Taking our cue from Hertz, we have tried to unravel the ideological and sociological implications of funerary rites by focusing attention upon the fate of the corpse. Our comparative examples ranged from Europe to Asia, from predynastic Egypt to contemporary Africa, and from the simplest acephalous societies to complex states. But even so, our survey is far from exhaustive. This is for four reasons.

First, a world survey of mortuary customs, given the central importance that such rites often have, would amount almost to an encyclopedia of world cultures. Instead, we have drawn many of our examples from those areas that we know best, namely Africa and Southeast Asia. Second, we are conscious of the risk of overbuy dening the reader with descriptions of funerals to the point where they all begin to look alike. This is rendered all the more likely by the very similarities that it has been our purpose to identify. Third, we have chosen comparative examples from among the classics of anthropology; from the work of Durkheim, Evans-Pritchard, Frazer, Radcliffe-Brown, van Gennep, Wilson, and others. In this way, we have pointed out the importance of mortuary rites to the developing study of religion and society. Fourth, our emphasis on secondary treatment rites narrows the range of our examples.