The role of the experiences with the dead in the lives of individuals in rural Slovakia : practices and rituals

Uhrin, Michal (author)

This paper aims to explore people’s experiences with the dead and subsequent rituals, practices and associated ideas. Experiences and subsequent practices can be analyzed and classified according to whether they are individual or collective, according to their degree of generality, intentionality and rigidity; and in terms of whether they are first-hand experiences or general narratives.The data presented in the paper were gathered during long-term ethnographic research carried out in the Horehronie region in central Slovakia in 2023 and 2024. The research site is characterized by a high prevalence of members of the Roman Catholic Church who are of Slovak nationality. The ethnographic research carried out so far shows that rituals, practices, associated ideas, and people’s experiences with the dead and their agency are multidimensional phenomena influ-enced mainly by the Catholic religion, and to a lesser extent by folk religion or vernacu-lar religion. The agency of the dead is usually manifested because of experiences with the dead that cause the performance of rituals, ritualized types of behavior, ritualized practices or other activities, and because of contemplation about the moral and religious aspects of the lives of individuals and society.

• Language: English
• Keywords: ethnology, cultural anthropology, ethnography, death, experiences with the dead, agency of the dead, ritual, pracrice, Slovakia
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 157-181
• Numbering: Vol. 31, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-175786
• UDC: 393:39(437.6)
• ISSN on article: 2232-3716
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17479008
• COBISS.SI-ID: 256367619
• Publication date in RUL: 07.11.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Anthropological notebooks
• Publisher: Društvo antropologov Slovenije, = Slovene Anthropological Society
• ISSN: 2232-3716
• COBISS.SI-ID: 256898816

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Namen tega članka je raziskati izkušnje ljudi z mrtvimi in s tem povezane obrede, prakse in ideje. Izkušnje in s tem povezane prakse je mogoče analizirati in razvrstiti kot individualne ali kolektivne glede na stopnjo njihove splošnosti, namen in togost, ter glede na to, ali gre za osebne izkušnje ali splošne pripovedi. Gradivo je bilo zbrano med dolgotrajnim etnografskim raziskovanjem v regiji Horehronie v osrednji Slovaški v letih 2023 in 2024. Raziskovalno območje zaznamuje visoka zastopanost članov rimskokatoliške cerkve slovaške narodnosti. Doslej opravljena etnografska raziskava kaže, da so obredi, prakse, povezane ideje in izkušnje ljudi z mrtvimi ter njihovo delovanje večdimenzionalni pojavi, na katere vpliva predvsem krščanska religija, v manjši meri pa tudi ljudska verovanja ali vernakularna religija. Delovanje mrtvih se običajno izraža kot odziv na izkušnje z mrtvimi, ki povzročajo izvajanje obredov, ritualiziranih oblik veden-ja, ritualiziranih praks ali drugih dejavnosti, pa tudi kot posledica razmišljanja o moralnih in verskih vidikih življenja posameznikov in družbe.

• Keywords: etnologija, kulturna antropologija, etnografija, mrtvi, vloga mrtvih, smrt, izkušnje z mrtvimi, delovanje mrtvih, rituali, praksa, Slovaška

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Project number: 101095729
• Name: The roles of the agency of the dead in the lives of individuals in contemporary society
• Acronym: DEAGENCY