On Our Way : The Final Passage through Life and Death / Robert Kastenbaum.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kastenbaum, Robert, Author.

Series:

Life passages ; volume 3.

Life Passages ; 3

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Future life.

Death--Social aspects.

Death.

Death--Psychological aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (461 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2004]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How do our ideas about dying influence the way we live? Life has often 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 on a remarkable range of observations-from psychology, anthropology, religion, biology, and personal experience-Robert Kastenbaum re-envisions life's forward-looking progress, 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, often moving, this look at death as many cultures await it or approach it enriches our understanding of life as a never-ending passage.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ONE. HERE (?) WE ARE

TWO. PRACTICING DEATH

THREE. GOOD DEATH, BAD DEATH (I)

FOUR. GOOD DEATH, BAD DEATH (II)

FIVE. CORPSED PERSONS

SIX. ABUSING AND EATING THE DEAD

SEVEN. TOO MANY DEAD

EIGHT. DOWN TO EARTH AND UP IN FLAMES

NINE. JOURNEY OF THE DEAD

TEN. LIVING THROUGH

NOTES

SOURCES CITED

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 429-439) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786612758768

9781282758766

1282758764

9780520922938

052092293X

OCLC:

574281839