The definitive reference on the anthropology of death and dying, expanded with new contributions covering everything from animal mourning to mortuary cannibalism
Few subjects stir the imagination more than the study of how people across cultures deal with death and dying. This expanded second edition of the internationally bestselling Death, Mourning, and Burial offers cross-cultural readings that span the period from dying to afterlife, considering approaches to this transition as a social process and exploring the great variations of cultural responses to death. Exploring new content including organ transplantation, institutionalized care for the dying, HIV-AIDs, animal mourning, and biotechnology, this text retains classic readings from the first edition, and is enhanced by sixteen new articles and two new sections which provide increased breadth and depth for readers.
Death, Mourning, and Burial, Second Edition is divided into eight parts reflecting the social trajectory of death: conceptualizations of death; death, dying, and care; grief and mourning; mortuary rituals; and remembrance and regeneration. Sections are introduced through foundational texts which provide the ideal introduction to this diverse field. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of death and dying, as well as violence, terrorism, war, state terror, organ theft, and mortuary rituals.
A thoroughly revised edition of this classic anthology featuring twenty-three new articles, two new sections, and three reformulated sections Updated to include current topics, including organ transplantation, institutionalized care for the dying, HIV-AIDs, animal mourning, and biotechnology Must reading for anyone concerned with issues of death and dying, as well as violence, terrorism, war, state terror, organ theft, and mortuary rituals Serves as a text for anthropology classes and provides a genuinely cross-cultural perspective to all those studying death and dying
Edited by:
Antonius C. G. M. Robben (Utrecht University)
Imprint: Wiley-Blackwell
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: 2nd edition
Dimensions:
Height: 244mm,
Width: 188mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 635g
ISBN: 9781119151746
ISBN 10: 1119151740
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 20 June 2017
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgments viii Death and Anthropology: An Introduction 1 Antonius C. G. M. Robben Part I Conceptualizations of Death 17 1 A Contribution to the Study of the Collective Representation of Death 19 Robert Hertz 2 The Rites of Passage 34 Arnold van Gennep 3 Symbolic Immortality 44 Robert Jay Lifton and Eric Olson 4 Remembering as Cultural Process 52 Elizabeth Hallam and Jenny Hockey 5 Massive Violent Death and Contested National Mourning in Post‐Authoritarian Chile and Argentina: A Sociocultural Application of the Dual Process Model 64 Antonius C. G. M. Robben Part II Death, Dying, and Care 77 6 Magic, Science and Religion 79 Bronislaw Malinowski 7 Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande 83 E. E. Evans‐Pritchard 8 Living Cadavers and the Calculation of Death 90 Margaret Lock 9 All Eyes on Egypt: Islam and the Medical Use of Dead Bodies amidst Cairo’s Political Unrest 102 Sherine Hamdy 10 The Optimal Sacrifice: A Study of Voluntary Death among the Siberian Chukchi 115 Rane Willerslev 11 Love’s Labor Paid for: Gift and Commodity at the Threshold of Death 129 Ann Julienne Russ Part III Grief and Mourning 149 12 The Andaman Islanders 151 A. R. Radcliffe‐Brown 13 Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage 156 Renato Rosaldo 14 Death Without Weeping 167 Nancy Scheper‐Hughes 15 Three Days for Weeping: Dreams, Emotions, and Death in the Peruvian Amazon 181 Glenn H. Shepard Jr. 16 The Expression of Grief in Monkeys, Apes, and Other Animals 202 Barbara J. King Part IV Mortuary Rituals and Epidemics 209 17 Hunting the Ancestors: Death and Alliance in Wari’ Cannibalism 211 Beth A. Conklin 18 State Terror in the Netherworld: Disappearance and Reburial in Argentina 217 Antonius C. G. M. Robben 19 Mourning Becomes Eclectic: Death of Communal Practice in a Greek Cemetery 231 Diane O’Rourke 20 ‘We Are Tired of Mourning!’ The Economy of Death and Bereavement in a Time of AIDS 250 Liv Haram Part V Remembrance and Regeneration 263 21 Ancestors as Elders in Africa 265 Igor Kopytoff 22 The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Mapuche Shaman: Remembering, Disremembering, and the Willful Transformation of Memory 276 Ana Mariella Bacigalupo 23 The Ghosts of War and the Spirit of Cosmopolitanism 293 Heonik Kwon 24 The Intimacy of Defeat: Exhumations in Contemporary Spain 306 Francisco Ferrandiz Index 319
ANTONIUS C.G.M. ROBBEN, PhD, is Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and past President of the Netherlands Society of Anthropology. His authored books include Political Violence and Trauma in Argentina (2005), which won the 2006 Textor Prize from the American Anthropological Association, and his edited work includes Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader, Second Edition (Wiley Blackwell, 2012) and the forthcoming A Companion to the Anthropology of Death (Wiley Blackwell, 2018).
Reviews for Death, Mourning, and Burial: A Cross-Cultural Reader
Robben has produced an outstanding collection of classic and contemporary essays on death and mourning. The carefully balanced selection and lucid introduction make this a superb teaching text. Michael Lambek, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada This impressive combination of classic and very recent studies of how humans respond to death demonstrates anthropology's vibrant contribution to this field. Tony Walter, University of Bath, UK
