Death, Ritual and Belief : The Rhetoric of Funerary RitesThird Edition

Death, Ritual And Belief, Now In Its Third Edition, Explores Many Important Issues Related To Death And Dying, From A Religious Studies Perspective, Including Anthropology And Sociology. Using The Motif Of 'words Against Death' It Depicts Human Responses To Grief By Surveying The Many Ways In Which People Have Not Let Death Have The Last Word, Not Simply In Terms Of Funeral Rites But Also In Memorials, Graves, And In Ideas Of Ancestors, Souls, Gods, Reincarnation And Resurrection, Whether In The Great Religious Traditions Of The World Or In More Local Customs. He Also Examines Bereavement And Grief, Experiences Of The Presence Of Dead, Near-death Experiences, Pet-death And The Symbolic Death Played Out In Religious Rites. Updated Chapters Have Taken Into Account New Research And Include Additional Topics In This New Edition, Notably Assisted Dying, Terrorism, Green Burial, Material Culture, Death Online, And The Emergence Of Death Studies As A Distinctive Field. Case Studies Range From Anders Breivik In Norway, To The Princess Of Wales, And To The Rapture In The Usa. A New Perspective Is Also Brought To His Account Of Grief Theories. Providing An Introduction To Key Authors And Authorities On Death Beliefs, Bereavement, Grief And Ritual-symbolism, Death, Ritual And Belief Is An Authoritative Guide To The Perspectives Of Major Religious And Secular Worldviews. Study Questions Can Be Found On The Book's Webpage And Each Chapter Ends With A Summary. Title Page 2 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Preface to Second Edition 8 Preface to Third Edition 9 Acknowledgements 10 Illustrations 11 Introduction 12 Chapter 1: Interpreting death rites 14 Introducing the theory 15 Words and humanity 22 Perspectives in death studies 25 Sociological and anthropological explanations 27 Human body as microcosm 30 Identity and embodiment 33 Rites of passage 36 Psychological explanations 38 Hope and survival 39 Death and transcendence 40 Chapter 2: Coping with corpses: Impurity, fertility and fear 42 Burying, caves and cemeteries 42 Burning bodies 43 Funerals as two-phased rituals 43 Modern cremation rites 46 Cremation in Britain 46 Hertz and cremation 49 Modern treatment of ashes 50 The politics of burial and cremation 51 Air, earth and water disposal 54 Space for bodies 55 Impurity, fear and fertility: Values of the corpse 58 Food against death 61 Chapter 3: Theories of grief 64 Psychoanalytic forces 65 Evolutionary aspects 67 Ritual transcendence 69 Reservations 70 Performing grief 71 Tears and emotion 72 Embodiment, soul and role 73 Popular psychology of grief in Greece 75 Grief: Normality or illness? 76 Motherhood and loss of child 78 Behavioural, cognitive and stress-focused theories 82 Stage theories of grief 83 Continuing bonds and narrative approaches 85 Dividuality and grief 86 Chapter 4: Violence, sacrifice and conquest 90 Control and death 90 Sacrificial violence and war 92 Chapter 5: Eastern destiny and death 110 Zoroastrian-Parsee death rites 111 Indian death rites 113 Buddhism 116 Chapter 6: Ancestors, cemeteries and local identity 120 Mummies East and West 120 Ancestors, identity and death 130 Identity, emigration and ancestors 138 Cemeteries and ethnic identity 140 Ancestral Mormonism 141 Myths of death 144 Competing and complementing rites 145 Chapter 7: Jewish and Islamic Destinies 148 Judaism 148 Islam 152 Books and words 155 Chapter 8: Christianity and the death of Jesus 158 Death, life and Jesus 158 Early Christianity and graves 160 Christianity and the death of Jesus 163 Folk beliefs in Christian cultures 167 Retrospective fulfilment of identity 173 Theological concern 175 Chapter 9: Near-death, symbolic death and rebirth 178 Symbolic power of death 179 Imagination, hope and survival 179 Initiation rituals 180 Spiritual rebirth in Christianity 181 Shamanism 182 Wounded healers 183 Near-death experience 184 Chapter 10: Somewhere to die 188 Home deathbed 188 Hospital bed 189 Hospice 190 Roadside deaths 191 Battlefield memorials 192 National Memorial Arboretum 194 Locating death 196 Age and place 197 Chapter 11: Souls and the presence of the dead 198 The nineteenth century 198 Popular British views on reincarnation 204 The dead in living memory 209 Chapter 12: Pet and animal death 218 The death of dogs and cats 220 Human and animal remains 223 Symbolic animals 223 Surveying pet death, 1992 225 Animal souls 225 Bereavement and pet death 228 Animal grief 233 Chapter 13: Robots, books, films and buildings 234 Religious sources 235 Media sources 235 Television 236 Music 237 Hymns and music 237 Sculpture 238 Exhibition and art 240 Poetic words against death 241 Humane words against death 244 Architecture of death 245 Death studies 246 Contemporary adaptation 247 Chapter 14: Offending death, grief and religions 250 Theory of offending death 250 Sacrificial reversal 251 Enforced deaths 252 Death in religion 253 Death and the birth of religion 255 Leaders and charisma 257 Some Christian movements 259 Bahai religion 260 Mormonism 260 New religious movements and death 261 Chapter 15: Secular death and life 262 Dataism 263 How many? 263 Secular French rites 264 Soviet ceremonial 265 Shared secularity 266 Postmodern individuals and death 267 Negotiating individuality 268 Body-philosophy 269 Postmodernity and mortuary rites 269 Cremation, modernity and postmodernity 271 Two cases of ash-scattering 274 Social optimism and pessimism 275 Euthanasia 275 Death, life and world communities 276 Rhetoric of mortuary rites 276 Bibliography 280 Index 301 Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface to Second Edition -- Preface to Third Edition -- Acknowledgements -- Illustrations -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Interpreting death rites -- Introducing the theory -- Words and humanity -- Perspectives in death studies -- Sociological and anthropological explanations -- Human body as microcosm -- Identity and embodiment -- Rites of passage -- Psychological explanations -- Hope and survival -- Death and transcendence -- Chapter 2: Coping with corpses: Impurity, fertility and fear -- Burying, caves and cemeteries -- Burning bodies -- Funerals as two-phased rituals -- Modern cremation rites -- Cremation in Britain -- Hertz and cremation -- Modern treatment of ashes -- The politics of burial and cremation -- Air, earth and water disposal -- Space for bodies -- Impurity, fear and fertility: Values of the corpse -- Food against death -- Chapter 3: Theories of grief -- Psychoanalytic forces -- Evolutionary aspects -- Ritual transcendence -- Reservations -- Performing grief -- Tears and emotion -- Embodiment, soul and role -- Popular psychology of grief in Greece -- Grief: Normality or illness? -- Motherhood and loss of child -- Behavioural, cognitive and stress-focused theories -- Stage theories of grief -- Continuing bonds and narrative approaches -- Dividuality and grief -- Chapter 4: Violence, sacrifice and conquest -- Control and death -- Sacrificial violence and war -- Chapter 5: Eastern destiny and death -- Zoroastrian-Parsee death rites -- Indian death rites -- Buddhism -- Chapter 6: Ancestors, cemeteries and local identity -- Mummies East and West -- Ancestors, identity and death -- Identity, emigration and ancestors -- Cemeteries and ethnic identity -- Ancestral Mormonism -- Myths of death -- Competing and complementing rites -- Chapter 7: Jewish and Islamic Destinies -- Judaism Describing a great variety of funeral ritual, from major world religions and from local traditions, Davies shows how cultures not only cope with corpses but also create an added value for living through the growth of afterlife beliefs. Death, Ritual and Belief, now in its third edition, explores many important issues related to death and dying, from a religious studies perspective, including anthropology and sociology. Using the motif of 'words against death' it depicts human responses to grief by surveying the many ways in which people have not let death have the last word, not simply in terms of funeral rites but also in memorials, graves, and in ideas of ancestors, souls, gods, reincarnation and resurrection, whether in the great religious traditions of the world or in more local customs. He also examines bereavement and grief, experiences of the presence of dead, near-death experiences, pet-death and the symbolic death played out in religious rites. Updated chapters have taken into account new research and include additional topics in this new edition, notably assisted dying, terrorism, green burial, material culture, death online, and the emergence of Death Studies as a distinctive field. Case studies range from Anders Breivik in Norway, to the Princess of Wales, and to the Rapture in the USA. A new perspective is also brought to his account of grief theories. Providing an introduction to key authors and authorities on death beliefs, bereavement, grief and ritual-symbolism, Death, Ritual and Belief is an authoritative guide to the perspectives of major religious and secular worldviews "Death, Ritual and Belief, now in its third edition, explores many important issues related to death and dying, from a religious studies perspective, including anthropology and sociology. Using the motif of 'words against death' it depicts human responses to grief by surveying the many ways in which people have not let death have the last word, not simply in terms of funeral rites but also in memorials, graves, and in ideas of ancestors, souls, gods, reincarnation and resurrection, whether in the great religious traditions of the world or in more local customs. He also examines bereavement and grief, experiences of the presence of dead, near-death experiences, pet-death and the symbolic death played out in religious rites. Updated chapters have taken into account new research and include additional topics in this new edition, notably assisted dying, terrorism, green burial, material culture, death online, and the emergence of Death Studies as a distinctive field. Case studies range from Anders Breivik in Norway, to the Princess of Wales, and to the Rapture in the USA. A new perspective is also brought to his account of grief theories. Providing an introduction to key authors and authorities on death beliefs, bereavement, grief and ritual-symbolism, Death, Ritual and Belief is an authoritative guide to the perspectives of major religious and secular worldviews."--Bloomsbury Publishing.