"Morbid and illuminating" (Entertainment Weekly)—a young mortician goes behind the scenes of her curious profession. Armed with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre, Caitlin Doughty took a job at a crematory and turned morbid curiosity into her life’s work. She cared for bodies of every color, shape, and affliction, and became an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. In this best-selling memoir, brimming with gallows humor and vivid characters, she marvels at the gruesome history of undertaking and relates her unique coming-of-age story with bold curiosity and mordant wit. By turns hilarious, dark, and uplifting, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes reveals how the fear of dying warps our society and "will make you reconsider how our culture treats the dead" (San Francisco Chronicle).

An overflowing, mesmeric masterpiece about greed from “one of the most remarkable authors on the Spanish scene” (The Guardian) Along the Mediterranean coastline of Spain, real-estate developers scramble to transform the once pastoral landscape into tourist resorts, nightclubs, and beachfront properties with lavish bars and pools. The booming post-Franco years have left everything up for grabs. Cremation opens with the death of Matías, a paterfamilias who had rejected all of these changes and whose passing sets off a chain reaction, uncovering a past that had been buried for years, and leading those closest to him to question the paths they’ve chosen. In a rich mosaic narrative, filled with a hypnotic chorus of voices, Cremation explores the coked-up champagne fizz of luxurious parties shadowed by underworlds of political corruption, prostitution, and ruthless financial speculation. The novel enters that melancholy ouroboros of capitalist greed that led to the financial crash and captures something essential about our values, our choices, and our all too human mistakes. Like William Faulkner or Francis Bacon, Chirbes stares, clear-eyed, into the abyss, and portrays us as we really are.

Publisher Fact Sheet A history of cremation in America.

An aid to making one of the most importantant decisions you will ever have to make for yourself or your loved ones.

Transformation by Fire offers a current assessment of the archaeological research on the widespread social practice of cremation. Editors Ian Kuijt, Colin P. Quinn, and Gabriel Cooney chart a path for the development of interpretive archaeology surrounding this complex social process.

Human societies have disposed of their dead in a variety of ways. However, while considerable attention has been paid to bodies that were buried, comparatively little work has been devoted to understanding the nature of cremated remains, despite their visibility through time. It has been argued that this is the result of decades of misunderstanding regarding the potential information that this material holds, combined with properties that make burned bone inherently difficult to analyse. As such, there is a considerable body of knowledge on the concepts and practices of inhumation yet our understanding of cremation ritual and practice is by comparison, woefully inadequate. This timely volume therefore draws together the inventive methodology that has been developed for this material and combines it with a fuller interpretation of the archaeological funerary context. It demonstrates how an innovative methodology, when applied to a challenging material, can produce new and exciting interpretations of archaeological sites and funerary contexts. The reader is introduced to the nature of burned human remains and the destructive effect that fire can have on the body. Subsequent chapters describe important cremation practices and sites from around the world and from the Neolithic period to the modern day. By emphasising the need for a robust methodology combined with a nuanced interpretation, it is possible to begin to appreciate the significance and wide-spread adoption of this practice of dealing with the dead.

This book provides a synopsis of the challenges involved in the recovery and interpretation of cremains from the point of discovery to the end of the analysis. It considers the capacity and mechanism of fire to alter the chemical and physical properties of materials, particularly those of human tissues, and emphasizes a flexible approach to the collection of cremains. A significant portion of the book examines the effects of fire on bone and the ability to determine trauma. It also evaluates the practical use of dental tissue and DNA for identification and as an aid to the investigation.

The Encyclopedia of Cremation is the first major reference resource focused on cremation. Spanning many world cultures it documents regional histories, ideological movements and leading individuals that fostered cremation whilst also presenting cremation as a universal practice. Tracing ancient and classical cremation sites, historical and contemporary cremation processes and procedures of both scientific and legal kind, the encyclopedia also includes sections on specific cremation rituals, architecture, art and text. Features in the volume include: a general introduction and editorial introductions to sub-sections by Douglas Davies, an international specialist in death studies; appendices of world cremation statistics and a chronology of cremation; cross-referencing pathways through the entries via the index; individual entry bibliographies; and illustrations. This major international reference work is also an essential source book for students on the growing number of death-studies courses and wider studies in religion, anthropology or sociology.

In this captivating review of the history, the practice, and the industry of cremation in America, award-winning former New York Times columnist Fred Rosen provides an authoritative source of information and many revealing facts about an increasingly common, yet still controversial, alternative to burial. Rosen gives an entertaining first person account of his inquiry into the practice of cremation and its roots. He describes the early ancient custom of cremation by funeral pyre and then explores why the rising Church banned the practice as a sacrilege. He then traces the underpinnings of the modern cremation movement in the late 19th century among a colorful group of intellectuals and physicians. This 19th century group endorsed this then illegal practice as a means to improve public health--as a way to prevent seepage of burial grounds from polluting ground water and spreading disease. Rosen goes on to examine, in today''s world, people''s feelings about death and religion as well as their sensitivities to cremation. Given certain abuses, he believes that this industry needs to be regulated. However, he finds much in favor of cremation when firsthand comparing its costs vs. the excesses and extravagances of the burial funeral industry. In an age when over 25 percent of the population is turning to cremation as a preferred funeral arrangement, this book offers much timely, useful, and engrossing information.