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"No abstract as such, but this blurb at the head of the chapter: "Peter Ramsden is an anthropological archaeologist whose primary research has been focussed on the culture of the Huron of Ontario. In the spirit of the new developments in archaeological interpretation, he takes on here the task of making sense of death practices of the Huron. He finds, on introspection, that understanding the structure of Huron death and dying helps him to understand his own culture's attitude toward death. In this chapter, Ramsden proposes an analytical model of the relation between life/death and living/dying that may have very wide application." There is no "References Cited" section in this pdf, since they were all together at the end of the book. Note: David and Dorothy Counts were kind enough to allow me to participate in this conference they organized at McMaster, and to contribute this chapter to the resulting book. It might be useful to point out that the book was intended as much for professionals who deal with those who are grieving, as for academic audiences. Writing this paper required me to dive into a whole world of academic and clinical literature that I knew absolutely nothing about. The conference was quite a life-changing experience, and I have always been grateful to Dave and Dorothy for including me."
The Review of Philosophy and Psychology
DEAD-SURVIVORS, THE LIVING DEAD, AND CONCEPTS OF DEATHThe author introduces and critically analyzes two recent, curious findings and their accompanying explanations regarding how the folk intuits the capabilities of the dead and those in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). The dead are intuited to survive death, whereas PVS patients are intuited as more dead than the dead. Current explanations of these curious findings rely on how the folk is said to conceive of death and the dead: either as the annihilation of the person (via the secular conception of death), or that person's continuation as a disembodied being (via folk dualism). The author argues that these two conceptions are incompatible and inconsistent with each other and the evidence. Contrariwise, the author argues that the folk intuition about dead-survivors and the living dead are more easily explained by appealing to cross-culturally established concepts: the folk biological concept of death, the existential (metaphorical) concept of death, and the concept of social death. KEYWORDS: Afterlife beliefs, persistent vegetative state; folk biological concept of death; religious conception of death; secular conception of death; folk dualism; existential (metaphorical) concept of death; social death.
Foreword, Kenneth C. Nystrom, ed., The Bioarchaeology of Dissection and Autopsy in the United States (Springer, 2017), vii-xi.
Building Bridges, Dissolving Boundaries: Toward a Methodology for the Ethnographic Study of the Afterlife, Mediumship, and Spiritual Beings Fiona Bowie Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2013; doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lft023
Towards a Methodology for the Ethnographic Study of the Afterlife2013 •
"The study of death, the afterlife, and related phenomena has long been of interest to anthropologists and religious studies scholars. Although such matters are of central human and cultural concern, Western academic approaches often rely on the juxtaposition between “our” rational and “their” irrational belief systems, and attempt to “explain away” or ignore emic interpretations with a subsequent loss of semantic density. A methodology for studying the afterlife and related phenomena based on cognitive, empathetic engagement involves adopting an emic interpretive lens in order to arrive at a “thick description” that does not shy away from aspects of experience outside the ethnographer's Weltanschauung. A discussion of the implications of adopting a dialogical, participative, open-minded approach to these aspects of human belief and practice are discussed in the context of case studies of spirit possession and reincarnation. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com"
2015 •
In 2015 I was invited by my Anglican parish priest to give a series of three talks on my work on the afterlife to members of the congregation and anyone else who wished to attend. I have included the handouts and links to the talks, and some reflections on the process. It turned out to be an interesting lesson on the sensitivities and difficulties in bridging the gap between being a professional anthropologist and a member of a church congregation. The two worlds would not normally intersect and bringing the two together proved more of a challenge than I had initially anticipated. The handouts are available under the additional files tab and the actual presentations via the web link.
2022 •
A wide-ranging treatment on the meaning of death, and its juxtaposition with life, from biological, cultural, and spiritual perspectives. Dozens of case studies accompany the principal essays written by scholars, Indigenous community members, and curators of the exhibition Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery. This volume offers a richly illustrated companion to the exhibition, produced by Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, and contains full page photographs of the stunning objects in the exhibit, most from the Field Museum’s collections. This volume is intended to engage visitors to the exhibition and members of the general public who want to delve more fully into questions surrounding death and the multiple religious, historical, and cultural perspectives on it. Although not a comprehensive guide, the book touches on many world religions and case studies drawn from five continents.
These are exciting times for those with an interest in what might happen after death. One need not be a religious person to find some basis for believing that life can persist after the termination of our flesh-and-blood existence. Conversations about the possibilities of postmortem life are drawing atheists, agnostics, and scientists of all sorts to promising exchanges with religious people.
Philosophia
How the Dead Live2011 •
This paper maintains (following Yougrau 1987; 2000 and Hinchliff 1996) that the dead and other former existents count as examples of non-existent objects. If the dead number among the things there are, a further question arises: what is it to be dead—how should the state of being dead be characterised? It is argued that this state should be characterised negatively: the dead are not persons, philosophers etc. They lack any of the (intrinsic) qualities they had while they lived. The only facts involving the dead are facts about the relations they stand in—including the relations they bear to the qualities they formerly instantiated, and the intentional relations they stand in to us. Given an appropriate conception of qualities the dead can be said to be quality-less objects: bare particulars. The ‘Bare Particular Theory’ of individuals, it is argued, is coherent if and only if it concedes that the bare particulars it allows for don’t exist. The account of the dead and other former existents as bare particulars does justice to the misfortune of death, and points the way to a general theory of nonexistent objects.
This course is a survey of mortuary archaeology, that is how cultural norms, social relations, belief systems, and ideas about life and death shaped mortuary practices in the past. In this course, we will look at death and the body in terms of ideas about mortality, afterlives, and social identity. We will also address the fact that the dead do not bury themselves, and practices surrounding death do not reflect solely the individual but can tell us about broader social, political, economic, and religious systems.
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Huarte de San Juan. Geografía e Historia
Grafitos y autores invisibles. Los grafitos figurativos del Royal Cachette wadi (Luxor, Egipto) como estudios de caso2024 •
2023 •
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Central Asian Journal of Art Studies
Искусство в поисках стратегии национального самоопределения (на примере турецкой архитектуры) // Art in search of a strategy of national self-determination (on the example of Turkish architecture)2022 •
2011 •
Journal of Advanced Chemical Engineering
Characterization of Thermally Regenerated Activated Carbons Used in Rum Production by Acoustic Emission Analysis, N2 and Ar Gas Adsorption2017 •
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A statistical procedure for testing social reciprocity at group, dyadic and individual levels2009 •
The Journal of Neuroscience
Theta-Frequency Bursting and Resonance in Cerebellar Granule Cells: Experimental Evidence and Modeling of a Slow K+-Dependent Mechanism2001 •
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In vitro organogenesis from internode derived callus cultures of Capsicum annuum L2011 •
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Innovative Topical Therapy for Otic Eczema2024 •