Burning Women: A Global History of Widow Sacrifice from Ancient Times to the Present"Following into death" is an ancient and widespread custom which entails one or more people - voluntarily or involuntarily - following a dead man or woman into death. The event is ritualized as a public act. The decisive feature is not the manner of dying but the intent, which is to accompany a dead person into the hereafter. Burning Women explores how this custom - of which the Indian Hindu custom of sati, or widow burning, is the best known example - has existed in various forms in most parts of the world. The practice of widow-burning combines strong spiritual beliefs in the hereafter with the more secular power struggles of this world, both between the sexes and social groups. Widow burning in India has long been passionately debated, but its practice in other parts of the world has been neglected. Burning Women is the first history of the anthropological, religious, social and political contexts of widow-burning across the world. |
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abolition accompanying the dead According Altekar Asiatic Journal authors Bali belief Bengal Bengal Presidency Benin Bentinck Brahmins British buried burning in India burnt Calcutta caste ceremony chap coercion concubines context Court of Directors custom deceased decision district Dubois emphasized especially European example fact fire following into death following the dead free choice frequently Friederich Groot hand head-hunting hereafter Herodotus Hindu Hinduism honour Human sacrifice husband ibid Ibn Battuta immolation important institutional Islamic Jhunjhunu killed large number least magistrate Mahābhārata mentioned missionaries Nizamat Adalat number of victims Oceania official pandits police political position possible practice prevented prohibition pyre question Rajasthan regard regions religious ritual Rogerius role Roop Kanwar rule rulers sati Schärer self-killing servants Sharma Skertchly slaves social sometimes sources statements suicide Suttee Thakur tion Tshi V.N. Datta voluntary Weinberger-Thomas 1989 widow burning wife Winternitz wives woman women