FUNERAL CEREMONY IN THE SYSTEM OF STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL STUDIES OF FAMILY OBJECTIVES

On the basis of the author's proposed division of the cycle of traditional funeral ceremonies into episodes, a broad perspective for further research is revealed. The criteria of the division of the cycle and each ritual into episodes are considered, in particular, the material-spiritual metamorphosis of the characters of the sacral action. In connection with this criteria, changes in social statuses, compositional construction, deployment and involvement of new participants in sacralization, as well as the relationship with the afterlife, are studied. Structural-functional method is used; the construction of the structure opens up the possibility for researchers to look considerably more widely on the connection between the individual rituals of the cycle, to compare the burial ritual with family and the calendar cycle rituals, etc.