Death Across Cultures: Death and Dying in Non-Western Cultures (Science Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Science Book 9)

Death Across Cultures: Death and Dying in Non-Western Cultures, explores death practices and beliefs, before and after death, around the non-Western world. It includes chapters on countries in Africa, Asia, South America, as well as indigenous people in Australia and North America. These chapters address changes in death rituals and beliefs, medicalization and the industry of death, and the different ways cultures mediate the impacts of modernity. Comparative studies with the west and among countries are included. This book brings together global research conducted by anthropologists, social scientists and scholars who work closely with individuals from the cultures they are writing about.-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-xix The Evolution of Funerary Ritual in Urbanizing China (Andrew B. Kipnis)....Pages 1-17 Belief in Karma and Mokṣa at the End of Life in India (Joris Gielen, Komal Kashyap)....Pages 19-39 Death and the Afterlife in Japan (Gordon Mathews)....Pages 41-55 Return to Nature? Secularism and Politics of Death Space in Hong Kong (Yuk Wah Chan)....Pages 57-74 Death and Dying: Belief, Fear and Ritual in Vietnamese Culture (Nguyen Duc Son, Giap Binh Nga)....Pages 75-82 Negotiating Traditions and Modernity: Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore (Chee-Kiong Tong)....Pages 83-101 The Bureaucratic Professionalization of Funeral Rites in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery (Zohreh Bayatrizi, Hajar Ghorbani)....Pages 103-118 Death and Burial Practices in Contemporary Zulu Culture, South Africa (Sihawukele Ngubane)....Pages 119-131 Death in Botswana: Life Among the Ashes (Deborah Durham)....Pages 133-149 Ancestors and Death: From West Africa to Southwest Europe (Clara Saraiva)....Pages 151-165 Living Coffins and Death Among the Ga of Ghana (Roberta Bonetti)....Pages 167-192 The Yoruba of Nigeria and the Ontology of Death and Burial (Henri Oripeloye, Morufu Bukola Omigbule)....Pages 193-205 Transformation of Funeral Rituals in Togo (Jacek Jan Pawlik)....Pages 207-224 Rituals Around Life and Death in Mexico; The Day of the Dead (Adelina Arredondo, Cristina Casillas)....Pages 225-242 Continuity and Ruptures in Brazilian Funeral Rites (Marisete T. Hoffmann-Horochovski, José Miguel Rasia)....Pages 243-260 The Right to a Dignified Death in Argentina (Juan Pedro Alonso, Natalia Luxardo, Javier Roberti)....Pages 261-273 Superstar-Saints and Wandering Souls: The Cemetery as a Cultural Hotspot in Latin American Cities (Christien Klaufus)....Pages 275-294 He taonga tuku iho: Indigenous End of Life and Death Care Customs of New Zealand Māori (Tess Moeke-Maxwell, Kathleen Mason, Frances Toohey, Rawiri Wharemate, Merryn Gott)....Pages 295-316 Communicating with the Dead in an Australian Aboriginal Culture: The Tiwi from Melville and Bathurst Islands (Eric Venbrux)....Pages 317-333 Death and Dying in American Indian Cultures (Andrea C. Walker)....Pages 335-349 The Beauty of the Afterlife Among the Inuit of Nunavut (Frédéric Laugrand)....Pages 351-367 Eternity Calling: Modernity and the Revival of Death and the Afterlife (Raymond L. M. Lee)....Pages 369-384 Back Matter ....Pages 385-389