Crying Shame: Metaculture, Modernity, and the Exaggerated Death of Lament

Building on ethnographic fieldwork and extensive historical evidence, Crying Shame analyzes lament across thousands of years and nearly every continent.

Explores the enduring power of lament: expressing grief through crying songs, often in a collective ritual context

Draws on the author’s extensive ethnographic fieldwork, and unique long-term engagement and participation in the phenomenon

Offers a startling new perspective on the nature of modernity and postmodernity

An important addition to growing literature on cultural globalization