This revised edition of a cross-cultural study of rituals surrounding death has become a standard text in anthropology, sociology, and religion. Part of its fascination and success is that in understanding other people's death rituals we are able to gain a better understanding of our own. Peter Metcalf and Richard Huntington refer to a wide variety of examples from different continents and epochs. They compare the great tombs of the Berawan of Borneo and the pyramids of Egypt, or the dramas of medieval French royal funerals and the burial alive of the Dinka "masters of the spear" in the Sudan, and other burials which at first sight seem to have little in common. Many of these cases are anthropological classics, and the authors use these examples partly in order to illustrate the many different ways in which anthropologists have tried to interpret these rites. A new introduction reviews theoretical developments in the anthropological study of death since the book first appeared in 1979.

Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual

Politics & Social Sciences

Huntington, Richard

Metcalfe, Peter

Anthropology

Cambridge University Press

This revised edition of a cross-cultural study of rituals surrounding death has become a standard text in anthropology, sociology, and religion. Part of its fascination and success is that in understanding other people's death rituals we are able to gain a better understanding of our own. Peter Metcalf and Richard Huntington refer to a wide variety of examples from different continents and epochs. They compare the great tombs of the Berawan of Borneo and the pyramids of Egypt, or the dramas of medieval French royal funerals and the burial alive of the Dinka "masters of the spear" in the Sudan, and other burials which at first sight seem to have little in common. Many of these cases are anthropological classics, and the authors use these examples partly in order to illustrate the many different ways in which anthropologists have tried to interpret these rites. A new introduction reviews theoretical developments in the anthropological study of death since the book first appeared in 1979.

Celebrations of Death:The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual

METCALF, PETER

Social Sciences

In a remote area of Sudan, the Abyei project embodied the idealistic hopes of the "new directions" for development aid of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Within this optimistic context, Harvard Institute for International Development was invited to assist the leaders of the Ngok Dinka people in developing their homeland. The goal was to discover and implement innovations that would benefit the local population in a sustainable manner. 
 Between a Swamp and a Hard Place traces the project's evolution and analyzes its successes and failures as the region slipped toward civil disorder and inter-ethnic violence. The authors also document the continued relevance of the development principles that animated this effort--including strong participation by the intended beneficiaries--which are still important for achieving economic growth in rural Africa.

Between a Swamp and a Hard Place: Developmental Challenges in Remote Rural Africa (Harvard Studies in International Development)

Business & Money

Cole, David C.

Economics

Harvard Kennedy School

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