Mortuary Science

This book provides more than 2,200 citations of monographs on the science and study of death and dying. Among the areas this volume addresses are the psychological, philosophical, and attitudinal aspects; coping and dealing with the burdens of caregiving and working in the helping professions; instructional and educational topics for practitioners, primarily health care providers; cultural differences in bereavement rituals; and grief, mourning, and loss. In addition, notable titles on or relating to death and dying in popular culture, death themes in literature, methods of death, or specific ethical, policy, or public issues are also included when they contribute important information to subject areas on which the book focuses.

This trusted classic covers the long history of embalming, explains embalming theory, and describes present practice, including the latest trends. Special attention has been given to the creation of a safe working environment - from the standpoint of ergonomics, personal hygiene, and the use of embalming chemicals.

This book consolidates and contextualizes the disparate research that has been carried out about death and dying. The phenomena of death and dying and its related concepts are explored and explained in depth, from the approaches of varied disciplines and related professions in the arts, social sciences, humanities, medicine and the sciences.

This book is a carefully researched, well-organized, informative, and multi-disciplinary source on death studies. It examines the cultural, historical, and societal frameworks of death, such as the universal fear of death, spirituality and various religions, the legal definition of death, suicide, and capital punishment. An additional volume covers such topics as rites and ceremonies, grief and bereavement, and legal matters after death.

A lengthy history of funeral practices, beginning with pagan influences and ending with modern-day thinking and approaches.

This collection explores the behavioral and social facets of funerary, mortuary, and burial rites in both past and present societies. By utilizing data from around the world and combining recent and ongoing concerns in anthropology, it takes the study of mortuary archaeology to a new and significant level of interdisciplinary research. Drawing inspiration from ethnohistory, ethnography, bioarchaeology, and sociocultural anthropology, the authors focus on themes of gender, ancestorhood, ritual violence, individual agency, space and placement, and extended and secondary mortuary ceremonialism.

This text explores the emergence of new end-of-life rituals in America that celebrate the dying and reinvent the roles of family and community at the deathbed. The author also investigates a variety of solutions--living funerals, oral ethical wills, and home funerals--that revise the impending death scenario. Integrating the profoundly personal with the objectively historical, the book calls for an "end of life revolution" to change the way of death in America.

This book provides an insightful and concise approach to the psychosocial process of death and bereavement.

From antebellum slavery to the twenty-first century, African American funeral directors have orchestrated funerals or "homegoing" ceremonies with dignity and pageantry. As entrepreneurs in a largely segregated trade, they were among the few Black individuals in any community who were economically independent and not beholden to the local white power structure. Most important, their financial freedom gave them the ability to support the struggle for civil rights and, indeed, to serve the living as well as bury the dead. During the Jim Crow era, black funeral directors relied on racial segregation to secure their foothold in America's capitalist marketplace. With the dawning of the civil rights age, these entrepreneurs were drawn into the movement to integrate American society, but were also uncertain how racial integration would affect their business success. From the beginning, this tension between personal gain and community service shaped the history of African American funeral directing. The book offers a fascinating history of how African American funeral directors have been integral to the fight for freedom.

An examination of various funeral services and ceremonies, including those of Protestant, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Baha'i', military, and fraternal organization communities.

Written for the funeral service industry by a funeral service professional, this unique book teaches effective methods of interacting with people.