The History of Death

Death is universal, but each culture has found a different way of dealing with it. This wide-ranging book examines the compelling subject of death, funeral rites and burial in different cultures and societies, from the drama of medieval French royal funerals to the burial alive of the Dinka ‘masters of the spear’ in the Sudan, from the Egyptian pyramids to the Chinese terra-cotta army to elaborate Victorian mausolea, from the Grim Reeper to Hades and the Underworld.

Funerals can be solemn but also celebratory, drunken and even lascivious. From human sacrifice to ritual killings, from burial to cremation, from ancestor worship to concepts of the afterlife, The History of Death examines how through our passing we, in fact, define our lives.