Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife

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

• Part I: The Study of Dying, Death and Grief: An OverviewChapter 1: Introduction by Candi K. CannChapter 2: State of the Field of Death in the United States by George E. DickinsonChapter 3: Brain Death and the Politics of Religion by Donald JoralemonChapter 4: Understanding Grief: Theoretical Perspectives by Kenneth J. DokaPart II: Disposal of the Dead: Past, Present and FutureChapter 5: Symbolizing Imperial Affiliation in Death: Case Studies from the Inka Empire (AD 1400-1532) by Colleen ZoriChapter 6: The Romanian Orthodox Church and Issues of Cremation by Marius RotarChapter 7: Reframing Sites of the Dead in Brazil by Renato Cymbalista & Aline Silva SantosChapter 8: Stand By Me: The Fear of Solitary Death and the Need for Social Bonds in Contemporary Japan by Chikako Ozawa-de-SilvaChapter 9: Politics of Death and Mortuary Rituals in Trinidadian Hinduism by Priyanka RamlakhanChapter 10: The Right to be Dead: Designing Future Cemeteries by Jakob Borrits Sabra & John Troyer Part III: Representations of Death: Narratives and RhetoricChapter 11: Post-Mortem (2010): Saint Salvador Allende and Historical Autopsy by Moisés ParkChapter 12: Mourning Deaths and Constructing Afterlives in the Red Army at War by Steven G. JugChapter 13: Corpses That Preach: Óscar Romero and the Martyred Priests of El Salvador by Mandy Rodgers-GatesChapter 14: Photographing Human Finitude: Philosophical Reflections on Photographs of Death by Mathew A. CrawfordChapter 15: De Imago to Word: The Exile of the Dead from Parish Symbolism in Reformation England by Lacy K. Crocker PapadakisPart IV: Youth Meets Death: A JuxtapositionChapter 16: The Comprehension of Death and Afterlife in Children by Ramiro TauChapter 17: The Effects of Parental Death on Religiosity within an American Context by Renae WilkinsonChapter 18: Ashes to Ashes: Continuing Bonds in Young Adulthood in the Netherlands by Renske VisserPart V: Questionable Deaths and Afterlives: Suicide, Ghosts & AvatarsChapter 19: Exeunt: The Question of Suicide at the Origin of Early Christianity by Michael J. ThateChapter 20: How Not to Become A Ghost: Tales of Female Suicide Martyrs in Sixteenth-Century Vietnamese 'Transmissions of Marvels' (truyền kỳ) by Cuong T. MaiChapter 21: The Cat Came Back: Revenant Pets and the Paranormal Everyday by Sara KnoxChapter 22: From Ancestors to Avatars: Transfiguring the Afterlife by Jenny HubermanPart VI: Material Corpses and Imagined Afterlives Around the WorldChapter 23: From the Underworld of Yama to the Island of Gems: Concepts of Afterlife in Hinduism by June McDanielChapter 24: A Broad Survey of Zulu Ancestor Veneration and the Challenges it Faces by Radikobo NtsimaneChapter 25: Death and Life in a Pluralistic Society: Boundary-Making and Boundary-Crossing in Sino-Burmese-Tibetan Borderlands by Keping WuChapter 26: Viking Death: Pre-Christian Rites of Passage and Funerary Feasting by Davide ZoriChapter 27: Death, Resurrection and the World to Come: Jewish Views on Death and Afterlife by Nicholas R. WerseChapter 28: The Afterlife and Death: An Islamic Perspective by David OualaalouChapter 29: Coffins, Candles, and Cameras—Aspects of Brazilian Funerals from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-first Century by Andréia MartinsChapter 30: Buying an Afterlife: Mapping Religious Beliefs through Consumer Death Goods by Candi K. Cann