History of Death Beliefs and Rituals from Ancient Times to the Present Day

9781599212012

1599212013

Death may be universal, but just as every culture has found ways of living life differently, each has also found different and sometimes extraordinary ways to deal with dying and the effects that it has on the people left behind. This wide-ranging book examines the compelling subject of death and burial in varied cultures, societies, and ages. It considers the rituals surrounding death, from the drama of medieval French royal funerals to the live burials of the Dinka in the Sudan, and from facing death, with the 5,000 strong terra-cotta army, as the first Chinese emperor Shihuangdi did in 260 B.C., to the elaborate mausolea of wealthy Victorians. Covering all periods in history and religions,The History of Deathalso examines the differing approaches to funerals, whether solemn, celebratory, drunken or even sexually promiscuous. It illuminates the combination between the earthly and spiritual in furneral rites, the practices of human sacrifice and ritual killing, as well as the processes of grieving, burial, cremation, remembrance, and the differing concepts of life after death.