macmillan. Walter, T., J. Littlewood and M. Pickering, 1995, "Death in the News: The Public Invigilation of Private Emotion," Sociology, 29 (4): 579-96. "Tabooed Death" Revisited Atsushi SAWAI Otsuma Women's University sawai @ otsuma. ac. jp The notion that death is taboo in the modern society is often referred to. However, today deaths are regularly reported in the media. It is claimed that the lifting of taboos surrounding the subject of death is already underway. The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the notion of "tabooed death." What does "the lifting of the death taboo" mean? If the taboo still exists in our society, in what sense does it exist? First, this paper will examine the classic view of "tabooed death" studied by P. Aries and G. Gorer, and criticize the thesis of "Public Absence-Private Presence." This paper will also point out that the notion of "tabooed death" arises primarily from the avoidance of one's relationship with the dying, the dead and the bereaved. Then, today's media reports on deaths will be examined. There are two significant aspects regarding the subject of death in the media: 1) "pornography of death" as described by Gorer, and 2) "guidelines bereavement. for death," which advise people how to accept death, dying, and "The lifting of the death taboo," as mentioned above, is understood to refer to the diffusion of these guidelines through the media.

Finally, this paper points out that the notion of "tabooed death," the avoidance of one's relationship with the dying, the dead and the bereaved, continues to exist in our society despite the diffusion of these "guidelines for death" through the media. Key words: tabooed death, sociology of death, thanatology 53 ( 1 ) 134