Death In A Global Age

How do beliefs and rituals surrounding death vary depending on our culture? In what ways do different societies choose to mourn or celebrate their dead? Are attitudes and approaches towards dying adjusting in response to processes of globalization? From changes in life expectancy to grieving online, Death in a global age explores a wide range of issues related to our experiences and expectations of dying in contemporary societies.

It considers how beliefs, practices and representations of death are adapting in response to fast-evolving forces of globalization, including the media, technology, religion and consumption. By investigating the relationship between death and society on a truly international scale, the book gives new insight in to the ways in which the social world helps us to make sense of death, dying and our own mortality.

With fascinating explanations and an approachable tone throughout, this is an essential read for all students of death, dying and life course in Sociology or Anthropology. Review: 'This book sets a new benchmark bringing to center stage a global perspective on death and dying. It reminds us that while mortality is universal there are major cultural, economic and social differences in how people live and die across the world.

Accessible in its clarity, ease of voice and logical structure, this book is an essential teaching resource' - Margaret Gibson, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Griffith University, Australia 'Ruth McManus's perceptive assessment of encounters with death provides readers with an original and invaluable resource exploring global developments and contemporary human responses to death.' - Cyril Schafer, Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Otago, New Zealand 'This smartly written work demonstrates the sociological imagination at its best when analyzing how global dynamics shape international mortality patterns, mortuary practices, and death belief systems'. -Michael C.

Kearl, Trinity University, USA