Media and Ritual

Media and Ritual
Author: Johanna Sumiala
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2013
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0415684323

This wide-ranging and accessible book offers a stimulating introduction to the field of media anthropology and the study of religious ritual. Johanna Sumiala explores the interweaving of rituals, communication and community. She uses the tools of anthropological enquiry to examine a variety of media events, including the death of Michael Jackson, a royal wedding and the transgressive actions which took place in Abu Ghraib, and to understand the inner significance of the media coverage of such events. The book deals with theories of ritual, media as ritual including reception, production and representation, and rituals of death in the media. It will be invaluable to students and scholars alike across media, religion and anthropology.

Death, Ritual and Belief

Death, Ritual and Belief
Author: Douglas Davies
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2017-11-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1474250971

Death, Ritual and Belief, now in its third edition, explores many important issues related to death and dying, from a religious studies perspective, including anthropology and sociology. Using the motif of 'words against death' it depicts human responses to grief by surveying the many ways in which people have not let death have the last word, not simply in terms of funeral rites but also in memorials, graves, and in ideas of ancestors, souls, gods, reincarnation and resurrection, whether in the great religious traditions of the world or in more local customs. He also examines bereavement and grief, experiences of the presence of dead, near-death experiences, pet-death and the symbolic death played out in religious rites. Updated chapters have taken into account new research and include additional topics in this new edition, notably assisted dying, terrorism, green burial, material culture, death online, and the emergence of Death Studies as a distinctive field. Case studies range from Anders Breivik in Norway, to the Princess of Wales, and to the Rapture in the USA. A new perspective is also brought to his account of grief theories. Providing an introduction to key authors and authorities on death beliefs, bereavement, grief and ritual-symbolism, Death, Ritual and Belief is an authoritative guide to the perspectives of major religious and secular worldviews.

Taming Time, Timing Death

Taming Time, Timing Death
Author: Professor Dorthe Refslund Christensen
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2013-06-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1409472884

Departing from a persisting current in Western thought, which conceives of time in the abstract, and often reflects upon death as occupying a space at life's margins, this book begins from position that it is in fact through the material and perishable world that we experience time. As such, it is with death and our encounters with it, that form the basis of human conceptions of time. Presenting rich, interdisciplinary empirical studies of death rituals and practices across the globe, from the US and Europe, Asia, The Middle East, Australasia and Africa, Taming Time, Timing Death explores the manner in which social technologies and rituals have been and are implemented to avoid, delay or embrace death, or communicate with the dead, thus informing and manifesting humans' understanding of time. It will therefore be of interest to scholars and students of anthropology, philosophy, sociology and social theory, human geography and religion.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
Author: Margareta Magnusson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2018-01-02
Genre: House & Home
ISBN: 1501173251

*The basis for the wonderfully funny and moving TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout Productions* A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life. In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming. Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.

Inviting Death

Inviting Death
Author: S. Settar
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2023-08-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004669329

Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China

Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China
Author: James L. Watson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 1988
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520071292

During the late imperial era (1500-1911), China, though divided by ethnic, linguistic, and regional differences at least as great as those prevailing in Europe, enjoyed a remarkable solidarity. What held Chinese society together for so many centuries? Some scholars have pointed to the institutional control over the written word as instrumental in promoting cultural homogenization; others, the manipulation of the performing arts. This volume, comprised of essays by both anthropologists and historians, furthers this important discussion by examining the role of death rituals in the unification of Chinese culture.

Muslims Ritualising Death in the Netherlands

Muslims Ritualising Death in the Netherlands
Author: Claudia Venhorst
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2013
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 3643903510

This study on the common practice of Islamic death rites in the Netherlands affords valuable insights in the lived religion of Muslims. Particularly in a small town context marked by migration and diversity, Muslims are challenged to re-imagine and re-invent their ritual repertoire. This results in dynamic ritual practices that are the product of vibrant negotiation processes in which rites interact with ritual actors and their (changing) contexts. The emerging ritual repertoire and their dynamics are widely overlooked in an institutionalized and traditional religion like Islam. (Series: Death Studies. Nijmegen Studies in Thanatology - Vol. 3)

Death, Ritual, and Belief

Death, Ritual, and Belief
Author: Douglas J. Davies
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0304338222

Describing a variety of funeral ritual, from major world religions and from local traditions, this book shows how cultures cope not only with corpses but also create an added value for living through the growth of afterlife beliefs. The key theme of the book is the rhetoric of death -- the way cultures use the most potent weapon of words to bring new power to life. Human identity and its transformation through mortuary rites is explored through the mummies of Chile and Egypt; African sacrificial deaths; Indian cremations; immigrant cemeteries in the USA; ancestor rites in Eastern religions and Mormonism; and the freezing of the dead in cryonics. Research findings are presented on cremation and afterlife beliefs, especially reincarnation, sensing the presence of the dead, and the death of pets in Britain, to show how mortuary rituals are constantly changing in response to death as a major feature of the human environment.

Mourning Animals

Mourning Animals
Author: Margo DeMello
Publisher: MSU Press
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2016-08-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1628952717

We live more intimately with nonhuman animals than ever before in history. The change in the way we cohabitate with animals can be seen in the way we treat them when they die. There is an almost infinite variety of ways to help us cope with the loss of our nonhuman friends—from burial, cremation, and taxidermy; to wearing or displaying the remains (ashes, fur, or other parts) of our deceased animals in jewelry, tattoos, or other artwork; to counselors who specialize in helping people mourn pets; to classes for veterinarians; to tips to help the surviving animals who are grieving their animal friends; to pet psychics and memorial websites. But the reality is that these practices, and related beliefs about animal souls or animal afterlife, generally only extend, with very few exceptions, to certain kinds of animals—pets. Most animals, in most cultures, are not mourned, and the question of an animal afterlife is not contemplated at all. Mourning Animals investigates how we mourn animal deaths, which animals are grievable, and what the implications are for all animals.