Scripting funerary rules

As in a number of African societies, Giriama funerals are major occasions. They are attended by hundreds of people and involve lavish sacrifices of cattle and goats, and vast donations and consumption of palm wine. There is the first funeral consisting of a burial and then of feasting and dancing for altogether six days for a woman and seven for a man. Then, some one to four months afterwards, the second funeral is held, extending over three days. Sometimes the second funeral is omitted for someone not regarded as socially important enough, but this is uncommon and may, anyway, be rectified at a much later date following a misfortune in the homestead concerned.

Rather like marriage, funerals among the Giriama are supposed to follow numerous and often complicated rules. But, whereas the rules concerning who may marry whom are generally obeyed, those for holding funerals are invariably contested and are sometimes more evident in abstract argument than in practice. Yet the rules, while probably always in change, provide at least a provisional conceptual framework into which can be fitted activities following a death.

The rules specify when, where and how the corpse should be buried, who should carry it from its resting house to the grave, how young and old, and men and women, should address and behave towards each other and how long the ceremony should last.