The Living And The Dead: A Study Of The Symbolic Life Of Americans
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: 2nd pr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
At the intersection of ritual, myth, and everyday life stands W. Lloyd Warner's landmark study, The Living and the Dead, a penetrating examination of the symbolic systems that bind American society together. Part of Warner's monumental Yankee City series — a multi-volume sociological investigation of a New England community — this volume chronicles how Americans use symbols, ceremonies, and collective memories to construct meaning, navigate mortality, and reinforce social hierarchies. Warner argues with compelling clarity that the rituals of the living — from Memorial Day parades to funeral rites — are not mere custom, but the very architecture of a culture's identity. Warner's methodology draws on both anthropological fieldwork and sociological theory, bringing a rigorous yet richly human lens to subjects that other scholars of his era largely overlooked. His prose illuminates the deep structures beneath the surface of American life, revealing how the dead continue to shape the world of the living through symbol and ceremony. A foundational text in American cultural anthropology, The Living and the Dead raises questions about collective identity and social cohesion that remain as urgent and unresolved today as when Warner first posed them.
Author: W. Lloyd Warner
Format: Hardback
Published: 1965, Yale University Press
Genre: Anthropology
Edition: 2nd pr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
At the intersection of ritual, myth, and everyday life stands W. Lloyd Warner's landmark study, The Living and the Dead, a penetrating examination of the symbolic systems that bind American society together. Part of Warner's monumental Yankee City series — a multi-volume sociological investigation of a New England community — this volume chronicles how Americans use symbols, ceremonies, and collective memories to construct meaning, navigate mortality, and reinforce social hierarchies. Warner argues with compelling clarity that the rituals of the living — from Memorial Day parades to funeral rites — are not mere custom, but the very architecture of a culture's identity. Warner's methodology draws on both anthropological fieldwork and sociological theory, bringing a rigorous yet richly human lens to subjects that other scholars of his era largely overlooked. His prose illuminates the deep structures beneath the surface of American life, revealing how the dead continue to shape the world of the living through symbol and ceremony. A foundational text in American cultural anthropology, The Living and the Dead raises questions about collective identity and social cohesion that remain as urgent and unresolved today as when Warner first posed them.