Death, Ritual, and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary RitesBloomsbury Publishing, 2002 M06 1 - 272 pages Describing 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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 80
Page viii
... become condensed into immediate awareness , makes these risk factors in life all the more locally felt . The world of the twenty - first century does not feel as secure as the optimist of two or three decades ago would have anticipated ...
... become condensed into immediate awareness , makes these risk factors in life all the more locally felt . The world of the twenty - first century does not feel as secure as the optimist of two or three decades ago would have anticipated ...
Page 4
... become intimately combined . Historians have done much to document and relate changing patterns of death rites , social attitudes and ideas of identity . Philippe Ariès has provided one magisterial interpretation of the way death has ...
... become intimately combined . Historians have done much to document and relate changing patterns of death rites , social attitudes and ideas of identity . Philippe Ariès has provided one magisterial interpretation of the way death has ...
Page 5
... become so important to individuals that they , in turn , invest the source of their identity with great significance , even seeing it as divine in some sense ( Mol , 1976 ) . At death . identity is altered not only through the loss of ...
... become so important to individuals that they , in turn , invest the source of their identity with great significance , even seeing it as divine in some sense ( Mol , 1976 ) . At death . identity is altered not only through the loss of ...
Page 6
... become ancestors , ' withdrawal religion ' where they are reincarnated , and ' secular world affirming religion ' where they go to a distinct heaven ( 1991 : 207 ) . In a more theoretically useful way Chidester's excellent study of ...
... become ancestors , ' withdrawal religion ' where they are reincarnated , and ' secular world affirming religion ' where they go to a distinct heaven ( 1991 : 207 ) . In a more theoretically useful way Chidester's excellent study of ...
Page 7
... become the symbol of human self- consciousness and the means by which people become aware of themselves and relate to each other ( Tambiah , 1990 : 81ff . ) . I assume that death has been widely seen to challenge human identity and ...
... become the symbol of human self- consciousness and the means by which people become aware of themselves and relate to each other ( Tambiah , 1990 : 81ff . ) . I assume that death has been widely seen to challenge human identity and ...
Contents
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 |
Bibliography | 240 |
Index | 258 |
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Common terms and phrases
afterlife amongst ancestors animals anthropologist argued ashes aspects associated become belief bereavement Bloch body Britain British British Humanist Association Buddhism burial buried cemeteries cent Chapter Christian church concerned contemporary context corpse cremated remains crematoria cultures D. J. Davies death rites deceased described dying emotion emphasize especially euthanasia example existence express fact fact of death focused funeral rites funerary rites grave grief groups human idea identity important increasingly individual interpreted involved issue Jesus kind living major memory modern Mormon mortuary mummification nature near-death experience offending death particular performative utterance period pet death popular post-modernity practice psychological realm rebounding violence reflects reincarnation relationship relatively religion religious response resurrection rhetoric ritual sacrifice salvation secular sense shamanism significance social society sociological soul speak spiritual status stress stupa symbolic theological theory tomb traditional transcendence twentieth century words against death Zoroastrians