Beyond death beliefs, practice, and material expression ; in association with the exhibition Death: Life`s greatest Mystery

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on the BAR Digital platform. A wide-ranging treatment on the meaning of death, and its juxtaposition with life, from biological, cultural, and spiritual perspectives. Dozens of case studies accompany the principal essays written by scholars, Indigenous community members, and curators of the exhibition Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery. This volume offers a richly illustrated companion to the exhibition, produced by Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, and contains full page photographs of the stunning objects in the exhibit, most from the Field Museum’s collections. This volume is intended to engage visitors to the exhibition and members of the general public who want to delve more fully into questions surrounding death and the multiple religious, historical, and cultural perspectives on it. Although not a comprehensive guide, the book touches on many world religions and case studies drawn from five continents. Front Cover Title Page Copyright Contents List of Figures 1. Introduction 1A Big Questions: A Framework for Exploring Death 2. The Journey from Life to Death: Biology of the Human Life Cycle and Our Attempt to Control It 2A Sekishinsai Okada Tadaharu 赤心斎 岡田忠遥: Nine Stages of Bodily Decay (Kusōzu) 2B Daoist Immortals, the Lingzhi Fungus, and the Search for Immortality 2C On Health Disparities and Motherless Children 2D Response to the Pandemic: Creativity in the Face of Precarity 3. Soul and Vital Force: Vibrant Life Matters and Mortuary Arts in Africana Religions and Beyond 3A Mesoamerican Cosmologies: Death, Maize, and the Ballgame 3B The Inca Capac Hucha 3C The Yorùbá Ere Ibeji: Reincarnation of Twins 3D Sex, Death, and Life Regeneration in the Moche World, 200–900 CE 4. Performing Death 4A Chancay Burials 4B Egyptian Mummification 4C The Ghanaian Fantasy Canoe Coffin: A Box with Proverbs 4D Tsavo Shrines 5. Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Death 5A The Chevra Kadisha 5B The Guna, Molas, and Religious Syncretism 5C Death and the Reclining Buddha 5D Day of the Dead 6. Social Endurance beyond Human Death 6A The Magdalenian Skeleton from Cap Blanc 6B The Mortuary and Commemorative Poles from Skidegate, British Columbia, Canada 6C The Hopewell Collective 6D Pyramids and Standing Stones: Monuments for the Dead Appendix A: Spanish Translation of the Introduction (Chapter 1): Introducción Back Cover A wide-ranging treatment on the meaning of death, and its juxtaposition with life, from biological, cultural, and spiritual perspectives. Dozens of case studies accompany the principal essays written by scholars, Indigenous community members, and curators of the exhibition Death: Life?s Greatest Mystery. This volume offers a richly illustrated companion to the exhibition, produced by Chicago?s Field Museum of Natural History, and contains full page photographs of the stunning objects in the exhibit, most from the Field Museum?s collections. This volume is intended to engage visitors to the exhibition and members of the general public who want to delve more fully into questions surrounding death and the multiple religious, historical, and cultural perspectives on it. Although not a comprehensive guide, the book touches on many world religions and case studies drawn from five continents.00Exhibition: Chicago?s Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA (21.10.2022-27.08.2023)