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bond. (Radcliffe-Brown: 168) In Van Gennep's view, the rites of passage prepare the individual to step into a new social status, ready to assume new social responsibilities. Further, they focus attention on this change in social identity. The person has taken on a new social personality and must be treated in a manner appropriate to his new status. Finally, Van Gennep saw regeneration as a law of life and of the universe. From time to tire, societies lost energy, suffered cultural fatigue and had to be reenergized. The rites of passage functioned to revitalize there. Firth noted that many funeral rites were associated with "ideas of completeness of sequence in human affairs" analogous to ceremonies of farewell. Here society takes formal notice of the termination of social relations. (Firth: 317) Mandelbaum refers to the need to complete "the proper order of a person's career" (Mandelbaum: 197). This final stage must be celebrated just as other previous social transitions had been marked during the life of the individual. In a sense, the dead man's family and friends gather in collective reminiscence of earlier moments they had shared with the dead person. They engage in a summation of a man's lifetime, of his character, achievements, successes, less often of his shortcomings and failures. They assert that in death the individual continues to invite the respect and regard of his fellows. Funeral orations made over the dead by chosen orators are the "keynote of the Mapuche burial ceremony" (Faron: 72).Each orator speaks in laudatory terms of the exploits, virtues, and character of the deceased, of his noble qualities, of his meaning to his family and friends, and of their loss and grief. In primitive society, "ordinary human events" such as death, marriage or puberty are rendered extraordinary and sacramental. Diamond calls them "ritual dramas" as man takes center stage. He regards these rites as an art form. Around them cluster the esthetic creations of primitive society, the masks, poems, songs, and the dance, the "quintessential rhythm of life and culture" (Diamond: 199). in the performance of these ceremonies, man raises himself above the purely biological, and confirms his humanity and the cultural character of human existence. Douglas touches on this theme of transcendence in Dinka death practice. A revered Dinka spearmaster3 , nearing the end of his life, chooses the time, manner and place of death. As his breath ebbs, he is placed in a coffin and carried to the grave. He utters his final words to his grieving son. He is then ritually murdered by suffocation. By this free decision, says Douglas, the spearmaster cheats death. By free will, he sets himself apart from other creatures that must live as nature ordains. Man transforms as he strives for "perfect fulfillment" (Douglas: 209-2i0). Grief and sorrow, pain and loss are experiences associated with death. Douglas writes that funeral customs remind the living that death and suffering are integral parts of nature (Douglas: 210). They remind us, too, "of the gravity of death and do not allow us to develop indifference" (Lessa 1971: 757). Mortuary rites serve private and personal functions as well as social ones. As passage rites, they support the individual as he accomplishes transition and moves through uncharted waters. They signal the gradual release of the bereaved from the "psychological tentacles of death" (Howells: 159). Well wishers distract the mourners and bolster their spirits. A mourning period allows the bereaved to readjust personally and to contemplate a future without the physical presence of the dead person. "Ritual dramas" allow the person to "maintain integrity of self" while taking on a new social identity. The individual "acts in new ways without crippling anxiety"... (Diamond: 198). For Malinowski, death rites functioned to allay anxiety. The crisis of death triggered "a chaos of emotion" which might result in mental conflict and possible disintegration. Mortuary rituals dampened the potential danger to the individual and the group (Malinowski: 97-99). Also, these ceremonies prepared the individual for his own ultimate demise. "Any survivor who has gone through a number of mortuary ceremonials for others becomes prepared for his own death" (Malinowski: 97). DERITUALIZATION Some observers identify religion in modern society with deritualization. Kimball, referring to a decline in sacred ceremonialism, notes that fewer rites of passage are celebrated today although the need for ritualized expression is no less than in earlier times. When they are marked, they are private and individualized, unlike life cycle ceremonies in traditional societies. There they provided an occasion for group participation at the same time the individual was undergoing social and ritual transformation (Kimball: xvixvii). Lessa refers to the virtual disappearance of many of the external evidences of mourning in American society. Rarely seen anymore are black clothes, black armbands, black bordered handkerchiefs and stationery, crepe veils and mourning jewelry (miniatures, lockets, brooches, rings, and earrings (Lessa 1971: 764). Gluckman acknowledges a decline in sacred ritual which he attributes to a shift in social relations in modern society. In tribal societies, members of the same family share the same household, work in the same fields and worship the same gods. Ritual delineates and marks off social roles, lessening the possibility
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