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Author : Sergei Kan Publisher : University of Washington Press Page : 417 pages File Size : 12,99 MB Release : 2015-12-01 Category : History ISBN : 0295806281
Decades after its initial publication, Symbolic Immortality retains its status as the most comprehensive analysis of the mortuary practices of the Tlingit Indians of southeastern Alaska—or any other indigenous culture of the Northwest Coast. This updated and expanded edition furthers our understanding of the potlatch (koo.éex’) as a total social phenomenon, with emotional and religious as well as economic and sociopolitical dimensions. The result is a major contribution to both Northwest Coast ethnology and theoretical literature on the anthropology of death.
Is There Life After Death? For many, death is terrifying. We try to live as long as possible while hoping that science will soon find a way to allow us to live, if not forever, then at least a very long time. Whether we deny our mortality though literal or symbolic immortality or try to turn death into something benign, our attempts fail us. But what if the real solution is not in denying death’s reality, but in acknowledging it while enjoying a hope for a wonderful forever? Clay Jones, a professor of Christian apologetics, explores the ways people face death and how these “immortality projects” are unsuccessful, even destructive. Along the way, he points to the hope of the only true immortality available to all—the truth that God already offers a path to our hearts’ deepest longing: glorious resurrection to eternal life.
The blogger behind Confessions of a Funeral Director—what Time magazine called a "must read"—reflects on mortality and the powerful lessons death holds for every one of us in this compassionate and thoughtful spiritual memoir that combines the humor and insight of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes with the poignancy and brevity of When Breath Becomes Air. We are a people who deeply fear death. While humans are biologically wired to evade death for as long as possible, we have become too adept at hiding from it, vilifying it, and—when it can be avoided no longer—letting the professionals take over. Sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde understands this reticence and fear. He had planned to get as far away from the family business as possible. He wanted to make a difference in the world, and how could he do that if all the people he worked with were . . . dead? Slowly, he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones was making a difference—in other people’s lives to be sure, but it also seemed to be saving his own. A spirituality of death began to emerge as he observed: The family who lovingly dressed their deceased father for his burial The act of embalming a little girl that offered a gift back to her grieving family The nursing home that honored a woman’s life by standing in procession as her body was taken away The funeral that united a conflicted community Through stories like these, told with equal parts humor and poignancy, Wilde offers an intimate look into the business and a new perspective on living and dying
This work is based on the belief that human beings need to feel that their lives have meaning and at death to feel a sense of continuance. To experience these feelings, it is often essential to face our mortality and psychologically prepare for death. Symbolic immortality is one way to experience these feelings of meaning and life continuance through a legacy of progeny and other relationships and through creativity. The historical beliefs about immortality are explicated, and then this dissertation focuses on the development of the fear and denial of death which was exacerbated by the scientific advancements and medicalization emerging from the enlightenment and continuing to the present. These developments have made it difficult for many to believe in a literal immortality, creating a problem given the human condition's lingering need for this meaning and continuance. These developments have been a roadblock to facing our mortality. Robert Jay Lifton's work on symbolic immortality is at the center of this work. This dissertation explores his five modes of symbolic immortality, the theological, the biological, the creative, through nature and the experiental, focusing finally on the biological and creative modes. Historically, humans have experienced meaning and legacy through children and grandchildren and through creativity in their art or other worldly activities. Examples of these are critically examined with their positive as well as negative outcomes. This work argues for facing your mortality and preparing for death through a creative process. It is possible for everyone to experience symbolic immortality and psychologically prepare for death by reweaving our life story, using memoir, life review, reminiscence and reverie--or by using the goddesses Mnemosyne and Lethe, of memory and forgetting, to resculpt our life story into our myth that has meaning and traces of continuity.
Throughout history mankind has struggled to reconcile itself with the inescapability of its own mortality. This book explores the themes of immortality and survivalism in contemporary culture, shedding light on the varied and ingenious ways in which humans and human societies aspire to confront and deal with death, or even seek to outlive it, as it were. Bringing together theoretical and empirical work from internationally acclaimed scholars across a range of disciplines, Postmortal Society offers studies of the strategies adopted and means available in modern society for trying to ‘cheat’ death or prolong life, the status of the dead in the modern Western world, the effects of beliefs that address the terror of death in other areas of life, the ‘immortalisation’ of celebrities, the veneration of the dead in virtual worlds, symbolic immortality through work, the implications of understanding ‘immortality’ in chemical-neuronal terms, and the apparent paradox of our greater reverence for the dead in increasingly secular, capitalist societies. A fascinating collection of studies that explore humanity’s attempts to deal with its own mortality in the modern age, this book will appeal to sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers and scholars of cultural studies with interests in death and dying.
What have we not done to live forever? Adam Leith Gollner, the critically acclaimed author of The Fruit Hunters, weaves together religion, science, and mythology in a gripping exploration of the most universal of human obsessions: immortality. Raised without religion, Adam Leith Gollner was struck by mankind’s tireless efforts to cheat aging and death. In a narrative that pivots between profundity and hilarity, he brings us into the world of those whose lives are shaped by a belief in immortality. From a Jesuit priest on his deathbed to anti-aging researchers at Harvard, Gollner--sorting truth from absurdity--canvasses religion and science for insight, along with an array of cults, myths, and fringe figures. He journeys to David Copperfield’s archipelago in the Bahamas, where the magician claims to have found “a liquid that reverses genes.” He explores a cryonics facility, attends a costume party set in the year 2068 with a group of radical life-extensionists, and soaks in the transformative mineral waters at the Esalen Institute. Looking to history, Gollner visits St. Augustine, Florida, where Ponce de Leon is thought to have sought the fountain of youth. Combining immersive reporting, rigorous research, and lyrical prose, Gollner charts the rise of longevity science from its alchemical beginnings to modern-day genetic interventions. He delves into the symbolic representation of eternal life and its connection to water. Interlaced throughout is a compelling meditation on the nature of belief, showing how every story we tell about immortality is a story about the meaning of death. “Part journalist, part detective, part scientist” (New York Post), Adam Leith Gollner has written a rollicking and revelatory examination of our age-old notion of living forever.
Decades after its initial publication, Symbolic Immortality retains its status as the most comprehensive analysis of the mortuary practices of the Tlingit Indians of southeastern Alaska--or any other indigenous culture of the Northwest Coast. This updated and expanded edition furthers our understanding of the potlatch (koo.�ex') as a total social phenomenon, with emotional and religious as well as economic and sociopolitical dimensions. The result is a major contribution to both Northwest Coast ethnology and theoretical literature on the anthropology of death.