Nuevas prácticas tanatológicas y la emergencia del modelo neo-moderno de la muerte

Opposite to the great collective rituals and the transcendent meaning granted by traditional communities, Modernity would have reduced death to silence and transformed the act of dying into a solitary and institutionalized process. Nevertheless, in the last decades a new model of death could be emerging in our societies: the neo-modern model, since it doesn't question the central role of the sanitary system in the management of death, but tries to correct the gaps that the latter didn't achive to satisfy. Death would thus gradually return to the public space, but in a fragmented and decentralized way, as a set of scattered practices and discourses that would have in common a renewed interest in talking about death and dying. In this article I intend to verify the possible presence of the neo-modern model of death in a series of very different cultural products and practices. I will discuss whether all of them have a common thread in the neo-modern model or if, as other authors claim, they are rather a product of the tendency towards media hyper-transparency and the search for strong sensations typical of the consumerist society. I also examine some criticisms to the model and its internal contradictions. I conclude by trying to anticipate future trends in the way of dying in light of the evidence presented. Frente a los grandes rituales colectivos y el sentido trascendente que le otorgaban las comunidades tradicionales, la Modernidad habría reducido la muerte al silencio y convertido el morir en un proceso solitario e institucionalizado. No obstante, en las últimas décadas un nuevo modelo de la muerte podría estar emergiendo en nuestras sociedades: el modelo neo-moderno, pues no cuestiona el papel central del sistema sanitario en la gestión de la muerte, pero trata de corregir los huecos que este no ha satisfecho. La muerte, así, volvería paulatinamente al espacio público, pero de forma fragmentaria y descentralizada, como un conjunto de prácticas y discursos dispersos que tendrían en común un renovado interés en hablar de la muerte y el morir. En este artículo me propongo comprobar la posible presencia del modelo neo-moderno de la muerte en una serie de productos y prácticas culturales muy diferentes. Discutiré si, en efecto, todas ellas tienen un hilo común en el modelo neo-moderno o si, como afirman otros autores, son más bien producto de la tendencia a la hipertransparencia mediática y la búsqueda de sensaciones fuertes propios de la sociedad consumista. Asimismo, examino algunas críticas formuladas al modelo y sus contradicciones internas. Concluyo tratando de anticipar tendencias futuras en el modo de morir a la luz de la evidencia presentada.Opposite to the great collective rituals and the transcendent meaning granted by traditional communities, Modernity would have reduced death to silence and transformed the act of dying into a solitary and institutionalized process. Nevertheless, in the last decades a new model of death could be emerging in our societies: the neo-modern model, since it doesn't question the central role of the sanitary system in the management of death, but tries to correct the gaps that the latter didn't achive to satisfy. Death would thus gradually return to the public space, but in a fragmented and decentralized way, as a set of scattered practices and discourses that would have in common a renewed interest in talking about death and dying. In this article I intend to verify the possible presence of the neo-modern model of death in a series of very different cultural products and practices. I will discuss whether all of them have a common thread in the neo-modern model or if, as other authors claim, they are rather a product of the tendency towards media hyper-transparency and the search for strong sensations typical of the consumerist society. I also examine some criticisms to the model and its internal contradictions. I conclude by trying to anticipate future trends in the way of dying in light of the evidence presented