The Dance of Death, or The History of Cemeteries

In the face of death we are all equal — the powerful and the dispossessed, the happy and the unhappy. However, this has not always been the case: for many years, individual burial was only available to a privileged minority, while ordinary people had to settle for 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 discusses various burial customs and practices, the mourning industry, and people's attitudes towards 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 what place death has always occupied and still occupies in people's lives.