EXCAVATING THE AFTERLIFE

In Excavating the Afterlife, Guolong Lai explores the dialectical relationship between sociopolitical change and mortuary religion f rom an archaeological perspective. By examining burial structure, grave goods, and religious documents unearthed from groups of well -preserved tombs in southern China, Lai shows that new attitudes toward the dead, resulting from the trauma of violent political str uggle and warfare, permanently altered the early Chinese conceptions of this world and the afterlife. The book grounds the important changes...[Read more]