Death as the basic condition of life and as the ultimate destiny of all men is also a decisive factor in the shaping of cultures. Death's emergence as rupture and loss, and man's reaction in the form of grief and mourning are at the core of a vast unfolding of belief systems and ritual practices which aim at dealing with this overwhelming reality coherently. Whether the hereafter, into which death leads, is seen as the radical other that either precludes the ...
