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Being Dead Otherwise

Allison, Anne
Heftet / 2023 / Engelsk

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781478019848
Publisert
2023-03-10
Utgiver
Vendor
Duke University Press
Vekt
399 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet

Forfatter
Allison, Anne

Biographical note

Anne Allison is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and author of Precarious Japan, also published by Duke University Press, Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination, and Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club.

Being Dead Otherwise

Allison, Anne
Heftet / 2023 / Engelsk
Allison, Anne
Heftet / 2023 / Engelsk
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"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

“As an ethnography of death, these stories are as diverse as the humans they represent . . . <i>Being Dead Otherwise</i> is a highly recommended read not only for those who are interested in Japanese death rituals and concepts of the world beyond the living, but also for those who want to explore what it means when a society is faced with extreme ageing, dissolution of large family structures, urbanization, and potential anonymization.”

- Marius Palz, Folklore

"Allison’s writing is both straightforward and vivid, making her story relatable to those readers not entirely familiar with contemporary Japan; there is also something endearingly warm about her voice, as she considers this book 'the most personal of all my scholarly endeavors' (p. xi)."

- Shunsuke Nozawa, American Ethnologist

Se alle

"For researchers who make developing the cross-cultural model of grief central to their scholarship <i>Being Dead Otherwise</i> should be one of the important books in their library."<br />  

- Dennis Klass, Omega

"The methods of the book are a lively combination of anthro-journalistic techniques for tracing out leads. . . .  Not in the least technical, this book is easily accessible to anyone interested in how contemporary Japan is preparing – or not – for this part of its aging future."

- Robert C. Marshall, Anthropology and Aging

"Allison stitches together a fascinating patchwork of scenes from various sites across Japan, revealing the potential of necro-animism to capture both practices of care and of control."

- Jason Danely, Journal of Development Studies

With an aging population, declining marriage and childbirth rates, and a rise in single households, more Japanese are living and dying alone. Many dead are no longer buried in traditional ancestral graves where descendants would tend their spirits, and individuals are increasingly taking on mortuary preparation for themselves. In Being Dead Otherwise Anne Allison examines the emergence of new death practices in Japan as the old customs of mortuary care are coming undone. She outlines the proliferation of new industries, services, initiatives, and businesses that offer alternative means---ranging from automated graves, collective grave sites, and crematoria to one-stop mortuary complexes and robotic priests---for tending to the dead. These new burial and ritual practices provide alternatives to long-standing traditions of burial and commemoration of the dead. In charting this shifting ecology of death, Allison outlines the potential of these solutions to radically reorient sociality in Japan in ways that will impact how we think about the end of life, identity, tradition, and culture in Japan and beyond.
Les mer
Anne 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.
Prelude  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
Les mer
“Japan, a former economic powerhouse full of cutting-edge technology and affluence, has turned into a society full of disparities, anxieties, and loneliness after the repeated crises of the last thirty years. Anne Allison found that the key to seeing this transformation is the change in how death is treated. Through thrilling fieldwork, she reveals the lives of people wriggling in the deep darkness of decline. Being Dead Otherwise vividly depicts the new society that now emerges.”
Les mer

Relaterte produkter

"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

“As an ethnography of death, these stories are as diverse as the humans they represent . . . <i>Being Dead Otherwise</i> is a highly recommended read not only for those who are interested in Japanese death rituals and concepts of the world beyond the living, but also for those who want to explore what it means when a society is faced with extreme ageing, dissolution of large family structures, urbanization, and potential anonymization.”

- Marius Palz, Folklore

"Allison’s writing is both straightforward and vivid, making her story relatable to those readers not entirely familiar with contemporary Japan; there is also something endearingly warm about her voice, as she considers this book 'the most personal of all my scholarly endeavors' (p. xi)."

- Shunsuke Nozawa, American Ethnologist

Se alle

"For researchers who make developing the cross-cultural model of grief central to their scholarship <i>Being Dead Otherwise</i> should be one of the important books in their library."<br />  

- Dennis Klass, Omega

"The methods of the book are a lively combination of anthro-journalistic techniques for tracing out leads. . . .  Not in the least technical, this book is easily accessible to anyone interested in how contemporary Japan is preparing – or not – for this part of its aging future."

- Robert C. Marshall, Anthropology and Aging

"Allison stitches together a fascinating patchwork of scenes from various sites across Japan, revealing the potential of necro-animism to capture both practices of care and of control."

- Jason Danely, Journal of Development Studies

With an aging population, declining marriage and childbirth rates, and a rise in single households, more Japanese are living and dying alone. Many dead are no longer buried in traditional ancestral graves where descendants would tend their spirits, and individuals are increasingly taking on mortuary preparation for themselves. In Being Dead Otherwise Anne Allison examines the emergence of new death practices in Japan as the old customs of mortuary care are coming undone. She outlines the proliferation of new industries, services, initiatives, and businesses that offer alternative means---ranging from automated graves, collective grave sites, and crematoria to one-stop mortuary complexes and robotic priests---for tending to the dead. These new burial and ritual practices provide alternatives to long-standing traditions of burial and commemoration of the dead. In charting this shifting ecology of death, Allison outlines the potential of these solutions to radically reorient sociality in Japan in ways that will impact how we think about the end of life, identity, tradition, and culture in Japan and beyond.
Les mer
Anne 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.
Prelude  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
Les mer
“Japan, a former economic powerhouse full of cutting-edge technology and affluence, has turned into a society full of disparities, anxieties, and loneliness after the repeated crises of the last thirty years. Anne Allison found that the key to seeing this transformation is the change in how death is treated. Through thrilling fieldwork, she reveals the lives of people wriggling in the deep darkness of decline. Being Dead Otherwise vividly depicts the new society that now emerges.”
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781478019848
Publisert
2023-03-10
Utgiver
Vendor
Duke University Press
Vekt
399 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet

Forfatter
Allison, Anne

Biographical note

Anne Allison is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and author of Precarious Japan, also published by Duke University Press, Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination, and Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club.

Relaterte produkter