Death, Ritual, and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary RitesDescribing a great variety of funeral ritual from major world religions and from local traditions, this book shows how cultures not only cope with corpses but also create an added value for living through the encouragement of afterlife beliefs. The explosion of interest in death in recent years reflects the key theme of this book - the rhetoric of death - the way cultures use the most potent weapon of words to bring new power to life. This new edition is one third longer than the original with new material on the death of Jesus, the most theorized death ever which offers a useful case study for students. There is also empirical material from contemporary/recent events such as the death of Diana and an expanded section on theories of grief which will make the book more attractive to death counsellors. |
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Contents
1 Interpreting Death Rites | 1 |
Impurity Fertility and Fear | 24 |
3 Theories of Grief | 43 |
4 Violence Sacrifice and Conquest | 62 |
5 Eastern Destiny and Death | 81 |
6 Ancestors Cemeteries and Local Identity | 91 |
7 Jewish and Islamic Destinies | 118 |
8 Christianity and the Death of Jesus | 125 |
10 Somewhere to Die | 155 |
11 Souls and the Presence of the Dead | 163 |
12 Pet and Animal Death | 182 |
13 Book Film and Building | 196 |
14 Offending Death Grief and Religions | 211 |
15 Secular Death and Life | 224 |
| 240 | |
| 258 | |
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Common terms and phrases
afterlife amongst ancestors animals argued ashes aspects associated become belief benefit bereavement Bloch’s body Britain British British Humanist Association Buddhism burial buried cemeteries cent Chapter Christian church coffin concerned contemporary context corpse cremated remains crematoria cultures D. J. Davies dead death rites deceased defined described dying emotion emphasize especially example existence experience express fact fact of death final finally find fire first focused Freud funeral rites funerary rites grave grief groups human idea identity important increasingly individual influence influential interpreted involved issue Jesus kind living major memory modern Mormon mortuary mummification nature near-death experience official performative utterance period person popular practice psychological realm rebounding violence reflects reincarnation relationship relatively religion religious response resurrection rhetoric ritual sacrifice salvation secular sense shamanism significance social society soul speak specific spiritual stupa symbolic theological theory traditional transcendence words against death Zoroastrians
Bibliographic information
| Title | Death, Ritual, and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites |
| Author | Douglas Davies |
| Edition | revised |
| Publisher | A&C Black, 2002 |
| ISBN | 0826454836, 9780826454836 |
| Length | 263 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |