Dance of Death, or The History of Cemeteries

In the face of death, we are all equal — the powerful and the downtrodden, the happy and the unhappy. However, this was not always the case: for many years, only a privileged minority could count on individual burials, while... common people were satisfied with communal graves. In this book, French sociologist and essayist Bertrand Mari traces the long history of burials from the 'dark' Middle Ages to the present day, from cemeteries lost far from villages to urban necropolises. Engagingly combining history and sociology in his narrative, Bertrand Mari tells about various burial customs and practices, the funeral industry, and people’s attitudes toward death. All Saints' Day, military and civilian cemeteries, tombs and temples, the right to a grave and the cult of the dead — the author shows the place death has always occupied and still occupies in people's lives.