Dying to Eat: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death, and the Afterlife - Paperback

by Candi K. Cann (Editor)

Food has played a major role in funerary and memorial practices since the dawn of the human race. In the ancient Roman world, for example, it was common practice to build channels from the tops of graves into the crypts themselves, and mourners would regularly pour offerings of food and drink into these conduits to nourish the dead while they waited for the afterlife. Funeral cookies wrapped with printed prayers and poems meant to comfort mourners became popular in Victorian England; while in

Author Biography

Candi K. Cann is associate professor of religion at Baylor University. She is the author of The World Religions: Essential Readings and Handbook and Virtual Afterlives: Grieving the Dead in the Twenty-First Century.