“From house to funeral home” : changes in funeral rituals in rural Slovakia

Uhrin, Michal (author)

This paper examines how the introduction of death-related buildings, such as the funeral home in rural Slovakia, alters the ways and frequency of contact with the dead body and, in turn, influences the course and certain aspects of funeral rituals. It presents a case study based on long-term ethnographic research, analysing data collected over three years in a village in the Horehronie region of the Slovak Republic with a predominantly Roman Catholic population. Through analysis of ethnographic data, the study argues that the establishment of the funeral home and the related shift in the space where the body is kept before the funeral changed the course and some elements of funeral rituals. The funeral home not only serves an essential function in the funeral process but can also gradually become a space and symbol associated with the dead, death, and the afterlife; it also embodies and reflects religious beliefs and norms that can shape both collective and individual behaviours and emotional states.

• Language: English
• Keywords: ethnology, anthropology of death, funeral rituals, transformation, funerals, funeral home, death, Slovakia
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 30.06.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 91-113
• Numbering: Vol. 85, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-185640
• UDC: 393(437.6)
• ISSN on article: 1211-8117
• DOI: 10.59618/NV.2026.1.05
• COBISS.SI-ID: 287794947
• Publication date in RUL: 14.08.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Národopisný věstník : ethnographic journal
• Shortened title: Národop. věstn.
• Publisher: Národopisná společnost, Česká národopisná společnost z.s.
• ISSN: 1211-8117
• COBISS.SI-ID: 283150595

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: etnologija, antropologija smrti, pogrebni rituali, pogrebi, mrliške vežice, smrt, 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

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Funding programme: VEGA - Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Project number: 1/0724/23
• Name: Conspirituality: The Blending of Supernatural and Conspiracy Explanations