Description
Book SynopsisAnne Allison examines the emergence of new death practices surrounding grieving, burial, and ritual in Japan as the old custom of family-based graves and mortuary care is coming undone.
Trade Review"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 *
Table of ContentsPrelude ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Histories
1. Ambiguous Bones: Dead in the Past 25
2. The Popular Industry of Death: From Godzilla to the Ending Business 47
Preparations
3. Caring (Differently) for the Dead 73
4. Preparedness: A Biopolitics of Making Life Out of Death 99
Departures
5. The Smell of Lonely Death and the Work of Cleaning It Up 123
6. De-parting: The Handling of Remaindered Remains 149
Machines
7. Automated Graves: The Precarity and Prosthetics of Caring for the Dead 173
Epilogue 191
Notes 197
Bibliography 215
Index 231
