Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set
out to discover how other cultures care for the dead.From Here to Eternity is
an immersive global journey that introduces compelling, powerful rituals almost
entirely unknown in America.
In rural Indonesia, she watches a man clean and dress his grandfathers
mummified body, which has resided in the family home for two years. In La Paz,
she meets Boliviannatitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls), and
in Tokyo she encounters the Japanese kotsuage ceremony, in which relatives use
chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones bones from cremation ashes.
With boundless curiosity and gallows humor, Doughty vividly describes
decomposed bodies and investigates the worlds funerary history. She introduces
deathcare innovators researching body composting and green burial, and examines
how varied traditions, from MexicosDas de los Muertos to Zoroastrian sky burial
help us see our own death customs in a new light.
Doughty contends that the American funeral industry sells a particular and,
upon close inspection,peculiarset of "respectful" rites: bodies are whisked
to a mortuary, pumped full of chemicals, and entombed in concrete. She argues
that our expensive, impersonal system fosters a corrosive fear of death that
hinders our ability to cope and mourn. By comparing customs, she demonstrates
that mourners everywhere respond best when they help care for the deceased, and
have space to participate in the process.
Exquisitely illustrated by artist Landis Blair, From Here to Eternity is an
adventure into the morbid unknown, a story about the many fascinating ways
people everywhere have confronted the very human challenge of mortality.
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