Death Lore

Death Lore PDF Author: Kenneth L. Untiedt
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574412566
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Death provides us with some of our very best folklore. Some fear it, some embrace it, and most have pretty firm ideas about what happens when we die. Although some people may not want to talk about dying, it’s the only thing that happens to all of us—and there’s no way to get around it. This publication of the Texas Folklore Society examines the lore of death and whatever happens afterward. The first chapter examines places where people are buried, either permanently or temporarily. Chapter Two features articles about how people die and the rituals associated with funerals and burials. The third chapter explores some of the stranger stories about what happens after we’re gone, and the last chapter offers some philosophical musings about death in general, as well as our connection to those who have gone before.

Death Lore

Death Lore PDF Author: Kenneth L. Untiedt
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574412566
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
Death provides us with some of our very best folklore. Some fear it, some embrace it, and most have pretty firm ideas about what happens when we die. Although some people may not want to talk about dying, it’s the only thing that happens to all of us—and there’s no way to get around it. This publication of the Texas Folklore Society examines the lore of death and whatever happens afterward. The first chapter examines places where people are buried, either permanently or temporarily. Chapter Two features articles about how people die and the rituals associated with funerals and burials. The third chapter explores some of the stranger stories about what happens after we’re gone, and the last chapter offers some philosophical musings about death in general, as well as our connection to those who have gone before.

Death's Summer Coat

Death's Summer Coat PDF Author: Brandy Schillace
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1681770938
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Death is something we all confront—it touches our families, our homes, our hearts. And yet we have grown used to denying its existence, treating it as an enemy to be beaten back with medical advances.We are living at a unique point in human history. People are living longer than ever, yet the longer we live, the more taboo and alien our mortality becomes. Yet we, and our loved ones, still remain mortal. People today still struggle with this fact, as we have done throughout our entire history. What led us to this point? What drove us to sanitize death and make it foreign and unfamiliar?Schillace shows how talking about death, and the rituals associated with it, can help provide answers. It also brings us closer together—conversation and community are just as important for living as for dying. Some of the stories are strikingly unfamiliar; others are far more familiar than you might suppose. But all reveal much about the present—and about ourselves.

The Work of the Dead

The Work of the Dead PDF Author: Thomas W. Laqueur
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691180938
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 736

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Book Description
The meaning of our concern for mortal remains—from antiquity through the twentieth century The Greek philosopher Diogenes said that when he died his body should be tossed over the city walls for beasts to scavenge. Why should he or anyone else care what became of his corpse? In The Work of the Dead, acclaimed cultural historian Thomas Laqueur examines why humanity has universally rejected Diogenes's argument. No culture has been indifferent to mortal remains. Even in our supposedly disenchanted scientific age, the dead body still matters—for individuals, communities, and nations. A remarkably ambitious history, The Work of the Dead offers a compelling and richly detailed account of how and why the living have cared for the dead, from antiquity to the twentieth century. The book draws on a vast range of sources—from mortuary archaeology, medical tracts, letters, songs, poems, and novels to painting and landscapes in order to recover the work that the dead do for the living: making human communities that connect the past and the future. Laqueur shows how the churchyard became the dominant resting place of the dead during the Middle Ages and why the cemetery largely supplanted it during the modern period. He traces how and why since the nineteenth century we have come to gather the names of the dead on great lists and memorials and why being buried without a name has become so disturbing. And finally, he tells how modern cremation, begun as a fantasy of stripping death of its history, ultimately failed—and how even the ashes of the victims of the Holocaust have been preserved in culture. A fascinating chronicle of how we shape the dead and are in turn shaped by them, this is a landmark work of cultural history.

Massachusetts Book of the Dead

Massachusetts Book of the Dead PDF Author: Roxie J. Zwicker
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614237379
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
A historical tour of the Bay State’s oldest burial grounds—and the sometimes-spooky stories behind them. Massachusetts's historic graveyards are the final resting places for tales of the strange and supernatural. From Newburyport to Truro, these graveyards often frighten the living, but the dead who rest within them have stories to share with the world they left behind. While Giles Corey is said to haunt the Howard Street Cemetery in Salem, cursing those involved in the infamous witch trials, visitors to the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain enjoy an arboretum and a burial ground with Victorian-era memorials. One of the oldest cemeteries in Massachusetts, Old Burial Hill in Marblehead, has been the final resting place for residents for nearly 375 years. Author Roxie Zwicker tours the Bay State's oldest burial grounds, exploring the stones, stories and supernatural lore of these hallowed places. Includes photos

Little Sister Death

Little Sister Death PDF Author: William Gay
Publisher: Faber & Faber Limited
ISBN: 9780571325726
Category : Authors
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
David Binder is a young, successful writer living in Chicago and suffering from writer's block. He stares at the blank page, and the blank page stares back harder. So when his agent suggests maybe a lighter sophomore novel, maybe something genre that they can sell real quick and buy him some more time to pen his magnum opus, he's quick to recall an old ghost story he once heard. With his pregnant wife and his young daughter in toe, he sets out for Tennessee with high hopes of indulging the local lore surrounding Virginia Beale, Faery Queen of the Haunted Dell and whiling away the summer from life in the city. But as his investigation goes further and further, and the creaking of the floor boards grows louder and louder, David Binder realizes he's not only endangered himself, but also his wife and daughter.

The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye PDF Author: Meghan O'Rourke
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101486554
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
"Anguished, beautifully written... The Long Goodbye is an elegiac depiction of drama as old as life." -- The New York Times Book Review From one of America's foremost young literary voices, a transcendent portrait of the unbearable anguish of grief and the enduring power of familial love. What does it mean to mourn today, in a culture that has largely set aside rituals that acknowledge grief? After her mother died of cancer at the age of fifty-five, Meghan O'Rourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorrow. In the first anguished days, she began to create a record of her interior life as a mourner, trying to capture the paradox of grief-its monumental agony and microscopic intimacies-an endeavor that ultimately bloomed into a profound look at how caring for her mother during her illness changed and strengthened their bond. O'Rourke's story is one of a life gone off the rails, of how watching her mother's illness-and separating from her husband-left her fundamentally altered. But it is also one of resilience, as she observes her family persevere even in the face of immeasurable loss. With lyricism and unswerving candor, The Long Goodbye conveys the fleeting moments of joy that make up a life, and the way memory can lead us out of the jagged darkness of loss. Effortlessly blending research and reflection, the personal and the universal, it is not only an exceptional memoir, but a necessary one.

Approaching Death

Approaching Death PDF Author: Committee on Care at the End of Life
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309518253
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
When the end of life makes its inevitable appearance, people should be able to expect reliable, humane, and effective caregiving. Yet too many dying people suffer unnecessarily. While an "overtreated" dying is feared, untreated pain or emotional abandonment are equally frightening. Approaching Death reflects a wide-ranging effort to understand what we know about care at the end of life, what we have yet to learn, and what we know but do not adequately apply. It seeks to build understanding of what constitutes good care for the dying and offers recommendations to decisionmakers that address specific barriers to achieving good care. This volume offers a profile of when, where, and how Americans die. It examines the dimensions of caring at the end of life: Determining diagnosis and prognosis and communicating these to patient and family. Establishing clinical and personal goals. Matching physical, psychological, spiritual, and practical care strategies to the patient's values and circumstances. Approaching Death considers the dying experience in hospitals, nursing homes, and other settings and the role of interdisciplinary teams and managed care. It offers perspectives on quality measurement and improvement, the role of practice guidelines, cost concerns, and legal issues such as assisted suicide. The book proposes how health professionals can become better prepared to care well for those who are dying and to understand that these are not patients for whom "nothing can be done."

Mirrors of Mortality (Routledge Revivals)

Mirrors of Mortality (Routledge Revivals) PDF Author: Joachim Whaley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136810609
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
First published in 1981, this reissue examines mankind’s preoccupation with death and mortality by isolating various societies in different periods of time. The authors examine not only the formal rituals associated with the last rite of passage, but also the social attitudes to death and dying which these rituals evidence. The essays establish that different periods do seem to be characterized by different images of death and attitudes to it, but the authors wisely avoid trying to impose strict chronological pattern. A pioneering work in the historical study of attitudes to death, this reissue should reignite discussion on the significance of death in human history. Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood examines attitudes to death as reflected in myth and religious thought in Ancient Greece and relates them to social and economic change. R. C. Finucane analysis the social significance of the ‘exemplary’ deaths of kings, criminals, traitors and saints in medieval Europe. Paul Fritz’s essay illustrates the importance of royal burials in early modern Britian; while Joachim Whaley examines the social and political significance of funerals in Hamburg between 1500 and 1800. John McManners discusses the work of Phililppe Aries and other prominent French scholars on the history of attitudes to death. David Irwin examines the images of death portrayed in European tombs around 1800. C.A Bayly analyzes the relationship between death ritual and society in Hindu Northern India, while David Cannadine discusses the impact of war on attitudes to death in modern Britain.

A History of Human Responses to Death

A History of Human Responses to Death PDF Author: Plinio Prioreschi
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description
This study examines death and its impact on human thinking from a biological and historical viewpoint. It finds that fear of death is the motive behind the human need to accomplish anything. It also discusses care of the terminally ill, mercy killing, suicide, and the death penalty.

The History of Death

The History of Death PDF Author: Michael Kerrigan
Publisher: Amber Books
ISBN: 9781905704590
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Death is universal, but each culture has found a different way to deal with it. This wide-ranging book examines the compelling subject of death, funeral rites and burial in different cultures and societies and balances grim facts with intriguing details drawn from many cultures and epochs, revealing how we define our lives through our passing.