Published : 2022-11-16

The Cultural and Religious Roles of the Cemetery

Abstract

The cemetery is a place where the sacred and the profane, cultural and religious values overlap. The aim of the following work is a synthetic portrayal of the cultural and religious roles of the cemetery. Their presentation will be based on history divided into five periods characterised by inhumation practices: prehistoric burial, necropolis outside city limits, cemeteries within city limits, burial in churches, modern cemeteries outside city limits. Apart from several exceptions the analysis focuses on burials on the Western European territory. It utilises the source material and the methodology of humanist studies (archeology, history, culture and religion studies) and theology. The location and characteristics of a necropolis has always been shaped by the specific culture of the given community, religious tradition, worldview, geography as well as sanitary considerations. In this sense cemeteries constitute monuments of civilizations, cultures and religions. Despite the changing rules of inhumation throughout time it can be stated that the cultural and religious roles of the cemetery are elementary and irreplaceable. The two roles overlap and creatively cooperate.

Keywords:

cemetery, roles of the cemetery, cultural role of the cemetery, religious role of the cemetery



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Roczniki Teologiczne · ISSN 2353-7272 | eISSN 2543-5973 · DOI: 10.18290/rt
© Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II

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