Anthropology of Death ((3))

Catalog description

Consideration of the death experience in the broadest possible context. Survey of funerary practices encompassing mummification, burial, exposure, cremation, and endocannibalism. Examination of historical and ethnographic observations of mortuary practices and attitudes, as well as their utility for building analogies for interpretation of mortuary practices and attitudes of past peoples from archaeological remains. Use of mortuary practices for reconstruction of gender roles, social stratification, valuation and agency. Constraint of political consideration "both past and present" that call into question fundamental assumptions about death, dying, and monumentalism held by many.