Death and the Regeneration of Life

by Maurice Bloch (Editor), Jonathan Parry

It is a classical anthropological paradox that symbols of rebirth and fertility are frequently found in funerary rituals throughout the world. The original essays collected here re-examine this phenomenon through insights from China, India, New Guinea, Latin America, and Africa. The contributors, each a specialist in one of these areas, have worked in close collaboration to produce a genuinely innovative theoretical approach to the study of the symbolism surrounding death, an outline of which is provided in an important introduction by the editors. The major concern of the volume is the way in which funerary rituals dramatically transform the image of life as a dialectic flux involving exchange and transaction, marriage and procreation, into an image of a still, transcendental order in which oppositions such as those between self and other, wife-giver and wife-taker, Brahmin and untouchable, birth and therefore death have been abolished. This transformation often involves a general devaluation of biology, and, particularly, of sexuality, which is contrasted with a more spiritual and controlled source of life. The role of women, who are frequently associated with biological processes, mourning and death pollution, is often predominant in funerary rituals, and in examining this book makes a further contribution to the understanding of the symbolism of gender. The death rituals and the symbolism of rebirth are also analysed in the context of the political processes of the different societies considered, and it is argued that social order and political organisation may be legitimated through an exploitation of the emotions and biology.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Death

248 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 1982

Reviews

[Geof Sage]

The title overpromises anything involving the second half. It's more interested in the ghoulish and it's written in a surprisingly antiquated style/POV given that it was published in the early 80s. I can just imagine all of these men regretting the Mutiny of 1857

[versarbre]

Woody Waston's article and Parry's article putting together is really nice.

[Clive Tetris]

Very memorable book of various perspectives on understanding death, dealing with it and beyond. "The force of analogy between death and rebirth is missing when you not only enter and leave the world naked, but remain naked while in it; where there is no transcendental authority to be created the dead can be left alone" - to those that found it interesting, i'd also recommend: '"Thus Are Our Bodies Thus was Our Custom": Mortuary Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society'. American Ethnologist 22(1): 75-101