Note 1267 — Chapter V · PIACULAR RITES AND THE AMBIGUITY OF THE NOTION OF SACREDNESS

It may be asked why repeated ceremonies are necessary to produce the relief which follows upon mourning. The funeral ceremonies are frequently very long; they include many operations which take place at intervals during many months. Thus they prolong and support the moral disturbance brought about by the death (cf. Hertz, La Representation collective de la mort, in Année Sociol., X, pp. 48 ff.). In a general way, a death marks a grave change of condition which has extended and enduring effects upon the group. It takes a long time to neutralize these effects.