ABSTRACT

Through a cultural analysis of the symbols of death - flesh, blood, bones, souls, time numbers, food and money - Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore throws light upon the Chinese perception of death and how they cope with its eventuality. In the seeming mass of religious rituals and beliefs, it suggests that there is an underlying logic to the rituals. This in turn leads Kiong to examine the interrelationship between death and the socioeconomic value system of China as a whole.

chapter 1|26 pages

The Problem of Death

chapter 2|20 pages

The Process of Death

Funeral rituals

chapter 3|20 pages

Temples and Graveyards

Ancestral rituals

chapter 4|14 pages

Kin and Kindred

Death and social relations

chapter 5|24 pages

Bones and Souls

Death and inheritance

chapter 6|21 pages

Flesh and Blood 1

Putrescence and the pollution of death

chapter 7|16 pages

Unnatural Deaths

chapter 8|16 pages

Conclusions

Dangerous blood, refined souls