Continuing bonds, society, and human experience: family dead, hostile dead, political dead.

In most times and places, the focus of continuing bonds is on the well-being and activity of the dead that are linked to the well-being and activity of the living. In this article we describe continuing bonds across cultures by focusing on the dead. Three relationships between the living and the dead organize our thinking. First, the family dead in which living and dead offer help to each other. Second, the hostile dead that threaten the well being of the living. Third, the political dead in which the living enlisting the dead in political conflicts, and the dead motivate the living to battle on their behalf. Shifting the focus this way allows us to see that continuing bonds play important roles in larger narratives as well as in individual and family narratives.