The Reader's Guide for the Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience is provided to assist readers in locating entries on related topics. It organizes entries into 16 general topical categories: (1) Conceptualization of Death, Dying, and the Human Experience; (2) Arts, Media, and Popular Culture; (3) Causes of Death; (4) Coping With Loss and Grief; (5) Cross-Cultural Perspectives; (6) Developmental and Demographic Perspectives; (7) Disposition of the Deceased; (8) Funerals and Death-Related Activities; (9) Legal Matters; (10) Mass Death; (11) Process of Dying; (12) Religion; (13) Rituals, Ceremonies, and Celebrations; (14) Suicide, Euthanasia, and Homicide; (15) Theories and Concepts; and (16) Unworldly Entities and Events. From conceptualization of death and dying to the effects these phenomena have on those who survive, the more than 300 entries represent a range of insightful interdisciplinary topics crafted by international scholars and practitioners. Each topic is intended to provide the reader with insights into the phenomena that influence the social meanings of death and dying as these are created through the institutions that structure and organize the cultural artifacts, rituals, and ceremonies humans create and the symbols that influence the human experience.

Conceptualization of Death, Dying, and the Human Experience

• Death, Anthropological Perspectives
• Death, Clinical Perspectives
• Death, Humanistic Perspectives
• Death, Philosophical Perspectives
• Death, Psychological Perspectives
• Death, Sociological Perspectives
• Defining and Conceptualizing Death
• Eschatology
• Forensic Anthropology
• Forensic Science
• Medicalization of Death and Dying
• Thanatology

Arts, Media, and Popular Culture

• Dance of Death (Danse Macabre)
• Death-Related Music
• Depictions of Death in Art Form
• Depictions of Death in Sculpture and Architecture
• Depictions of Death in Television and the Movies
• Elegy
• Literary Depictions of Death
• Loved One, The
• Museums of Death
• Photography of the Dead
• Popular Culture and Images of Death
• Pornography, Portrayals of Death in
• Taxidermy
• Video Games
• Wax Museums

Causes of Death

• Abortion
• Accidental Death
• Acute and Chronic Diseases
• Alcohol Use and Death
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Anorexia and Bulimia
• Autoerotic Asphyxia
• Cancer and Oncology
• Capital Punishment
• Cardiovascular Disease
• Causes of Death, Contemporary
• Causes of Death, Historical Perspectives
• Cult Deaths
• Databases
• Death, Line of Duty
• Disasters, Man-Made
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• Disasters, Natural
• Drug Use and Abuse
• Dueling
• Food Poisoning and Contamination
• HIV/AIDS
• Karoshi
• Medical Malpractice
• Medical Mistakes
• Military Executions
• Miscarriage and Stillbirth
• Neonatal Deaths
• Prison Deaths
• Spontaneous Combustion
• Subintentional Death
• Sudden Death
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
• Tobacco Use
• War Deaths

Coping with Loss and Grief

• After-Death Communication
• Ambiguous Loss and Unresolved Grief
• Anniversary Reaction Phenomenon
• Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning
• Chronic Sorrow
• Communal Bereavement
• Communicating with the Dead
• Condolences
• Coping with the Loss of Loved Ones
• Death Anxiety
• Death Education
• Denial of Death
• Disenfranchised Grief
• Elegy
• Friends, Impact of Death of
• Gold Star Mothers
• Grief, Bereavement, and Mourning in Cross-Cultural Perspective
• Grief, Bereavement, and Mourning in Historical Perspective
• Grief, Types of
• Grief and Bereavement Counseling
• Grief and Dementia
• Humor and Fear of Death
• Instrumental Grieving: Gender Differences
• Lamentations
• Memorials
• Memorials, Quilts
• Memorials, Roadside
• Memorials, War
• Missing in Action (MIA)
• Monuments
• Orphans
• Postself
• Spontaneous Shrines
• Suicide, Counseling and Prevention
• Survivor Guilt
• Widows and Widowers

Cross-Cultural Perspectives

• African Beliefs and Traditions
• American Indian Beliefs and Traditions
• Ancient Egyptian Beliefs and Traditions
• Australian Aboriginal Beliefs and Traditions
• Chinese Death Taboos
• Death Care Industry
• Egyptian Perceptions of Death in Antiquity
• Funerals and Funeralization in Cross-Cultural Perspective
• Kamikaze Pilots
• Mesoamerican Pre-Columbian Beliefs and Traditions
• Social Functions of Death, Cross-Cultural Perspectives
• Suicide, Cross-Cultural Perspectives
• Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, The
• Totemism

Developmental and Demographic Perspectives

• Adolescence and Death
• Adulthood and Death
• Aging, the Elderly, and Death
• Appropriate Death
• Childhood, Children, and Death
• Databases
• Demographic Transition Model
• Economic Evaluation of Life
• Economic Impact of Death on the Family
• Gender and Death
• Infant Mortality
• Life Cycle and Death
• Life Expectancy
• Malthusian Theory of Population Growth
• Middle Age and Death
• Mortality Rates, Global
• Mortality Rates, U.S.
• Race and Death
• Sex and Death
• Social Class and Death

Disposition of the Deceased

• Body Disposition
• Body Farms
• Burial, Paleolithic
• Burial at Sea
• Burial Insurance
• Burial Laws
• Buried Alive
• Cannibalism
• Cemeteries
• Cemeteries, Ancient (Necropolises)
• Cemeteries, Pet
• Cemeteries, Unmarked Graves and Potter's Field
• Cemeteries, Virtual
• Cemeteries and Columbaria, Military and Battlefield
• Columbarium
• Cremation
• Cryonics
• Decomposition
• Exhumation
• Funeral Pyre
• Grave Robbing
• Green Burials
• Mummies of Ancient Egypt
• Mummification, Contemporary
• Necrophilia
• Neomort
• Putrefaction Research
• Second Burial
• Tomb of the Unknowns
• Tombs and Mausoleums
• Tombstones

Funerals and Death-Related Activities

• Caskets and the Casket Industry
• Clothing and Fashion, Death-Related
• Commodification of Death
• Cosmetic Restoration
• Cyberfunerals
• Death Care Industry, Economics of
• Death Mask
• Death Notification Process
• Embalming
• Epitaphs
• Eulogy
• Funeral Director
• Funeral Home
• Funeral Industry
• Funeral Industry, Unethical Practices
• Mortuary Science Education
• Obituaries, Death Notices, and Necrology
• Pre-Need Arrangements

Legal Matters

• Coroner
• Coroner's Jury
• Death Certificate
• Death-Related Crime
• Economic Evaluation of Life
• Equivocal Death
• Estate Planning
• Estate Tax
• Fatwa
• Forensic Anthropology
• Forensic Science
• Hate Crimes and Death Threats
• Inheritance
• Last Will and Testament
• Legalities of Death
• Life Insurance
• Life Insurance Fraud
• Living Wills and Advance Directives
• Medical Examiner
• Posthumous Reproduction
• Psychological Autopsy
• Viatical Settlements
• Wrongful Death

Mass Death

• Angel Makers
• Atrocities
• Epidemics and Plagues
• Famine
• Genocide
• Holocaust
• Massacres
• Megadeath and Nuclear Annihilation
• School Shootings
• Terrorism, Domestic
• Terrorism, International
• War Deaths

Process of Dying

• Appropriate Death
• Art of Dying, The (Ars Moriendi)
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• Awareness of Death in Open and Closed Contexts
• Brain Death
• Caregiver Stress
• Caregiving
• Deathbed Scene
• Discretionary Death
• End-of-Life Decision Making
• Halo Nurses Program
• Hospice, Contemporary
• Hospice, History of
• Informed Consent
• Isolation
• KÜBler-Ross's Stages of Dying
• Life Review
• Life Support Systems and Life-Extending Technologies
• Make-A-Wish Foundation
• Medicalization of Death and Dying
• Near-Death Experiences
• Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation
• Palliative Care
• Pediatric Palliative Care
• Persistent Vegetative State
• Quality of Life
• Resuscitation
• Terminal Care
• Terminal Illness and Imminent Death

Religion

• Ancestor Veneration, Japanese
• Angels
• Animism
• Apocalypse
• Armageddon
• Atheism and Death
• Baptism for the Dead
• Buddhist Beliefs and Traditions
• Christian Beliefs and Traditions
• Clergy
• Confucian Beliefs and Traditions
• Daoist Beliefs and Traditions
• Deities of Life and Death
• Devil
• Eschatology
• Eschatology in Major Religious Traditions
• Funerals and Funeralization in Major Religious Traditions
• Ghost Dance
• Heaven
• Hell
• Hindu Beliefs and Traditions
• Jewish Beliefs and Traditions
• Jihad
• Last Judgment, The
• Martyrs and Martyrdom
• Muslim Beliefs and Traditions
• Mythology
• Necromancy
• Reincarnation
• Resurrection
• Shinto Beliefs and Traditions
• Soul
• Spiritualist Movement
• Spirituality
• Transcending Death
• Valhalla

Rituals, Ceremonies, and Celebrations

• Day of the Dead
• Funeral Conveyances
• Funeral Music
• Funerals
• Funerals, Military
• Funerals, State
• Ghost Month
• Halloween
• Holidays of the Dead
• Immortality
• Living a Legacy
• Memorial Day
• Mortuary Rites
• Mythology
• Postself
• Sin Eating
• Symbolic Immortality
• Symbols of Death and Memento Mori
• Wakes and Visitation

Suicide, Euthanasia, and Homicide

• Altruistic Suicide
• Assassination
• Assisted Suicide
• Death Squads
• Domestic Violence
• Euthanasia
• Familicide
• Homicide
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• Honor Killings
• Infanticide
• Lynching and Vigilante Justice
• Manslaughter
• Mass Suicide
• Neonaticide
• Psychache
• Serial Murder
• Sex and Death
• Sexual Homicide
• Suicide
• Suicide Survivors

Theories and Concepts

• Ariès's Social History of Death
• Bioethics, History of
• Cloning
• Commodification of Death
• Cremation Movements
• Death, Philosophical Perspectives
• Death Awareness Movement
• Death Education
• Death in the Future
• Death Superstitions
• Defining and Conceptualizing Death
• Demographic Transition Model
• Deviance, Dying as
• Disengagement Theory
• Economic Evaluation of Life
• Economic Impact of Death on the Family
• Freudian Theory
• Good Death
• Language of Death
• Life Expectancy
• Malthusian Theory of Population Growth
• Personifications of Death
• Right-to-Die Movement
• Stephenson's Historical Ages of Death in the United States
• Terror Management Theory
• Thanatology

Unworldly Entities and Events

• Banshee
• Curses and Hexes
• Death Superstitions
• Frankenstein
• Ghost Photography
• Ghosts
• Halloween
• Mythology
• Witches
• Zombies, Revenants, Vampires, and Reanimated Corpses