Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“From graves for abandoned gravestones to the craft and care by which workers tend to butsudan still today, this book is an electrifying read. Ethnographically intimate, analytically astute, and refreshingly clear,
When Death Falls Apart brilliantly tracks both the challenges and attachments to necro-care as once practiced and getting recrafted today.” * Anne Allison, author of Being Dead Otherwise *
“
When Death Falls Apart is well-crafted and thoughtful, and it significantly advances scholarship on death studies. At the same time, Gould’s excellent study is a model for rich anthropological description of particular people, places, and objects that challenge the reader to think about other places, other deaths, and other bodies.” * S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, author of A History of Religion in 5½ Objects *
Table of ContentsTextual Conventions
Introduction: The Stuff of Death and the Death of Stuff
1. Crafting
2. Retail
3. Practice
4. Disposal
5. Remaking
Conclusion: When Death Falls Apart
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Cited
Index
