On our way : the final passage through life and death / Robert Kastenbaum.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kastenbaum, Robert.

Series:

Life passages ; 3.

Life passages ; 3

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Death--Psychological aspects.

Death.

Death--Social aspects.

Future life.

Physical Description:

vii, 452 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2004]

Summary:

Life often has been envisioned as a journey, the river of time carrying us inexorably toward the unknown country -- and in our day we increasingly turn to myth and magic, ritual and virtual reality, cloning and cryostasis in the hope of eluding the reality of the inevitable end. In this book, a preeminent and eminently wise writer on death and dying proposes a new way of understanding our last transition. A fresh exploration of the final passage through life and perhaps through death, his work deftly interweaves historical and contemporary experiences and reflections to demonstrate that we are always on our way. Drawing upon a remarkable range of observations -- from psychology, anthropology, religion, biology, and personal experience -- Robert Kastenbaum re-envisions life's forward-looking progression, from early-childhood bedtime rituals to the many small rehearsals we stage for our final separation. Along the way, he illuminates such moments and ideas as becoming a "corpsed person," going down to earth or up in flames, respecting or abusing (and eating) the dead, coping with "too many dead," conceiving and achieving a "good death," undertaking the journey of the dead, and learning to live through the scrimmage of daily life fully knowing that eternity does not really come in a designer flask. Profound, insightful, and often moving, this look into the coming of death as many cultures await it or approach it enriches our understanding of life as a never-ending passage.

Contents:

1 Here (?) We Are 1

2 Practicing Death: Some Rituals of Everyday Life 25

3 Good Death, Bad Death (I): In Other Times and Places 43

4 Good Death, Bad Death (II): Here and Now 93

5 Corpsed Persons 138

6 Abusing and Eating the Dead 176

7 Too Many Dead: The Plague and Other Mass Deaths 218

8 Down to Earth and Up in Flames 262

9 Journey of the Dead 311

10 Living Through 355.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 415-439) and index.

ISBN:

0520218809

OCLC:

51868176

Online:

Publisher description