title: Bereavement: An anthropological approach.
abstract: The literature on bereavement has been dominated by psychology. Social science has expanded that perspective by illustrating the ways in which the bereaved maintain continuing bonds with the deceased. In this article I build upon the social science literature from an anthropological perspective. I focus upon how the bereaved must learn to live in the social environment without the deceased in what I call a "new normal." The connections to their social environment have been altered as a link in those connections has been broken. The bereavement process requires repairing that rupture and developing a new way in which to adopt a new sense of self. This article mainly focuses on issues involved with the loss of a spouse.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Social Theory, Structure and Change , SUNY/Empire State College , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Souza
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001601:Bereavement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D012649:Self Concept; D012931:Social Environment; D017805:Widowhood / Q000523:psychology*