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The World of Bereavement

Cultural Perspectives on Death in Families

  • Provides a micro, meso, and macro perspective for each cultural group
  • Looks at grief and bereavement systematically worldwide by sampling countries and cultures from each of the seven major geocultural areas
  • Integrates evidence-based practice with cultural wisdom and knowledge passed down through the generations

Part of the book series: International and Cultural Psychology (ICUP)

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxiii
  2. Africa

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Death, Grief and Culture in Kenya: Experiential Strengths-Based Research

      • Jane Rose M. Njue, Dorothy Rombo, Anne N. Lutomia, Laura S. Smart, Lynn M. Mwaniki, Inviolata L. Sore
      Pages 3-23
    3. Strategies for Healing from Disenfranchised Grief: A Case Study from Botswana

      • Sithandazile H. Msimanga, Lois R. Mberengwa
      Pages 41-65
  3. Asia

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 67-67
    2. Grieving Rituals and Beliefs of Chinese Families

      • Shen Qin, Yan Xia
      Pages 69-80
  4. Europe

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 99-99
    2. Bereavement and Grief in Greece

      • Theodora Kaldi-Koulikidou
      Pages 101-120
    3. The Vision of Death in Romanian Culture

      • Alina State Mihaela
      Pages 121-128
  5. Latin America

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 129-129
    2. Death and Grief in Mexican Families

      • Rosario Esteinou
      Pages 131-145
    3. The Brazilian Ways of Living, Dying, and Grieving

      • Maria-Helena P. Franco
      Pages 147-158
  6. Middle East

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-159
  7. North America

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 177-177
    2. Perinatal Death and Grief in Canada

      • Francine de Montigny, Chantal Verdon, Kory McGrath
      Pages 179-208
    3. A Moment of Grace: Child Death in the United States

      • Sarah Bain, Terry Bain, Carver Bain
      Pages 209-219
    4. Completing the Circle of Life: Death and Grief Among Native Americans

      • Chris Sharp, Amoneeta Beckstein, Gordon Limb, Zachary Bullock
      Pages 221-239

About this book

This visionary work explores the sensitive balance between the personal and private aspects of grief, the social and cultural variables that unite communities in bereavement, and the universal experience of loss. Its global journey takes readers into the processes of coping, ritual, and belief across established and emerging nations, indigenous cultures, and countries undergoing major upheavals, richly detailed by native scholars and practitioners. In these pages, culture itself is recognized as formed through many lenses, from the ancestral to the experiential. The human capacity to mourn, endure, and make meaning is examined in papers such as: 

  • Death, grief, and culture in Kenya: experiential strengths-based research.
  • Death and grief in Korea: the continuum of life and death.
  • To live with death: loss in Romanian culture.
  • The Brazilian ways of living, dying, and grieving.
  • Death and bereavement in Israel: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian perspectives.
  • Completing the circle of life: death and grief among Native Americans.
  • It is always normal to remember: death, grief, and culture in Australia.

The World of Bereavement  will fascinate and inspire clinicians, providers, and researchers in the field of death studies as well as privately-held professional training programs and the bereavement community in general.

Editors and Affiliations

  • School of Social Work, Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

    Joanne Cacciatore

  • Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA

    John DeFrain

About the editors

Joanne Cacciatore is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University where she directs the graduate Certificate in Trauma and Bereavement program, and she is the founder of the MISS Foundation, an international organization that has aided families whose babies and children are dying or have died since 1996. Her prolific research on all apsects of traumatic grief is published in many top tier journals, she presents at conferences around the world, and her work has been featured in major media venues such the New York Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, Newsweek, and the BBC.  The reicipent of numerous awards for volunteerism, she has committed her life to helping families experiencing traumatic grief, working in direct clinical practice with grieving families around the world since 1999.  In 2014, she published a mindfulness-based workbook for grievers, Selah: An invitation toward fully inhabited grief. Her blog can be found at drjoanne.blogspot.com. 

John DeFrain is a Professor Emeritus of Family Science in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, College of Human Resources and Family Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. From 1976 to 1984 he co-directed a joint graduate training program in family therapy at UNL, and has done extensive consulting for courts and families on marriage, divorce, and custody issues. He was a co-founder of the National Symposium on Building Family Strengths which, for ten years, focused attention on nationwide efforts to enhance family relationships. He has co-authored and co-edited 15 books, including: Coping with Sudden Infant Death (with Jacque Taylor and Linda Ernst, published in 1982) Secrets of Strong Families (with Nick Stinnett, published in 1985) Stillborn: The Invisible Death (with Leona Martens, Jan Stork, and Warren Stork, published in 1986) On Our Own: A Single Parent's Survival Guide (with Judy Fricke and Julie Elmen, published in 1987.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The World of Bereavement

  • Book Subtitle: Cultural Perspectives on Death in Families

  • Editors: Joanne Cacciatore, John DeFrain

  • Series Title: International and Cultural Psychology

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13945-6

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Behavioral Science, Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-13944-9Published: 28 April 2015

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-37512-0Published: 06 October 2016

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-13945-6Published: 15 April 2015

  • Series ISSN: 1571-5507

  • Series E-ISSN: 2197-7984

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXIII, 305

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 5 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Cross Cultural Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Psychotherapy and Counseling

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access