Clifton D. D. Bryant 
Handbook of Death and Dying [PDF ebook] 

VOLUME ONE: THE PRESENCE OF DEATH
Preface: A Thanatological Odyssey
Death in Legal Context
Introduction
PART I
DEATH IN CULTURAL CONTEXT
CONFRONTING DEATH
The Universal Fear of Death and the Cultural Response – Calvin Conzelus Moore and John B. Williamson
Historical Changes in the Meaning of Death in the Western Tradition – William R. Wood and John B. Williamson
Dealing With Death: Western Philosophical Strategies – Michael R. Taylor
Death Denial: Hiding and Camouflaging Death – Bert Hayslip, Jr.
Death, Dying, and the Dead in Popular Culture – Keith F. Durkin
The Death Awareness Movement: Description, History, and Analysis – Kenneth J. Doka
KEEPING THE DEAD ALIVE
The Spiritualist Movement: Bringing the Dead Back – Charles F. Emmons
Reincarnation: The Technology of Death – Jane Dillon
Hosts and Ghosts: The Dead as Visitors in Cross-Cultural Perspective – Clifton D. Bryant
Ghosts: The Dead Among Us – Charles F. Emmons
The Malevolent ‘Undead’: Cross-Cultural Perspectives – Keith P. Jacobi
TRANSCENDING DEATH: RELIGIOUS AFTER-DEATH BELIEFS
Spirituality – John D. Morgan
Religion and the Mediation of Death Fear – Michael R. Leming
Christian Beliefs Concerning Death and Life After Death – Donald E. Gowan
Near-Death Experiences as Secular Eschatology – Tillman Rodabough and Kyle Cole
DEATH AND SOCIAL EXCHANGE
Life Insurance as Social Exchange Mechanism – Dennis L. Peck
Full Military Honors’: Ceremonial Interment as Sacred Compact – Timothy W. Wolfe and Clifton D. Bryant
Symbolic Immortality and Social Theory: The Relevance of an Underutilized Concept – Lee Garth Vigilant and John B. Williamson
PART II
DEATH IN SOCIAL CONTEXT: VARIANTS IN MORALITY AND MEANING
THE SOCIAL MODES OF DEATH: THE IMPORT OF CONTEXT AND CIRCUMSTANCES
Historical and Epidemiological Trends in Mortality in the United States – Vicki L. Lamb
Global Mortality Rates: Variations and Their Consequences for the Experience of Dying – Clive Seale
To Die, by Mistake: Accidental Deaths – Lee Garth Vigilant and John B. Williamson
Megadeaths: Individual Reactions and Social Responses to Massive Loss of Life – Jerome Rosenberg and Dennis L. Peck
On the Role and Meaning of Death in Terrorism – Lee Garth Vigilant and John B. Williamson
Death Attributed to Medical Error – Jerry T. Mc Knight and Pat Norton
Homicidal Death – Steven A. Egger and Kim Egger
PRE-PERSONALITY DEATHS
Pre-Personality Pregnancy Losses: Miscarriages, Stillbirths, and Abortions – Jack P. Carter
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – Charles A. Corr and Donna M. Corr
DEATH AS SOCIAL ENTITY: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF DEATH
The Evolution of the Legal Definition of Death – Tillman Rodabough
Death Education – Charles A. Corr and Donna M. Corr
DEATH AS INTERMISSION: THE CONTINUATION OF IDENTITY
The Postself in Social Context – Jack Kamerman
PART III
DEATH AND SOCIAL CONTROVERSY
SUICIDE
Historical Suicide – Alan H. Marks
Suicide and Suicide Trends in the United States, 1900-1999 – Dennis L. Peck
Suicide Survivors: The Aftermath of Suicide and Suicidal Behavior – John L. Mc Intosh
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Suicide – David Lester
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
A History of Execution Methods in the United States – Trina N. Seitz
Capital Punishment in the United States – Stephanie Picolo Manzi
Military Executions – J. Robert Lilly
ABORTION
The Abortion Issue in the United States – Michael C. Kearl
THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC
Dying of AIDS and Social Stigmatization – Robin D. Moremen
EUTHANASIA
Medical Euthanasia – Gail C. Walker
ABORTION
The Abortion Issue in the United States – Michael C. Kearl
Physician-Assisted Death – Monika Ardelt
PART IV
PASSING AWAY: DYING AS SOCIAL PROCESS
DEATH AS SOCIAL PROCESS: THE APPROACH OF DEATH
Death Awareness and Adjustment Across the Life Span – Bert Hayslip, Jr., and Robert O. Hansson
Dying as Deviance: An Update on the Relationship Between Terminal Patients and Medical Settings – Charles Edgley
DEATH AS SOCIAL PROCESS: DYING
The Dying Process – Graves E. Enck
On Coming to Terms With Death and Dying: Neglected Dimensions of Identity Work – Kent L. Sandstrom
THE INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT OF DEATH
THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC
Dying of AIDS and Social Stigmatization – Robin D. Moremen
EUTHANASIA
Medical Euthanasia – Gail C. Walker
Death in Two Settings: The Acute Care Facility and Hospice – Sarah Brabant
The History of the Hospice Approach – Michael R. Leming
Dying in a Total Institution: The Case of Death in Prison – Francis D. Glamser and Donald A. Cabana
Formal and Informal Caregiving at the End of Life – Pamela J. Kovacs and David P. Fauri
VOLUME TWO: THE RESPONSE TO DEATH
Before the Funeral
The Death Notification Process – Alan E. Stewart and Janice Harris Lord
The Autopsy – James Claude Upshaw Downs
A Social History of Embalming – Melissa Johnson Williams
The Organizational Resonse to Death
Fallen Soldiers – Morten G. Ender, Paul T. Bartone, Thomas A. Kolditz
Death-Related Works Systems Outside the Funeral Home – Watson Rogers II, Clifton D. Bryant
Funeralization in the United States
The American Family and the Processing of Death Prior to the 20th Century – Paul David Nygard and Catherine H. Reilly
The Evolution of the Funeral Home and the Occupation of Funeral Driector – Jerome J. Salomone
The American Funeral – Bert Hayslip, Jr., Kenneth W. Sewell, Russell B. Riddle
Black Funeralization and Culturally Grounded Services – James L. Moore III and Clifton D. Bryant
On the Economics of Death in the United States – Dwayne A. Banks
Funerlization in Cross-Cultural Perspective
The Funeral and the Funeral Industry in the United Kingdom – Brian Parsons
Practices Surrounding the Dead in French-Speaking Belgium – Florence Vandendorpe
Practices Surrounding the Dead in French-Speaking Belgium – Florence Vandendorpe
The Native American Way of Death – Gerry R. Cox
The Hindu Way of Death – Anantanand Rambachan
The Muslim Way of Death – Dawood H. Sultan
The Japanese Way of Death – Hikaru Suzuki
The Taoist (Chinese) Way of Death – Linda Sun Crowder
The Jewish Way of Death – Ruben Schindler
Postfuneralization Activities
Obituaries – Joyce E. Williams
Gracing God′s Acres: Some Notes on a Typology of Cemetery Visitation in Western Cultures – Joseph E. Boyle
Impromptu Memorials to the Dead – Jon K. Reid
Death and Community Responses: Comfort Community and Culture – Willam J. Hauser and Anne Marie Scarisbrick-Hauser
Monuments in Motion: Gravemarkers, Cemeteries, and Memorials as Material Form and Context – Ann M. Palkovich and Ann Korologos Bazaronne
PART VI
Body Disposition
Disposing of the Dead: Elysium as Real Estate
The History of the American Cemetery and Some Reflections on teh Meaning of Death – Vicky M. Mac Lean and Joyce E. Willams
Pet Burial in the United States – David D. Witt
Disposing of the Dead: Options and Alternatives
Cremation – Douglas J. Davies
Body Recycling – Kelly A. Joyce and John B. Williamson
The Iceman Cometh: The Cryonics Movements and Frozen Immortality – Clifton D. Bryant and Willam E. Snizek
Disposing of the Dead: Minor Modes – De Ann K. Gauthier, Nancy K. Chaudior, and Rhonda D. Evans
Disposing of the Dead: Other Times, Other Places
The Social History of the European Cemetery – Harold Mytum
Body Disposition in Cross-Cultural Context: Prehistoric and Modern Non-Western Societies – Keith P. Jacobi
Mummification and Mummies in Ancient Egypt – Peter Lacovara adn John Baines
PART VII:THANATOLOGICAL AFTERMATH
Grief and Bereavement
The Evolution of Mourning and the Bereavement Role in the United States: Middle- and Upper-Class Americans – David E. Balk
Social Dimensions of Grief – Maria I. Vera
The Experience of Grief and Bereavement – Robert A. Neimeyer and Lois A. Gamino
Bereavement in Cross-Cultural Perspective – Paul C. Rosenblatt
The Social Impact of Survivorhood
Widowhood and Its Social Implications – Felix M. Berardo
Children and the Death of a Parent – Eric Lichten
Parents and the Death of a Child – Sangeeta Singg
PART VIII: THE LEGALITIES OF DEATH
Death in Legal Contex
Living Wills and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care – Carolyn Pevey
The Death Certificate: Civil Registration, Medical Certification, and Social Issues – Dennis L. Peck
Coroner and Medical Examiner – James Claude Upshaw Downs
Death, Succession, and the Testamentory Inheritance
The Disposition of Property: Transfers Between the Dead and the Living – Robert K. Miller, Jr., Jeffrey P. Rosenfeld, and Stephen J. Mc Namee
The Last Will and Testament: A Neglected Document in Sociological Research – Clifton D. Bryant and Willaim E. Snizek
The Legal Regulation of Death-Related Activities
The Regulation of Mortuary Science Education – Todd W. Van Beck
Cemetery Regulation in the United States – Robert M. Fells
Death and Legal Blame
Death and Legal Blame: Wrongful Death – Thomas J. Vesper
Negligent Death and Manslaughter – Frances P. Bernat
The Dead as Legal Entity
‘Thanatological Crime’: Some Conceptual Notes on Offenses Against the Dead as a Neglected Form of Deviant Behavior – Clifton D. Bryant
PART IX: THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION AND THE RESPONSE TO DEATH
Art
Death in Art – Charles E. Walton
Literature
Cultural Concern with Death in Literature – Diana Royer
Music
‘Arise, Ye More Than Dead!’ Culture, Music, and Death – Robert Kastenbaum
Organic Sculpture
Dead Zoo Chic: Some Conceptual Notes on Taxidermy in American Social Life – Clifton D. Bryant and Donald J. Shoemaker
PART X: THE FUTURE OF DEATH
Death in the Future: Prospects and Prognosis – Clifton D. Bryant, Charles Edgley, Michael R. Leming, Dennis L. Peck, and Kent L. Sandstrom

Clifton D. Bryant is Professor of Sociology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. He has been a faculty member there since 1972 and served as Department Chair from 1972 to 1982. Prior to coming to Virginia Tech, he held full-time faculty teaching appointments at Western Kentucky University (Department Head 1967–1972), Millsaps College (Department Head 1963–1967), and the University of Georgia (1960–1963). He was Visiting Professor at Mississippi State University (Summer 1985) and at the Pennsylvania State University (Summer 1958). His  research appointments include Visiting Scientist at the U.S. Army Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (Summer 1993), Visiting Research Scholar with the Mississippi Alcohol Safety Education  Program Mississippi State University; Summer 1985), and Visiting Research Scholar with Training and  Technology Project operated by the Resource Development Office of Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Inc. (Summer 1987). His foreign teaching appointments include Visiting Fulbright Professor, Department and Graduate Institute of Sociology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China (1987–1988), and Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Xavier University, The  Ateneo, Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, Philippines (1984–1985). He was a participant in the U.S.  Department of Education’s 1998 Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program in the People’s Republic of China (Summer 1998) and was also a participant in the U.S. Department of Education’s 1993 Fulbright- Hays Seminars Abroad Program in Hungary (Summer, 1993). Dr. Bryant served as President of the Southern Sociological Society (1978–1979) and as President of the Mid-South Sociological Association (1981–1982). He was the recipient of the Mid-South Sociological Association’s Distinguished Career Award in 1991 and the Distinguished Book Award in 2001. He is also the recipient of the Southern Sociological Society’s 2003 Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award.  He has been listed in Who’s Who in America since 1984 and in Who’s Who in the World since 1991. He is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Beta Delta, Alpha Kappa Delta, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Alpha Phi Omega. Dr. Bryant was founder and Chairman of the Editorial Board of Sociological Symposium (1968–1980). He was also the founder of Deviant Behavior and served as Editor-in-Chief of that journal from 1978 to 1991.  He continues to serve as Chair of the Editorial Policy Board for the journal. He was editor of the Southern Sociologist (1970–1974). He has served as a member of the editorial board of Criminology (1978–1981),   Associate Editor of Sociological Forum (1979–1980), Associate Editor of Sociological Spectrum (1981– 1985), member of the Board of Advisory Editors of Sociological Inquiry (1981–1985) and also Associate  Editor of that journal (1997–2000). He was a member of the Board of Editors of Society and Animals (1997–1999) and was Associate Editor for a special issue of Marriage and Family Relations (Fall 1982). He is the author of Sexual Deviancy and Social Proscription; Khaki-Collar Crime: Deviant Behavior in Military Context; and Deviant Behavior: Occupational and Organizational Bases; editor of The  Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior (four volumes); Deviant Behavior: Readings in the Sociology of Norm Violations; The Rural Work Force: Nonagricultural Occupations in America; Sexual Deviance in Sexual Context; The Social Dimensions of Work; and coeditor of Social Problems Today:  Dilemmas and Dimensions; Deviance and the Family; and Introductory Sociology: Selected Readings for the College Scene. He has published articles in a number of professional journals, including Social Forces, Society, Sociological Inquiry, Sociology and Social Research, Rural Sociology, Sociological Forum, American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Sex Research, Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, Journal of Leisure Sciences, Sociological Spectrum, The Rural Sociolo