The Last Journey with no Return and Resurrection: Different Ways of Body and Soul in Slavic Funeral Rite. Part Two: The Route of the Soul

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2025-1/210-225

Authors

  • Maria Andrunina the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

Keywords:

soul, body, death, way, funeral, remembrance, inversion, reincarnation

Abstract

universe and visits the home occasionally. First, it persistently stays at home, but with time it comes back less and less often, moves to the periphery of living space, coming farther and farther to the world of the dead, and eventually becomes one of the ancestors. The journey of the corpse to the cemetery also shared with the soul must be without return, transgressed by no one, and different from the roads of living thus preventing death from returning. On the contrary, the soul of the dead is expected to return to take part in remembrance rites, where the fates and shares of the living and the dead are measured and divided and mutually beneficial communication is held.  In spring souls of the departed also visit the living relatives, coming back from the dead with the waking nature, returning birds, and reviving herbs. The ultimate return of the soul comes with the reincarnation to a newborn baby, young animal, bird, or even tree. That is the crucial difference between the roads of funeral and remembrance rites designed for various parts of personal metaphysical union: the soul and the body.

Author Biography

  • Maria Andrunina, the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

    Andrunina, Maria A. — Ph.D. in Philology, Researcher, the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: mary-andr@mail.ru

    For citation: Andrunina, M. A. 2025. The Last Journey with no Return and Resurrection: Different Ways of Body and Soul in Slavic Funeral Rite. Part Two: The Route of the Soul. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 1: 210–225.

    Funding: The study was carried out as a part of the research plan of the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology.

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Published

15.03.2025

Issue

No. 1 (2025): Вестник антропологии

Section

Funeral Rites