The Commodification of the Funeral, or the History of Formation of the Market of Funeral Services

Abstract

The paper examines how the arrangement of the funeral has been delegated from the church and families to the market; which conflicts this has entailed; now these conflicts have been solved; and how the ritual of decent funeral has fi nally become a market good. Referring to the data from Europe, USA and Russia, the author discussed two institutional types of organization of funeral services – municipal and commercial.