Symbolic Immortality: The Tlingit Potlatch of the Nineteenth Century, Second Edition (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780295994895)

Decades after its initial publication, Symbolic Immortality retains its status as the most comprehensive analysis of the mortuary practices of the Tlingit Indians of southeastern Alaska--or any other indigenous culture of the Northwest Coast. This updated and expanded edition furthers our understanding of the potlatch (koo. ex') as a total social phenomenon, with emotional and religious as well as economic and sociopolitical dimensions. The result is a major contribution to both Northwest Coast ethnology and theoretical literature on the anthropology of death.