Mackenbach J P
Department of Public Health, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Am J Public Health. 1995 Sep;85(9):1285-92. doi: 10.2105/ajph.85.9.1285.
Late-medieval murals and books of the then-popular "dances of death" usually represented the living according to their social standing. These works of art thus provide an interesting opportunity to study the relationship between social inequality and death as it was perceived by the works' commissioners or executers. The social hierarchy in these dances of death is mostly based on the scheme of the three orders of the feudal society; variations relate to the inclusion of female characters, new occupations, and non-Christian characters. Many dances of death contain severe judgments on highplaced persons and thus seem to be expressions of a desire for greater social equality. However, a more thorough analysis reveals that the equality of all before death that these dances of death proclaimed held nothing for the poor but only threatened the rich. Because of a lack of reliable data, it is not yet completely clear whether during the late Middle Ages all were indeed equally at risk for premature mortality. Available evidence, however, suggests that the clergy and nobility actually had a higher life expectancy than people placed lower in the social hierarchy. Despite modern changes in the perception of, and knowledge about, social inequality and mortality, these dances of death still capture the imagination, and they suggest that the phenomenon of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality could be used more to emphasize contemporary moral messages on social inequality.
中世纪晚期的壁画以及当时流行的“死亡之舞”主题书籍通常根据人们的社会地位描绘生者。因此，这些艺术作品为研究社会不平等与死亡之间的关系提供了一个有趣的契机，这种关系是由作品的委托者或创作者所感知到的。这些死亡之舞中的社会等级制度大多基于封建社会的三个阶层的划分；其变体涉及女性角色、新职业以及非基督教角色的纳入。许多死亡之舞对地位高的人进行了严厉批判，因此似乎表达了对更大社会平等的渴望。然而，更深入的分析表明，这些死亡之舞所宣扬的在死亡面前人人平等，对穷人毫无意义，却只会威胁富人。由于缺乏可靠数据，目前尚不完全清楚在中世纪晚期，所有人是否真的面临同样的过早死亡风险。然而，现有证据表明，神职人员和贵族的预期寿命实际上高于社会等级较低的人群。尽管现代社会对社会不平等和死亡率的认知及了解发生了变化，但这些死亡之舞仍然吸引着人们的想象力，它们表明死亡率方面的社会经济不平等现象可更多地用于强调关于社会不平等的当代道德信息。
