Cover Page

Death, Mourning, and Burial

A Cross‐Cultural Reader

 

 

Second Edition

 

 

Edited by

 

Antonius C. G. M. Robben

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wiley Logo

This edition first published 2018
Editorial material and organization © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Edition History
Blackwell Publishing Ltd (1e, 2004)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

The right of Antonius C. G. M. Robben to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with law.

Registered Office(s)
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA

Editorial Office
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print‐on‐demand. Some content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty

While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Robben, Antonius C. G. M., editor.
Title: Death, mourning, and burial : a cross‐cultural reader / edited by Antonius C.G.M. Robben.
Description: Second Edition. | Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016058001 (print) | LCCN 2016058951 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119151746 (Paper) | ISBN 9781119151753 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119151760 (ePub)
Subjects: LCSH: Funeral rites and ceremonies–Cross‐cultural studies.
Classification: LCC GN486 .D43 2017 (ebook) | LCC GN486 (print) | DDC 393–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016058951

Cover image: © BERKO85/iStockphoto
Cover design by Wiley

Acknowledgments

This volume is the long overdue second edition of Death, Mourning, and Burial: A Cross‐Cultural Reader (2004). Groundbreaking conceptual approaches and new research fields were developed in the anthropology of death during the last decade that have produced many original publications. The selection of the most important texts was greatly helped by the review reports of the manuscript prospectus. The constructive comments and generous suggestions made by half a dozen anonymous colleagues resulted in important adjustments of the proposed table of contents. This book owes its publication to the warm encouragement of the Anthropology and Archaeology assistant editor Mark Graney. Mark is no longer with the press but he passed this project into the capable hands of Justin Vaughan and Tanya McMullin. Liz Wingett deserves much credit for the manuscript preparation and her persistence in surmounting several obstacles in the permissions clearance process. Finally, I want to thank Tom Bates for the manuscript production.

The editor and publishers gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book:

  1. Extracts from Robert Hertz, “A Contribution to the Study of the Collective Representation of Death” (1905–6), from Death and the Right Hand, translated by Rodney and Claudia Needham, published by Cohen & West in 1960. Reproduced with permission from Taylor & Francis.
  2. Extract from Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (1909), translated by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee, published by University of Chicago Press in 1960. Reproduced with permission from University of Chicago Press.
  3. Robert Jay Lifton and Eric Olson, “Symbolic Immortality,” from Living and Dying, published by Wildwood House and Praeger Publishing, Inc. in 1974. Reproduced with permission from South‐Western College Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning.
  4. Elizabeth Hallam and Jenny Hockey, “Remembering as Cultural Process,” from Death, Memory and Material Culture, published by Berg in 2001. Reproduced with permission from Berg Publishers, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing.
  5. Antonius C. G. M. Robben, “Massive Violent Death and Contested National Mourning in Post‐Authoritarian Chile and Argentina: A Sociocultural Application of the Dual Process Model,” Death Studies, 38.5 (2014): 335–45. Reproduced with permission from Taylor & Francis and A. Robben.
  6. Extract from Bronislaw Malinowski, “Magic, Science and Religion” (1925), in Magic, Science and Religion, edited by James Needham, published by Doubleday in 1954. Reproduced with permission from SPCK.
  7. Extract from E. E. Evans‐Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande, published by Oxford University Press in 1937 and 1968. Reproduced with permission from Oxford University Press.
  8. Margaret Lock, “Living Cadavers and the Calculation of Death,” Body and Society, 10.2–3 (2004): 135–52. Reproduced with permission from Sage and M. Lock.
  9. Sherine Hamdy, “All Eyes on Egypt: Islam and the Medical Use of Dead Bodies amidst Cairo’s Political Unrest,” Medical Anthropology, 35.3 (2016): 220–35. Reproduced with permission from Taylor & Francis and S. Hamdy.
  10. Rane Willerslev, “The Optimal Sacrifice: A Study of Voluntary Death among the Siberian Chukchi,” American Ethnologist, 36.4 (2009): 693–704. Reproduced with permission from American Anthropological Association and R. Willerslev.
  11. Ann Julienne Russ, “Love’s Labor Paid For: Gift and Commodity at the Threshold of Death,” Cultural Anthropology, 20.1 (2005): 128–55. Reproduced with permission from American Anthropological Association and A. Russ.
  12. Extract from A. R. Radcliffe‐Brown, The Andaman Islanders (1922), published, with additions, by Cambridge University Press in 1933. © Cambridge University Press, 1933. Reproduced with permission from Cambridge University Press.
  13. Renato Rosaldo, “Introduction: Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage,” in Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis, published by Beacon Press in 1989. Reproduced with permission from Beacon Press.
  14. Extracts from Nancy Scheper‐Hughes, Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, published by University of California Press in 1992. Reproduced with permission from University of California Press.
  15. Glenn H. Shepard Jr., “Three Days for Weeping: Dreams, Emotions, and Death in the Peruvian Amazon,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 16.2 (2002): 200–29. Reproduced with permission from American Anthropological Association and G. Shephard.
  16. Barbara J. King, “The Expression of Grief in Monkeys, Apes, and Other Animals,” in Raymond Corbey and Annette Lanjouw (eds.), The Politics of Species: Reshaping Our Relationships with Other Animals, published by Cambridge University Press in 2013. Reproduced with permission from Cambridge University Press and B. J. King.
  17. Beth A. Conklin, “Hunting the Ancestors: Death and Alliance in Wari’ Cannibalism,” Latin American Anthropology Review, 5.2 (1993): 65–70. Reproduced with permission from American Anthropological Association and B. A. Conklin.
  18. Antonius C. G. M. Robben, “State Terror in the Netherworld: Disappearance and Reburial in Argentina,” in Jeffrey A. Sluka (ed.), Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror, published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2000. Reproduced with permission from University of Pennsylvania Press.
  19. Diane O’Rourke, “Mourning Becomes Eclectic: Death of Communal Practice in a Greek Cemetery,” American Ethnologist, 34.2 (2007): 387–402. Reproduced with permission from American Anthropological Association and D. O’Rourke.
  20. Liv Haram, “‘We Are Tired of Mourning!’ The Economy of Death and Bereavement in a Time of AIDS,” in Hansjörg Dilger and Ute Luig (eds.), Morality, Hope and Grief: Anthropologies of AIDS in Africa, published by Berghahn Books in 2010. Reproduced with permission from Berghahn Books.
  21. Igor Kopytoff, “Ancestors as Elders in Africa,” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 41.2 (1971): 129–42. Reproduced with permission from Cambridge University Press.
  22. Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, “The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Mapuche Shaman: Remembering, Disremembering, and the Willful Transformation of Memory,” Journal of Anthropological Research, 66.1 (2010): 97–119. Reproduced with permission from the Regents of the University of New Mexico/Journal of Anthropological Research.
  23. Heonik Kwon, “The Ghosts of War and the Spirit of Cosmopolitanism,” History of Religions, 48.1 (2008): 22–42. Reproduced with permission from University of Chicago Press and H. Kwon.
  24. Francisco Ferrándiz, “The Intimacy of Defeat: Exhumations in Contemporary Spain,” in Carlos Jerez‐Farrán and Samuel Amago (eds.), Unearthing Franco’s Legacy: Mass Graves and the Recovery of Historical Memory in Spain, published by Notre Dame Press in 2010. Reproduced with permission from F. Ferrándiz.