Two faces of the culture of death: Relationship between grief work and Hungarian peasant soul beliefs

This article aims to demonstrate that peasant death culture-as a part of th e social construction of reality-does not only support the grief work of su rvivors, but sometimes also interferes with and encumbers it. This destruct ive aspect of death culture is rooted in its this-worldly normative and ord er preservative role. If the deceased pursued a norm-following life course, peasant culture offers him or her a positive otherworldly perspective of e xistence, and supports the reorganization of the survivors in various ways. On the other hand, certain infringements of norms (e.g., suicide) are asso ciated with deterrent otherworldly perspectives and are penalized with sanc tions falling on the survivors. These sanctions increase survivors' bittern ess and shelterlessness and make more difficult the finding of meaning, as well as a comforting closing of the relation to the deceased and its transi tion into an inner representation.