There are death rituals around the world you might find offensive, but mortician Caitlin Doughty says they give families space to mourn. She argues that's something missing in American culture today.
There are death rituals around the world that might strike you as morbid, disrespectful, or downright gross. In Japan, survivors pick through their loved one’s cremated ashes with chopsticks to find bone fragments. In Tibet, bodies are eaten by vultures. Friday, mortician Caitlin Doughty joins us to talk about the rituals she chronicles in her latest book. Doughty says these traditions give families time and space to mourn, something she argues is sorely missing in American culture today. (Rebroadcast)
On Thursday, October 18 at 7:00 p.m., Caitlin Doughty will give a reading at The King's English Bookshop [1511 South 1500 East, Salt Lake City] as part of the Utah Humanities Book Festival.
Caitlin Doughty is the author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes [Indie bookstores|Amazon|Audible] and her latest From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death. [Indie bookstores|Amazon|Audible]
