This unusual and absorbing book takes a behind-the-gates look at what cemeteries mean to the people who visit them. Burial sites have long been recognized as windows onto past civilizations, yet the meanings of our present day cemeteries have been virtually ignored, even though they teach us much about ourselves. Through the process of choosing a memorial stone, inscribing it, and tending the grave garden, visitors fashion a dynamic and often intensely personal landscape of memory and mourning. The contemporary cemetery is also a place where new immigrant communities can reinforce group boundaries and establish a sense of homeland. Exploring the memorial practices of people from Greek Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic and Anglican faiths, as well as the unchurched, this book shows how the material artefacts of mourning express sentiments that are shared, understood, and validated by members of the secret cemetery community. This book contains much to commend it to professionals and practitioners.

This unusual and absorbing book takes a behind-the-gates look at what cemeteries mean to the people who visit them. Burial sites have long been recognized as windows onto past civilizations, yet the meanings of our present day cemeteries have been virtually ignored, even though they teach us much about ourselves. Through the process of choosing a memorial stone, inscribing it, and tending the grave garden, visitors fashion a dynamic and often intensely personal landscape of memory and mourning. The contemporary cemetery is also a place where new immigrant communities can reinforce group boundaries and establish a sense of homeland. Exploring the memorial practices of people from Greek Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic and Anglican faiths, as well as the unchurched, this book shows how the material artefacts of mourning express sentiments that are shared, understood, and validated by members of the secret cemetery community. This book contains much to commend it to professionals and practitioners.