From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

Doughty argues that negative reactions to certain deathcare practices are socially influenced rather than objective. Reflect on a funerary practice that the book describes that was new or surprising to you. How are your emotional reactions tied in with your cultural and societal values?

This book’s subtitle is “Traveling the World to Find the Good Death.” What does the “good death” mean to Doughty? Does she find it?

According to Doughty, how do deathcare and funerary practices reflect social and cultural inequities like racial and ethnic discrimination, gender-based discrimination and violence, and class conflict?

As Doughty travels in the United States, she interacts with the Crestone End of Life Project and the Forensic Osteology Research Station. Research these groups and write about what advances they have made since the book was published.

Pick any one of the locations that Doughty visits and write an essay about the death culture and funerary practices there.

What are the consequences of thanotourism and dark tourism on local and Indigenous communities? Is there a respectful way to view other cultures’ death practices? Develop your argument with references to the text.

Write an essay about your opinion of Western funerary practices before reading Doughty’s critiques of them. Did the book’s arguments succeed in changing your views? Why or why not?

Out of the various death practices that Doughty describes, which one appeals to you the most? Explain why.