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 44
Page viii
... focused on the ' words against death ' that human beings muster as they seek to live with a hope for the future . And this is done throughout the following chapters for , as I note in the Preface to this second edition , this is a ...
... focused on the ' words against death ' that human beings muster as they seek to live with a hope for the future . And this is done throughout the following chapters for , as I note in the Preface to this second edition , this is a ...
Page 2
... focused on the formal use of words in liturgies , in seances , in talking about the dead , or even for grief therapies . One task lying ahead is to provide a typology of funerary rhetoric to embrace its many forms apparent in numerous ...
... focused on the formal use of words in liturgies , in seances , in talking about the dead , or even for grief therapies . One task lying ahead is to provide a typology of funerary rhetoric to embrace its many forms apparent in numerous ...
Page 5
... focused on what anthropologists call the binary opposition of culture and nature , because it reflects , too much , a particular preoccupation with categorizing things in pairs , something not all societies do ( Needham , 1980 : 41ff ...
... focused on what anthropologists call the binary opposition of culture and nature , because it reflects , too much , a particular preoccupation with categorizing things in pairs , something not all societies do ( Needham , 1980 : 41ff ...
Page 14
... focused process of funerary rites , applicable not only to cremation and burial but also to other forms of funerary ritual and significantly illuminating several other theories now to be outlined in the rest of this chapter . Together ...
... focused process of funerary rites , applicable not only to cremation and burial but also to other forms of funerary ritual and significantly illuminating several other theories now to be outlined in the rest of this chapter . Together ...
Page 16
... focuses on the ' double - edged play of hope and fear which sets in always in the face of death ' ( 1974 : 51 ) . Religion , for him , helped people choose and emphasize the sense of hope in life rather than the sense of fear ; religion ...
... focuses on the ' double - edged play of hope and fear which sets in always in the face of death ' ( 1974 : 51 ) . Religion , for him , helped people choose and emphasize the sense of hope in life rather than the sense of fear ; religion ...
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