Bibliography about the history of death and funerary practices

Bibliography about the history of death and funerary practices

This is a bibliography about the history of the death and funerary practices and cultural and religious traditions surrounding death and the subjects historical context. Death is the end of an organism's life. It is the irreversible cessation of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Entropy, nature's tendency toward disorder, can contribute to the breakdown of living systems over time. After death, organisms stop exhibiting behavior and generally begin to decompose through various physical and chemical processes. Death can occur at any stage of development, including in infancy. A person may experience a reversible clinical death, which in some cases results in a near-death experience. In humans, brain death establishes that an individual has irreversibly died. Death is dealt with differently in cultures around the world, and it raises ethical issues such as martyrdom, suicide and euthanasia. In a human being, death is the permanent termination of all life-sustaining processes, when every biological system ceases to operate. Death and its spiritual significance are debated throughout the world. Most cultures dispose of their dead with rituals that developed from spiritual traditions. Bibliography contains academic level English language books (including translations) and journal articles, published mainly post World War II. Book entries may have references to reviews published in academic journals or major newspapers when these could be considered helpful. These reference reviews also function as a resource to find other works on this subject. Works listed here are cited in the notes or bibliographies of scholarly sources. Each is published by an academic or major press, written by a recognized expert, or substantially reviewed in scholarly journals; borderline cases are omitted. A selection of primary sources are included. Many of the books below carry their own bibliographies; see the Further reading section for other bibliographies, and the External links section for historical sites, academic sites, and museums. Citations follow APA style. Books have citations to academic journal or mainstream published reviews when available. For books only partly about the subject, relevant chapter or section titles are provided when useful and available. Translators of the original-language edition are included when possible.

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Israel.

Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield.

Bibliography about the history of death and funerary practices

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See also