Notes on Contributors ix An Anthropology of Death for the Twenty‐First Century xvAntonius C. G. M. Robben Part I Mortuary Rituals 1 1 Governing the Dead in Guatemala: Public Authority and Dead Bodies 3Finn Stepputat 2 Evolving Mortuary Rituals in Contemporary Japan 17Yohko Tsuji 3 Revealing Brands, Concealing Labor 31George Sanders 4 Playing with Corpses: Assembling Bodies for the Dead in Southwest China 45Erik Mueggler 5 Death and Separation in Postconflict Timor‐Leste 59Judith Bovensiepen 6 Migration, Death, and Conspicuous Redistribution in Southeastern Nigeria 71Daniel Jordan Smith Part II Emotions 85 7 After Death: Event, Narrative, Feeling 87Michael Lambek 8 Reflections on the Work of Recovery, I and II 103Beth A. Conklin 9 The Pursuit of Sorrow and the Ethics of Crying 117Olivier Allard 10 Mourning as Mutuality 131Jason Danely 11 A Comparative Study of Jewish Israeli and Buddhist Khmer Trauma Descendant Discontinued Bonds with the Genocide Dead 145Carol A. Kidron 12 Facing Death: On Mourning, Empathy, and Finitude 161Devin Flaherty and C. Jason Throop Part III Massive Death 175 13 What Is a Mass Grave? Toward an Anthropology of Human Remains Treatment in Contemporary Contexts of Mass Violence 177Élisabeth Anstett 14 Death on the Move: Pantheons and Reburials in Spanish Civil War Exhumations 189Francisco Ferrándiz 15 Accountability for Mass Death, Acts of Rescue, and Silence in Rwanda 205Jennie E. Burnet 16 Impassable Visions: The Cambodia to Come, the Detritus in its Wake 223Hudson McFann and Alexander Laban Hinton 17 Experience, Empathy, and Flexibility: On Participant Observation in Deadly Fields 237Ivana Maceǩ Part IV Regeneration 249 18 Learning How to Die 251Robert Desjarlais 19 Whirlpools, Glitter, and Ferocious Intruders: The Palpability of Death in Chachi Animism 265Istvan Praet 20 Shamanic Rebirth and the Paradox of Disremembering the Dead among Mapuche in Chile 279Ana Mariella Bacigalupo 21 After‐Death Communications: Signs from the Other World in Contemporary North America 293Ellen Badone 22 Cryonic Suspension as Eschatological Technology in the Secular Age 307Abou Farman Part V Corporeal Materiality 321 23 From Here and to Death: The Archaeology of the Human Body 323Liv Nilsson Stutz 24 Death, Corporeality, and Uncertainty in Zimbabwe 337Joost Fontein 25 Death, Power, and Silence: Native Nations’ Ancestral Remains at the Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania 357Jacqueline Fear‐Segal 26 In the Absence of a Corpse: Rituals for Body Donors in the Netherlands 371Sophie Bolt 27 Death as Spectacle: Plastinated Bodies in Germany 383Uli Linke Part VI Biomedical Issues 399 28 The Body as Medicine: Blood and Organ Donation in China 401Charlotte Ikels 29 Ethical Dilemmas in the Field: Witchcraft and Biomedical Etiology in South Africa 415Isak Niehaus 30 The Disappearance of Dying, and Why It Matters 429Helen Stanton Chapple 31 Death, Detachment, and Moral Dilemmas of Care in a Kenyan Hospital 445Ruth J. Prince 32 The New Normal: Mediated Death and Assisted Dying in the United States 461Frances Norwood Index 477

A Companion to the Anthropology of Death Prominent scholars present their most recent work about mortuary rituals, grief and mourning, genocide, cyclical processes of life and death, biomedical developments, and the materiality of human corpses in this unique and illuminating book. Interrogating our most common practices surrounding death, the authors ask such questions as: How does the state wrest away control over the dead from bereaved relatives? Why do many mourners refuse to cut their emotional ties to the dead and nurture lasting bonds? Is death a final condition or can human remains acquire agency? The book is a refreshing reassessment of these issues and practices, a source of theoretical inspiration in the study of death. With contributions written by an international team of experts in their fields, A Companion to the Anthropology of Death is presented in six parts and covers such subjects as: Governing the Dead in Guatemala; After Death Communications (ADCs) in North America; Cryonic Suspension in the Secular Age; Blood and Organ Donation in China; The Fragility of Biomedicine; and more. A Companion to the Anthropology of Death is a comprehensive and accessible volume and an ideal resource for senior undergraduate and graduate students in courses such as Anthropology of Death, Medical Anthropology, Anthropology of Violence, Anthropology of the Body, and Political Anthropology.