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the living, as suggested by one of L-V. Thomas's titles: Rites de Morr pour la Paix des
ViW1II1S. What they symbolically bring 10 the dead, they effectively bring 10 the bereaved
community: the evacuation of the otherwise potentially dangerous dead inlo lhe otherworld,
the revitalization of the living, the reslOration of order, and a channelling of the
bereavement process to its successful completion. This is enough proof that the procedure
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accompanying death, whatever its form, is a ritual of life, and a universal necessity.
2.3. The Mourning Process as Individual Therapy
As the traditional community recovers its balance and vitality through ritual behaviour,
so do the bereaved relarives go lhrough a mourning process which is to rehabilitate them to
nomlal social life. Mourning rites prolong the function of the burial ceremony. in enabling
those who are the more deeply and personally affected by the loss of the deceilscd (0 sever
all emotional links with him. To fully appreciate how these rites ensure the success of the
mourning process, one needs to take an insight into the psychology of bereavement.
In his authoritative study, Death, Griefand Mourning, Geoffrey Gorer distinguishes
three stages in adull bereavement. The first is a shon period of shock, usually lasting
between the occurrence of death and the disposal of the Ix>dy, the second is a period of
intense mourning accompanied by the withdrawal from the external world following the
funeral, and the third is a period of recovery and resumption of normal social life. I The
second phase is the most critical one, for mourning then is the most intense, and the
mourner is mostly left alone to bear it. This stage, Freud points out, comes close to
melancholia, and is characterized by inhibition and exclusive devotion to mourning,
restless sleep, often with vivid dreams, failure of appetite, and loss of weight.2 In the last
and recovering stage, the subject directs his interest outward again, with sleep and weight
stabilized.
Modern psycho-medical research bears out that bereavement is a natural process
evolving along these stages. It also demonstrates the necessity for the subject to achieve
this progression in order to bring this trauma to a successful resolution. Indeed, while the
loss of a dear one inflicts a deep wound, recovery comes nalUrally provided no interference
1Geoffrey Gorer, Demh, Grief and Mourning in Contemporary Orilain (New York: Doubleday,
1965) 129·48.
2Sigmund Freud, "Mourning and Melancholia." Collected Papers, lrans, Joan Riviere
(london: Hogarth, 1956) 4: 153.