As part of a new interest in the study of ritual that has arisen within the last few years, Standaert (sinology, Katholieke U. Leuven, Belgium) explores the role of ritual in the exchange between cultures, by looking at what happened to funerary ritual after the European and Chinese ritual traditions came into contact with each other. Some of the study has been delivered or published before. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)