FUNERAL RITE AS A VARIETY OF CULTURAL PERFORMANCE
Authors:   Department of Philosophy and Cultural Management, Karpovets M. ,   Ostrog
Published: January 2025

The article analyzes the anthropological aspect of Ukrainian funeral rites as a kind of cultural performance. It was found that the performance in the context of funeral rites has a cultural, social and psychological meaning. A cultural system was formed around the phenomenon of death, which absorbed all segments of the historical, social, political and religious development of mankind. At the same time, death is a necessary component of social reality and requires the same approach to its understanding as a number of other phenomena of human life. Funeral rites can be interpreted as a kind of cultural performance due to the religious and social scenario, conventional rules and unspoken laws of behavior. They are implemented on an emotional and sensory level, formed by the general atmosphere, mood and psychological characteristics of its participants. It is substantiated that performative behavior involves activities related to the preparation for the funeral rite and the actual burial of the deceased, during which there is a "conversation" between the deceased and the participants of the funeral process (audience of the performance). A feature of the performative nature of the funeral rite is both the expression of pity for the deceased himself, who was unable to fulfill his social function to the end, and for society, which is losing its social unit.
It was revealed that the problem of researching the anthropological aspect of the funeral rite as a form of cultural performance has two stages. The first stage is preparatory – when the process of preparation and adaptation of the surroundings to the funeral rite as a performance begins: formation of the visual aspect, systematization of actions and plotting according to the social role of the deceased, involvement of the audience, etc. The second stage is the cultural and social self-expression of the participants of the performance in the context of the funeral: verbal and non-verbal delivery of the sacred content of the funeral, the presence of the deceased in several places to attract a wider audience, etc. The first stage is preparatory – when the process of preparation and adaptation of the surroundings to the funeral rite as a performance begins: formation of the visual aspect, systematization of actions and plotting according to the social role of the deceased, involvement of the audience, etc. The second stage is the cultural and social self-expression of the participants of the performance in the context of the funeral: verbal and non-verbal delivery of the sacred content of the funeral, the presence of the deceased in several places to attract a wider audience, etc. Such social meanings of the performance are realized exclusively through cultural mechanisms, namely a synthesized complex of church and folk traditions (prayer, folklore customs, which often originate from pagan times).
A vivid example of the performative manifestation of the funeral rite was memorial wails - verbal-acoustic mourning for the dead, which exist in a transformed form in the modern memorial tradition of the Ukrainian people. It has been studied that the religious tradition of commemoration also has deep psychophysiological, moral-ethical and worldview foundations. It should be noted that this rite is best preserved today in the village. Svarytsevichi of the Sarna district of the Rivne region and takes place on the memorial Saturday before the Trinity and on the Trinity itself after church services.
Key words: funeral rites, cultural performance, sacred, mourning, death, memory culture, folk beliefs, archaism.