culture of death

Noun

culture of death (plural cultures of death)

1. In contemporary cultural discourse, a culture asserted to be inconsistent with the concept of a "culture of life," such as cultures that support contraception and abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, human cloning, self-absorption, apathy or poverty, or fail to view human beings as ends in themselves in any other way.
2. A society that reveres suicide bombers as martyrs.
   • But can one nevertheless regard suicide bombing as an expression of the political culture—the culture of death—that has emerged in modern times in the Middle East?2007, Talal Asad, On Suicide Bombing, Columbia University Press, page 50
   • Still, with ... each individual case ... of individual suicide bombers ... it seems that we have to acknowledge first of all that there is a larger pattern of a culture of death2007, Israel W. Charny, Fighting Suicide Bombing: A Worldwide Campaign for Life, Greenwood Publishing Group, page 77