Publisher's Synopsis
Using traditional anthropological fieldwork methods, the author takes a look at the modern experience of death and bereavement in Western settings. She takes three extended case studies of ageing and dying, the first in a residential home for elderly people, the second in a hospice, and the third of the counselling needs of the bereaved in the North-East of England, and puts them into their broad historical and cross-cultural context. By examining the minutiae of traditions and beliefs associated with death this book attempts to reveal their deeper meanings.
