Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover
how other cultures care for the dead. From Here to Eternity is an immersive global journey that
introduces compelling powerful rituals almost entirely unknown in America. In rural
Indonesia she watches a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body which has
resided in the family home for two years. In La Paz she meets Bolivian ñatitas
(cigarette-smoking wish-granting human skulls) and in Tokyo she encounters the Japanese
kotsuage ceremony in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones' bones from
cremation ashes. With boundless curiosity and gallows humor Doughty vividly describes
decomposed bodies and investigates the world's funerary history. She introduces deathcare
innovators researching body composting and green burial and examines how varied traditions
from Mexico's Días de los Muertos to Zoroastrian sky burial help us see our own death customs
in a new light. Doughty contends that the American funeral industry sells a particular-and
upon close inspection peculiar -set of "respectful" rites: bodies are whisked to a mortuary
pumped full of chemicals and entombed in concrete. She argues that our expensive impersonal
system fosters a corrosive fear of death that hinders our ability to cope and mourn. By
comparing customs she demonstrates that mourners everywhere respond best when they help care
for the deceased and have space to participate in the process. Exquisitely illustrated by
artist Landis Blair From Here to Eternity is an adventure into the morbid unknown a story
about the many fascinating ways people everywhere have confronted the very human challenge of
mortality.
