The pain of mourning and our powerlessness in the face of death are deeply rooted in our history, and have been forcefully expressed since the earliest writings of mankind. Since prehistoric times, human societies have gone to great lengths to tame death. Through the thread of funerary rites, their temporality and materiality, the reader is invited to discover ancient practices, beliefs from elsewhere and universal invariants that invite us to rethink death and our relationship with the absent. From the first burials dating back more than 100,000 years to the « organic funerals » of the 21st century, via the celebration of the « feast of the dead », communication with the deceased and the future of ossuaries, this book explores the diversity and richness of our relationship with death, underlining our ability to come to terms with our grim fate.
