This vast compendium of information contains hundreds of entries on the sometimes obscure, complicated, and mysterious (but always fascinating) funeral customs of dozens of cultures. Topics cover the burial and afterlife customs of China, the Greco-Roman world, India, the Near East, ancient Israel, the Iron Age Celts, Africa, Native Americans, Lapps, Islamic countries, modern Western society, and many other ancient and contemporary cultures. More than a gathering of information, this essential reference draws out the underlying meaning of funeral and afterlife traditions. It makes available a variety of human responses to that most fundamental reality of life: death.

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