First published in 1920, The Burial of the Dead emerged from the idea that the primitive man did not imagine graves as receptacles for the dead, but refuges for the living. The book is an anthropological and a philosophical quest to understand when and how the custom of burial came about within primitive society. The book does not limit itself to the customs and traditions of burial, but also engages with the concepts of death, life, and afterlife as conceived by the primitive man. In doing so, the author traces a continuity between the strength of beliefs in a primitive society and in a modern one, as well as the development of those beliefs into universal principles. This book will be of interest to anyone trying to unravel the mystery of death and especially to students of anthropology, history, philosophy and religion.
Preface Introduction 1. The Cave of Aurignac 2. The journey of the Dead 3. Funeral Offerings 4. Orientation of Graves 5. The Land of the Dead 6. Lost Atlantis 7. Underground Regions of the Dead 8. Dwellings and Graves 9. The Breton Lake of the Dead 10. Change and Forgetting 11. The Life of the Dead 12. Funeral Offerings 13. Ghosts 14. Ancestor Worship 15. Concurrent Methods of Burial 16. Tree Burial 17. Mourning 18. Relics of Voluntary Outlawry 19. Prison 20. Conclusion
Biography
W. H. F. Basevi
