Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual

by Peter Metcalf and Richard Huntington

Book Overview

This revised edition of a cross-cultural study of rituals surrounding death has become a standard text in anthropology, sociology, and religion. Part of its fascination and success is that in understanding other people's death rituals we are able to gain a better understanding of our own. Peter Metcalf and Richard Huntington refer to a wide variety of examples from different continents and epochs. They compare the great tombs of the Berawan of Borneo...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521423759
• ISBN13: 9780521423755
• Release Date: October 1991
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Celebration of death

I am so impressed with the information in this book, it has been an asset for my research.

Good Book for a new Anthropologist

This is a good book which deals with funerary rites and traditions. It looks at how death is celebrated in various countries and through different cultures. I gave it four stars instead of five as I had hoped it would have dealt more with persons from an African and Aborigine environments.

Groundbreaking ethnographies

This is by far the most enjoyable and fascinating comparative case-studies I've read concerning treatment of the dead in Southeast Asia. I suggest this book to anyone wishing to crossculturally examine views of the deceased and the rituals associated with death. Superb, absolutely brilliant. Raven Digitalis