This introduction to the special issue on Anthropology and grief explores the contributions of an ethnographic approach to the interdisciplinary study of grief. After a brief overview of previous anthropological research, we identify key themes emerging from this global collection of case studies: the benefits of long-term fieldwork in nuancing the complexity of grief and complicating cultural narratives that surround it; the ways in which emotional aspects of grief are shaped by cultural norms and by the manner of death; and the relationships between the living and dead, including ontologies of the dead and culturally sanctioned forms of remembering and forgetting.