1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife
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.
Part I: The Study of Dying, Death and Grief: An Overview
Chapter 1: Introduction by Candi K. Cann
Chapter 2: State of the Field of Death in the United States by George E. Dickinson
Chapter 3: Brain Death and the Politics of Religion by Donald Joralemon
Chapter 4: Understanding Grief: Theoretical Perspectives by Kenneth J. Doka
Part II: Disposal of the Dead: Past, Present and Future
Chapter 5: Symbolizing Imperial Affiliation in Death: Case Studies from the Inka Empire (AD 1400-1532) by Colleen Zori
Chapter 6: The Romanian Orthodox Church and Issues of Cremation by Marius Rotar
Chapter 7: Reframing Sites of the Dead in Brazil by Renato Cymbalista & Aline Silva Santos
Chapter 8: Stand By Me: The Fear of Solitary Death and the Need for Social Bonds in Contemporary Japan by Chikako Ozawa-de-Silva
Chapter 9: Politics of Death and Mortuary Rituals in Trinidadian Hinduism by Priyanka Ramlakhan
Chapter 10: The Right to be Dead: Designing Future Cemeteries by Jakob Borrits Sabra & John Troyer
Part III: Representations of Death: Narratives and Rhetoric
Chapter 11: Post-Mortem (2010): Saint Salvador Allende and Historical Autopsy by Moisés Park
Chapter 12: Mourning Deaths and Constructing Afterlives in the Red Army at War by Steven G. Jug
Chapter 13: Corpses That Preach: Óscar Romero and the Martyred Priests of El Salvador by Mandy Rodgers-Gates
Chapter 14: Photographing Human Finitude: Philosophical Reflections on Photographs of Death by Mathew A. Crawford
Chapter 15: De Imago to Word: The Exile of the Dead from Parish Symbolism in Reformation England by Lacy K. Crocker Papadakis
Part IV: Youth Meets Death: A Juxtaposition
Chapter 16: The Comprehension of Death and Afterlife in Children by Ramiro Tau
Chapter 17: The Effects of Parental Death on Religiosity within an American Context by Renae Wilkinson
Chapter 18: Ashes to Ashes: Continuing Bonds in Young Adulthood in the Netherlands by Renske Visser
Part V: Questionable Deaths and Afterlives: Suicide, Ghosts & Avatars
Chapter 19: Exeunt: The Question of Suicide at the Origin of Early Christianity by Michael J. Thate
Chapter 20: How Not to Become A Ghost: Tales of Female Suicide Martyrs in Sixteenth-Century Vietnamese 'Transmissions of Marvels' (truyền kỳ) by Cuong T. Mai
Chapter 21: The Cat Came Back: Revenant Pets and the Paranormal Everyday by Sara Knox
Chapter 22: From Ancestors to Avatars: Transfiguring the Afterlife by Jenny Huberman
Part VI: Material Corpses and Imagined Afterlives Around the World
Chapter 23: From the Underworld of Yama to the Island of Gems: Concepts of Afterlife in Hinduism by June McDaniel
Chapter 24: A Broad Survey of Zulu Ancestor Veneration and the Challenges it Faces by Radikobo Ntsimane
Chapter 25: Death and Life in a Pluralistic Society: Boundary-Making and Boundary-Crossing in Sino-Burmese-Tibetan Borderlands by Keping Wu
Chapter 26: Viking Death: Pre-Christian Rites of Passage and Funerary Feasting by Davide Zori
Chapter 27: Death, Resurrection and the World to Come: Jewish Views on Death and Afterlife by Nicholas R. Werse
Chapter 28: The Afterlife and Death: An Islamic Perspective by David Oualaalou
Chapter 29: Coffins, Candles, and Cameras—Aspects
Biography
Candi K. Cann is an Associate Professor of Religion in the Honors College at Baylor University, USA.
"A veritable feast of insights on a vast range of intriguing topics related to death and dying, this Handbook takes up issues of the afterlife, grief, corpses, ghosts, revenant pets, and much more, from diverse cultural perspectives and time periods."
-Karma Lekshe Tsomo, University of San Diego, USA
"The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife is largely a work by authors with expertise in religious studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, medicine, architecture, and death studies (thanatology). It is therefore interdisciplinary (or multi-disciplinary) in nature.
[...]While the contributors range from seasoned experts in their fields to graduate students working on their doctoral dissertations, all the chapters are of good quality and written so that they may benefit academics while being accessible to upper-level undergraduates."
-Charles Taliaferro, Saint Olaf College, Religious Studies Review
