Death and Bereavement Around the World: Death and Bereavement in Europe: Volume 3

ABOUT THE SERIES Death and Bereavement Around the World, a new five-volume presentation and analysis of the ways different peoples experience dying and grief. The make-up of the contemporary nation-state is increasingly multiethnic and statistics show that in many cases no one group is numerically the largest. Interethnic relations are given global visibility by the media while much that happens among different groups depends on context.

Editors John D. Morgan (King’s College, London, Canada) and Pittu Laungani (Manchester University, England) have gathered leading international authorities to produce Death and Bereavement Around the World.

Effective bereavement care requires a knowledge of an individual’s physical, social, educational, and spiritual existence since the expressions of grief and the needs that emerge vary widely from one to another and are subject to past experiences, cultural expectations, personal beliefs, and relationships. An individual’s identity comes from a sense of personal uniqueness; solidarity with group ideals; continuity with the past, present and future; and from the culture by which an individual is raised or adopted. A culture is the cumulative expression of a group’s attempts, through the rationality available to them, to pursue interests with one another and the material environment. It represents the pattern of values passed from generation to generation: knowledge, customs, beliefs, art, laws, moral ideas and ideas of success. People live and die according to their value systems. It is important, then, that caregivers understand not only the values and traditions of the major religions of the world, but also the national values and traditions by which persons find meaning.

Focus on Volume 3: Death and Bereavement in Europe

In Death and Bereavement Around the World, Volume 3: Death and Bereavement in Europe, the contributors explore attitudes, funeral practices, and end-of-life care in the European countries. The scope of this volume ranges from the highly developed hospice and bereavement programs found in the United Kingdom to the newly developed programs in Croatia. The "new Europe" is reflected in the cooperation among services across Europe, while services maintain their national identities. Religion continues to exert its influence throughout Europe, notably in Greece. Much of the volume’s focus is on funeral rituals and burial customs and the distinctive changes in funerals across Europe, especially in Germany. Practices in Poland, the Ukraine, and Russia are described, highlighting the differences among these countries despite the political unity imposed on them for 50 years.

Death and Bereavement Around the World will be a valuable resource for those who care for others during a time of stress or crisis. Physicians and nurses, clergy and funeral directors, teachers, scout leaders, coaches, and lay caretakers will be better able to understand, communicate, and integrate bereavement traditions with their patients, clients, colleagues and family members.