Exodus of the Dead. The Beginning of Medicalization of Death in the Period of Enlightenment (1750-1825)
Abstract
The article discusses the transformation of burial practices and forms of handling the dead body during the Enlightenment period. This is a key period, when for the first time in Christian era an enlightened state adopted a whole set of measures the aim of which was to marginalize interaction between the worlds of the living and the dead - in the name of preserving public health.
Thus alongside the priest, the doctor now won a central place at the deathbed. The notorious "burials in sacks" represent only a part of a large set of measures, which interfered with thousand-year old traditions and sensibility of the population of (not only) our country.
Rather unpopular practices were introduced, be they only removing cemeteries away from inhabited areas, or introducing the "institution of the morgue", notorious burying in sacks, as well as other "novelties". Among other things, the present article discusses the responses to the above measures in the Czech Lands.