Being Dead Otherwise
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Duke University Press
Published:10th Mar '23
Should be back in stock very soon
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£83.00(9781478017141)
With an aging population, declining marriage and childbirth rates, and a rise in single households, more Japanese are living and dying alone. Many dead are no longer buried in traditional ancestral graves where descendants would tend their spirits, and individuals are increasingly taking on mortuary preparation for themselves. In Being Dead Otherwise Anne Allison examines the emergence of new death practices in Japan as the old customs of mortuary care are coming undone. She outlines the proliferation of new industries, services, initiatives, and businesses that offer alternative means---ranging from automated graves, collective grave sites, and crematoria to one-stop mortuary complexes and robotic priests---for tending to the dead. These new burial and ritual practices provide alternatives to long-standing traditions of burial and commemoration of the dead. In charting this shifting ecology of death, Allison outlines the potential of these solutions to radically reorient sociality in Japan in ways that will impact how we think about the end of life, identity, tradition, and culture in Japan and beyond.
"This is an extraordinary book. . . . Startling stories of mortician contests, robot Buddhist priests, and clean-up crews dealing with the odor of death illustrate change and the crisis of care in a society where good health care has made very old age a common experience, yet family and community have not kept up to provide solatia and death care for the increasing population of those in need. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." -- M. White * Choice *
“As an ethnography of death, these stories are as diverse as the humans they represent . . . Being Dead Otherwise is a highly recommended read not only for those who are interested in Japanese death rituals and concepts of the world beyond the living, but also for those who want to explore what it means when a society is faced with extreme ageing, dissolution of large family structures, urbanization, and potential anonymization.” -- Marius Palz * Folklore *
"Allison’s writing is both straightforward and vivid, making her story relatable to those readers not entirely familiar with contemporary Japan; there is also something endearingly warm about her voice, as she considers this book 'the most personal of all my scholarly endeavors' (p. xi)." -- Shunsuke Nozawa * American Ethnologist *
"For researchers who make developing the cross-cultural model of grief central to their scholarship Being Dead Otherwise should be one of the important books in their library."
-- Dennis Klass * Omega *
"The methods of the book are a lively combination of anthro-journalistic techniques for tracing out leads. . . . Not in the least technical, this book is easily accessible to anyone interested in how contemporary Japan is preparing – or not – for this part of its aging future." -- Robert C. Marshall * Anthropology and Aging *
"Allison stitches together a fascinating patchwork of scenes from various sites across Japan, revealing the potential of necro-animism to capture both practices of care and of control." -- Jason Danely * Journal of Development Studies *
ISBN: 9781478019848
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 399g
256 pages