The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife

Description

This Handbook traces the history of the changing notion of what it means to die and examines the many constructions of afterlife in literature, text, ritual, and material culture throughout time. The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject. Comprising twenty-nine chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into three parts and covers the following important themes: The study of dying, death, and grief Disposal of the dead: past, present, and future Representations of death: narratives and rhetoric Youth meets death: a juxtaposition Questionable deaths and afterlives: suicide, ghosts, and avatars Material corpses and imagined afterlives around the world Within these sections, central issues, debates, and problems are examined, including: the world of death and dying from various cultural viewpoints and timeframes, cultural and social constructions of the definition of death, disposal practices, and views of the afterlife. The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 List of contributors......Page 12 Acknowledgments......Page 17 Part I The study of dying, death, and grief: an overview......Page 18 1 Introduction......Page 20 2 State of the field of death in the United States......Page 27 3 Brain death and the politics of religion......Page 37 4 Understanding grief: theoretical perspectives......Page 47 Part II Disposal of the dead: past, present, and future......Page 58 5 Symbolizing imperial affiliation in death: case studies from the Inka empire (ad 1400–1532)......Page 60 6 The Romanian Orthodox Church and issues of cremation......Page 77 7 Reframing sites of the dead in Brazil......Page 89 8 Stand by me: the fear of solitary death and the need for social bonds in contemporary Japan......Page 102 9 Politics of death and mortuary rituals in Trinidadian Hinduism......Page 113 10 The right to be dead: designing Future Cemeteries......Page 127 Part III Representations of death: narratives and rhetoric......Page 138 11 Post Mortem (2010): Saint Salvador Allende and historical autopsy......Page 140 12 Mourning deaths and constructing afterlives in the Red Army at war......Page 153 13 Corpses that preach: Óscar Romero and the martyred priests of El Salvador......Page 170 14 Photographing human finitude: philosophical reflections on photographs of death......Page 185 15 De imago to word: the exile of the dead from parish symbolism in Reformation England......Page 200 Part IV Youth meets death: a juxtaposition......Page 210 16 The comprehension of death and afterlife in children......Page 212 17 The effects of parental death on religiosity within an American context......Page 225 18 Ashes to ashes: continuing bonds in young adulthood in the Netherlands......Page 236 Part V Questionable deaths and afterlives: suicide, ghosts, and avatars......Page 246 19 Exeunt: the question of suicide at the origin of early Christianity......Page 248 20 How not to become a ghost: tales of female suicide martyrs in sixteenth-century Vietnamese ‘transmissions of marvels’ (truyền kỳ)......Page 257 21 The cat came back: revenant pets and the paranormal everyday......Page 279 22 From ancestors to avatars: transfiguring the afterlife......Page 294 Part VI Material corpses and imagined afterlives around the world......Page 308 23 From the underworld of Yama to the Island of Gems: concepts of afterlife in Hinduism......Page 310 24 A broad survey of Zulu ancestor veneration and the challenges it faces......Page 319 25 Death and life in a pluralistic society: boundary-making and boundary-crossing in Sino-Burmese-Tibetan borderlands......Page 332 26 Viking death: pre-Christian rites of passage and funerary feasting......Page 344 27 Death, resurrection, and the world to come: Jewish views on death and the afterlife......Page 359 28 The afterlife and death: an Islamic perspective......Page 373 29 Coffins, candles, and cameras: aspects of Brazilian funerals from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century......Page 383 30 Buying an afterlife: mapping religious beliefs through consumer death goods......Page 394 Index......Page 410