van der Geest Sjaak
Medical Anthropology Unit, University of Amsterdam, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185, 1012 DK Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Soc Sci Med. 2004 Mar;58(5):899-911. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.10.041.
People in Kwahu-Tafo, a rural town in Southern Ghana, regard a peaceful death as a 'good death'. 'Peaceful' refers to the dying person having finished all business and made peace with others before his/her death and implies being at peace with his/her own death. It further refers to the manner of dying: not by violence, an accident or a fearsome disease, not by foul means and without much pain. A good and peaceful death comes 'naturally' after a long and well-spent life. Such a death preferably takes place at home, which is the epitome of peacefulness, surrounded by children and grandchildren. Finally, a good death is a death which is accepted by the relatives. This 'definition' of good death--'bad death' is its opposite--does not imply, however, that it is a fixed category. The quality of one's death is liable to social and political manoeuvre and, therefore, inherently ambiguous. The good death of a very old and successful person can be decried by the younger generation as the death of a witch who managed to live long at the expense of young people who died prematurely. The article is based on anthropological fieldwork carried out intermittently from 1971 to the present day.
加纳南部一个乡村小镇夸胡 - 塔福的人们将平静的死亡视为“善终”。“平静”指的是即将离世的人在去世前处理完所有事务并与他人和解，意味着坦然面对自己的死亡。它还进一步指死亡的方式：不是死于暴力、意外或可怕的疾病，不是死于不正当手段且没有太多痛苦。在漫长而充实的一生之后，善终且平静的死亡“自然”降临。这样的死亡最好在家中发生，家是宁静的缩影，周围环绕着子孙后代。最后，善终是亲属能够接受的死亡。然而，这种善终——“恶终”是其对立面——的“定义”并不意味着它是一个固定不变的类别。一个人的死亡质量容易受到社会和政治操纵的影响，因此本质上具有模糊性。一位非常年长且成功的人的善终，可能会被年轻一代指责为一个女巫的死亡，这个女巫以牺牲早逝的年轻人为代价得以长寿。本文基于1971年至今断断续续进行的人类学田野调查。
