First published in 1920, The Burial of the Dead emerged from the idea that the primitive man did not imagine graves as receptacles for the dead, but refuges for the living. The book is an anthropological and a philosophical quest to understand when and how the custom of burial came about within primitive society. The book does not limit itself to the customs and traditions of burial, but also engages with the concepts of death, life, and afterlife as conceived by the primitive man. In doing so, the author traces a continuity between the strength of beliefs in a primitive society and in a modern one, as well as the development of those beliefs into universal principles. This book will be of interest to anyone trying to unravel the mystery of death and especially to students of anthropology, history, philosophy and religion.
Author(s): W. H. F. Basevi
Series: Routledge Revivals
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 219
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Original Title
Contents
Preface
Introduction
I. The Cave of Aurignac
II. The Journey of the Dead
III. Funeral Offerings
IV. Orientation of Graves
V. The Land of the Dead
VI. Lost Atlantis
VII. Underground Regions of the Dead
VIII. Dwellings and Graves
IX. The Breton Land of the Dead
X. Change and Forgetting
XI. The Life of the Dead
XII. Funeral Offerings
XIII. Ghosts
XIV. Ancestor Worship
XV. Concurrent Methods of Burial
XVI. Tree Burial
XVII. Mourning
XVIII. Relics of Voluntary Outlawry
XIX. Prisons
XX. Conclusion
