Full AspenCat Catalog

While driving to the funeral of a friend, a couple married twenty-eight years examine the expectations and disappointments of their marriage.

Discusses the Egyptian preservation of dead bodies, stories associated with mummies, and mummies from different cultures, including Incan and Sicilian.

Annie passes away at the youthful age of 56, leaving her high-school friend, Katherine, responsible for organizing her traveling funeral. Katherine receives a UPS package with Annie's favorite pair of red high-top sneakers, which contain her ashes, and instructions to contact four other women who played pivotal roles in her life. All of the women either have met or heard of each other through Annie, and all agree to fulfill her request that they fly...

We all need to find connection and meaning in the midst of the fast paced world we live and rituals offer an easy and simple way to do this. In this 365 year-long exploration, Theresa Cheung offers daily practices to help us bring focus and attention to our lives for meaningful and achievable change. A ritual is any action we take that has meaning beyond its appearance; by giving an action intention it becomes 'sacred' and purposeful. The absence...

Drawing on extensive historical and anthropological research, personal accounts, and interviews, the author documents the burial process thoughout the centuries and in different cultures.

Laurel Hand, long absent from the South, comes from Chicago to New Orleans, where her father dies after surgery. With Fay, the stupid new young wife of her father, Laurel returns to her former Mississippi home and stays a few days after the funeral for reunions with old friends. In a night alone in the house she grew up in, she confronts elements of the past and comes to a better understanding of it and of herself and her parents.

An original account of the history, legends, and ceremonialism of the Navaho and Pueblo Indians of the Southwest. Following a brief history of the two tribes through the centuries of conquest, the book turns inward to the meaning of Indian legends and rituals--Navaho sings, Pueblo dances, Zuni kachina ceremonies. Enduring still, these rituals and ceremonies express a view of life, of man's place in the creation, which is compared with Taoism and Buddhism--and...

Describes a variety of Indian tribal ceremonies and rituals, including those for war and peace, hunting and gathering, and healing.