TY - BOOK ID - 95429063 TI - Celebrations of death: : the anthropology of mortuary ritual AU - Metcalf, Peter AU - Huntington, Richard PY - 1991 SN - 0521413125 0521423759 0511803176 9780521413121 PB - Cambridge: Cambridge university press, DB - UniCat KW - Funeral rites and ceremonies. KW - Death. KW - Death KW - Dying KW - End of life KW - Life KW - Terminal care KW - Terminally ill KW - Thanatology KW - Funerals KW - Mortuary ceremonies KW - Obsequies KW - Manners and customs KW - Rites and ceremonies KW - Burial KW - Cremation KW - Cryomation KW - Dead KW - Mourning customs KW - Philosophy KW - Psychological aspects. KW - Psychology UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:95429063 AB - This revised edition of a cross-cultural study of rituals surrounding death has become a standard text in anthropology, sociology and religion. Part of its fascination is that in understanding other people's death rituals we are able to gain a better understanding of our own. The authors refer to a wide variety of examples, from different continents and epochs. They compare the great tombs of the Berawan of Borneo and the pyramids of Egypt, as well as the dramas of medieval French royal funerals and the burial alive of the Dinka 'masters of the spear' in the Sudan, and other rituals which at first sight seem to have little in common. Many of these cases are anthropological classics, but the authors place them in an alternative context, so as to shape a novel synthesis on the anthropology of death ritual. A fresh introduction reviews theoretical developments in the field since the book first appeared in 1979. ER -