Abstract
Whilst the mortuary acts as a site where the causes of death and disease are discovered, the General Register Office (GRO) acts as a site where causes are tabulated and where patterns of mortality are revealed. It is in the GRO that the decisions made in the mortuary are summated and classified according to the various sections of the WHO nosology. In other words, the examination of the physical body is followed by an analysis of the social body and, in the language of Foucault (1979), a bio-politics of population supersedes a political anatomy of the human frame. In both cases, however, it is the individual corpse which acts as the point of articulation for social practices and medical theories. In both cases death is individualised, and in both cases the physical nature of death is given primary emphasis.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1989 Lindsay Prior
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Prior, L. (1989). Accounting for Death. In: The Social Organisation of Death. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19918-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19918-1_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-46435-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-19918-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)