A new book records the ways some cultures ostracise widows and in some cases deem them ‘unclean’

In the Western world, there are hygiene regulations for dealing with dead bodies, but for the most part, a fear of the spirit of the dead no longer plays a significant role. In those cultures where a dead husband continues to haunt the living for a long time, everything that has been in contact with the body can be declared “unclean”: the house where the body is laid out, the shroud used to wrap the body, the clothes he once wore, the cup he drank from, etc. Everything around or belonging to him is impure, and this uncleanness is first and foremost projected onto the woman with whom he has spent so many years of his life, as if death has touched not only him, but also her.

As soon as death comes and the news begins to make the rounds, in many communities the status of widowhood is made visible in a range of different ways. A widow may need to spend time in isolation, she may be forbidden from talking to other people, or even forbidden from greeting others and being greeted by them in return. She may have to wear an obligatory mourning dress or have her head...

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