Secular death and life. Coping with corpses : impurity, fertility and fear -- Theories of grief -- Violence, sacrifice and conquest -- Eastern destiny and death -- Ancestors, cemeteries and local identity -- Jewish and Islamic destinies -- Christianity and the death of Jesus -- Near-death, symbolic death and rebirth -- Somewhere to die -- Souls and the presence of the dead -- Pet and animal death -- Robots, books, films and buildings -- Offending death, grief and religions -- Secular death and life.
Summary:
"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."--Back cover
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.