THE CONCEPT OF DEATH IN THE FOLK

CULTURE OF MACEDONIANS

Ljupo S. Risteski

IZVLEEK
Koncept smrti v makedonski ljudski kulturi

To prouevanje bo dopolnilo vedenje o smrti v ljudski kulturi. Smrt lana skupnosti pomeni nevarnost in
krizo za druino in iro socialno in obredno skupnost vas. Je tudi vzrok dejanskih in temeljnih sprememb
v druinski strukturi in v odnosih vake skupnosti, zato lahko katastrofalno vpliva na njuno integriteto. V
tem primeru smo obravnavali smrt kot najpomembneji vzrok za prekinitev obstojee harmonije in strukture odnosov v svetu. Obredne dejavnosti dajejo monost realizacije novega kozmosa ali pa uveljavitev novih
odnosov. e upotevamo, da smrt in umiranje ne pomenita le biolokega konca ivih dejavnosti za tradicionalno skupnost, temve sta tudi kulturna fenomena, nam analiza obeh ne omogoa le ugotavljanja in
odkrivanja individualne psihologije, temve e mnogo pomembnejih socialnih, religioznih in mitinih vsebin, ki so bistveni segmenti strukture legendarnega koncepta sveta v tradicionalnih strukturah.
Kljune besede: posmrtne ege, Makedonija, ljudska kultura, ljudske uprizoritve in verovanja o smrti in

umiranju, sumljiva umrla oseba, neista umrla oseba, ista umrla oseba
Key-words: Posthumous ceremonial complex, Macedonia, traditional culture, folk presentations and beliefs
about death and dying, suspicious deceased person, impure deceased person, pure deceased person

The exceptionally rich empirical materials of the traditional cultures, especially

those from the Balkans, indicate existence of a constructed system which presents a
model of the World on which all variations and ways of peoples behaviour have been
based. For the researchers of these, the so-called, folk-traditional cultures, a primary
task is to discover that conception, which is a unique possibility for its adequate understanding and interpretation of human activities connected with its mythic past, its religious idea and its ritual activities. Human activities consist of permanent repetition of
mythic archetypes, which have in their basis always brought the myth about the prime
creation of the World.1 Living space, according to the traditional understanding of the
1
Mira Elijade, Sveto i profano, Knjievna zajednica Novog Sada, Novi Sad, 1986, 66. M. Elijade, Mitut za venoto zavrane : Arhetipi i povtorenie, Hristo Botev, Sofija 1994, 48.

87

Ljupo S. Risteski

conception, has been the centre of the Cosmos. Traditional views of Macedonians
about the conception of the World indicate presentations of three cosmic worlds: our
world settled by human beings, called The Middle Land; beyond the our world lies
The Upper Land and bellow our The Under Land.2
According to that tradition, peoples World is an archetype or projection of Gods
World and the World of Deities. Everything that happens in the Middle Land presents
only a projection or pattern of the World of Deities, and all peoples activities are a projection of deities activities. Human activities in our World present the eternal aspires through the ritual repetition of archetype beginnings to simulate the primordial
act of the World creation.
88
According to the folk tradition, these three Worlds have been arranged vertically
and divided among themselves by strong boundaries. Characteristics of the Upper and
the Under Land are very similar and, very often, mutually connected, making an eternal circle in the Cosmos.

The Structure of the Mythic World and Possibilities for

its Disturbing
According to the mythic rules of the Worlds arrangement in the traditional culture, everything functions very good up to the moment when, for some reasons the
World order and the patterns of all forms of behaviour are disturbed. Generally, this
happens when some factors, in the frame of social and ritual community, cause a situation which leads to replacement or elimination of the established boundaries among
the mythic Worlds, putting that way the whole social community in a very dangerous
situation. In such a situation, the community reacts immediately, organising intensive
magic and ritual activities in order to restore the World, its harmony and to mark again
the boundaries among the Worlds.

Death - the Appearance of the Chaos

According to traditional beliefs, the process of existence is eternal but every alive
being is subjected to the process of dying. The process of dying is comprehended as a
moment or a process of transformation of energy and its transferring from one to the
other cosmic world. According to the peoples beliefs, the energy - the essence - the soul
is never lost, but it passes over into other levels. Peoples leaving from the world of
the alive has been considered as the most frightful and, at the same time, the most important act for the community of the alive, because death of a member of the community means irreparable loss - his leaving into the other World.
2
Ljupo S. Risteski, Posmrtni obredni kompleks u tradicijskoj kulturi Marijova, Belgrade University, 1997 (manuscript).

The Concept of Death in the Folk Culture of Macedonians

This means that death has been the most important cause of Cosmos disturbance.
Death causes radical changes into the structure of cosmic organisation, making a state of
Chaos in the relations of the community, which can reflect catastrophically on its future
integrity and development. In that sense, the social and ritual community takes on very
rich and complex magic and ritual activities in order to restore the harmony. From an
aspect of the Macedonian folk, there are more polysignificant comprehensions of death as
a demonic being, or it is imagined as a state or more precisely, as a phase in which the
essential principle - the soul - finally leaves the human body.

Death and Diseases as Demonic Beings

Death and its numerous variants - diseases, according to the folk beliefs, are the
basic causes of the soul leaving the human body. There are many ideas about death as
a demonic being, which is very thirsty for peoples life. The most frequent are presentations in which death has been presented as a woman, a black woman or metamorphosed as the demonic being, disease: plague (chuma) - as a woman with her chthonic attributes: distaff (furka), her deadly voice, her note book and presentations of
demonic beings: fairy (samovila), (senishte), fever (treska) etc.3
... my dear sister, very bad disease caught you,
(milna sestra shto loshi bolki te vatija)
or
five years, my brother, with disease you were fighting...
(pet godini, brate so bolka se boreshe)4 ...
In Christian forms of beliefs and folk genres as stories, legends etc. - St. Archangel
Michael has a role of guide of peoples souls.

Death as a Particular State or Phase of Final Soul

Separation from the Human Body
An important part of the survived information recorded during our field research point out to the peoples idea about death as a dream, a great, long and eternal
dream. These kinds of presentations of death, according to the opinions of many ethnologists, are related to the traditional understanding of sleeping, or more precisely,
the process of dreaming as a situation very close to death and very dangerous for living
people. While the body of the sleeper is resting, his soul in dream, remains active and
liberates itself moving out of the human body.
3
Narodna demonologija na Makedoncite, T. Vrainovski, collaborators V. Karadoski, L. Risteski, L. Simoska,
MM-ISK, Skopje-Prilep 1996, 53-55.
4
Archive of Institute of Old Slavic Culture - Prilep (AIOSC), Inv. No. K - 56/1996. Inform. Petkana Rimcheva, born
in 1943 in the village of Vitolishta, region of Mariovo. Recorded on February 17, 1996 in the village of Vitolishta, Mariovo.

89

Ljupo S. Risteski

But, duration of this free movement is limited, because the prolonged soul wandering can be very dangerous and causes death.
According to the above mentioned information, the numerous prohibitions and
system of taboos connected with the sleeping people and their surrounding become
very clear. The soul can wander somewhere without coming back, failing to find the
body in which it has been settled or to find some other body or other subject. Dreaming
is a state in which human body stays quiet, with apparently low intensity of the signs of
life, with liberated soul in a process of movement, causing a situation in which the body
is very close to death. Comparing these situations, people connect actual dying with a
state of sleeping, but sleeping as a kind of eternal and great dream from which nobody
90 has ever awoke.

The Process of Cosmisation of the Chaos

Community as an autonomous entity has a tendency, in a shortest possible time,
to eliminate the cases of destruction, to protect the rest of its members and to reestablish the previous relations and harmony.
1.

Rituals for Liberation of the Community from the Dead Member

In the case of death, the most important task of the community is to neutralize
the effects of the dead person or to minimize them as much as possible. This can be
achieved by a complete isolation of the dead person and of those who had direct contacts with him. People who have an intermediary contact with the dead person, always
take many preventive actions which do not allow expansion of death. They visit the
dead person with garlic on the hands and ancles with a piece of stone or some thorn in
their mouths, defending themselves and other members of the community. Considering that this kind of isolation can not be effective for a long period, the community
buries the dead person.
2.

The Magic Separation of Good from Bad and Protection from Danger

The status of a dead person in the community, especially to the moment of his
burial, has a variety of meanings and implicates many activities which clearly determine relations of the alive to the dead person of the community. At the beginning, the
most important thing is to set clear boundaries between the contaminated zone in
which the dead person lived and is still present, and the space of the alive. After that,
the community starts with the process of separation of two very important principles:
good and bad, life and death, fruitfulness and sterility.
Everything that was used in the funeral ceremony, or found in the surrounding of
a dead person is contaminated and dangerous for the alive. Because of that, all requisites containing the magic infection ought to be separated and thrown out of the reach
of the alive. Mostly, these requisites have been buried together with the dead person or
they pass through a range of lustrative phases in order to bring them into a normal situation for everyday use. This approach can be noticed through all the ritual activities:

The Concept of Death in the Folk Culture of Macedonians

separation of the clothes of the dead person; water in which the dead person was
bathed, his comb, razor, measure for his grave, etc. Biers on which the dead person
was carried to the cemetery are either buried or left near the grave, marked as something which can not be returned back into the community.
The rope with which the deceased was buried was at first thrown on the ground
in order to neutralise its magic effects, and even after it had been dragged by legs
along the ground, some members of the house-hold would have taken it. Objects with
a great importance for life and existence of the community must be separated completely and never be put in use among the alive. (The sickle put over the stomach of the
dead person and used in the rituals of magic cutting, was never again used by the community in its original purpose: as a basic tool in harvest.) Some things, tools and parts 91
from the deceased, however, are left among the alive, to be used for the aims of black
magic (kerchiefs with which the mouth, arms or legs were tied; ritual small breads
through which someone could be seen, etc.)
There are many ritual activities for further protection from the dead. The dead
water in which the dead person was bathed, is poured out on places where the alive
can not make a direct contact with it. Water from jugs in the whole village must be
poured out, too, and replaced by fresh water. In these ritual actions, people must be
very careful not to disturb the purity of water. For this reason, all woman from the village go to the water source together, being afraid to meet the others who go to the water
after them, and who might intercept and contaminate the fresh water again.
The most important separations between life and death, between good and bad,
are realised at home, before the burial of the dead person. These ritual activities of separation are usually carried out by the so called mesaria (a woman who is the most
important ritual actor during the funeral ceremony and after). In these moments, she
stands in the space signed as domestic, near the breads, and because of that all her
activities are aimed to protect the fruitful power of the bread, the grain, and the live
stock. In that occasion, the mesaria kneads the ritual breads called bulinja, which
should sign the new boundaries at the level of fruitfulness between the two opposite
categories: life and death.
In kneading the ritual breads on the dead persons right hand, the first bread
symbolises the principle of death, the evil and mesaria puts it into the dead persons
armpit. The other bread remains at home as a symbol of the principle of bread fertility
and welfare of the house. In order to preserve the welfare of the house, from the breads
devoted for the funeral ceremony, mesaria takes one bread back to the house and
one is sent to the shepherds and live stock. Once the breads were taken out of the
house, there is a ritual prohibition for their returning into the house since they are
considered as possible agents of death. Cutting the linen by which the dead was covered, the mesaria leaves a part of it tied on the right leg of the box for kneading
bread, in order to preserve the fruitful power of the dead and transmit it to the household. In a case the fire was burning in the moment when somebody died, people take
care of it not to extinguish it, it is a symbol of life and welfare. In the same time, the
relatives of the dead take care that noone of the visitors takes the fire for himself.

Ljupo S. Risteski

When the people come back from the funeral, they use different roads, believing that the deads soul or his mortal influence does not know how to come back to
the living. In some cases, people cross the river, connotating passing into the space
of the alive. After coming back, the participants of the funeral procession pass across
the water and fire. After funeral ceremony, the participants come back in the house
of the deceased, passing through a process of individual lustration prevents from the
eventual magic infection of death. They lustrate themselves by washing and throwing
embers on their hands.
During the funeral ceremony, close relatives of the dead person remain under
some green and fruitful tree in the cemetery, preserving the life and fertility. That
92 place, the housewife ungirding her apron or the belt, takes the alive members of her
family under her magic protection. The ritual activities, however, show that not every
object connected with the deceased has the meaning of danger and harmfulness. The
deceased person who was, until recently, alive member of the community, especially if
he was known as a good host, keeps his characteristics even after death. The positive
and good attributes have a special importance for the community of alive. Because of
that, the community makes efforts to keep and use these attributes for itself.
3.

The Black Hen in the Grave

If two persons of the same family die in a short period, the traditional community
takes another very important magic and ritual activity. Believing that the two died persons will drawl the third person, during the funeral of the second one people bury
black hen - let it be the third. People believe that this action will influence the establishing of the magic completeness of number - three. Actions related to the selection
and killing or, more exactly, suffocating the hen, point out to the archaic motive of sacrificing to the cause of death or as an act of calling deities - protectors of the community, to show mercy on them. The hen should be black or dark coloured and should not
be slaughtered but suffocated, covered in some vessel.
In traditional conception of the community, a decisive importance has the categorical separation of deceased persons according to their features: pure, suspicious and
impure deceased person.5 Its according to these ideas that the whole ritual and magic
activity of the community was structured. The community ritual and social activities have
always been directed to making a successful and complete distance from the dead person,
separating his good values from the bad ones, and his sending off into the community of
dead ancestors wherefrom he can successfully and fruitfully act upon the community of
living persons. Only the category pure deceased person (persons who passed through a
complete ritual complex and were successfully included into the community of dead), has
a great importance for the community. It can only be achieved if the community completed the whole ritual complex needed by the dead person in passing, or by the suspicious deceased person and provided all necessities for their transfer into the category of
5
Valentina Vaseva, Zadunicata kato obredna dejavnost, Etnografski problemi na narodnata duhovna kultura,
tom 3, Sofija 1994, 154-155.

The Concept of Death in the Folk Culture of Macedonians

pure deceased person. And the opposite, the suspicious deceased person becomes
impure deceased person, very harmful for the community.
All communitys efforts have been directed to preserve the complete integrity of the
dead person and to prevent some bad ghosts or evil spirit to settle in its body. These demonic beings can make the dead person very harmful for the community and stop his final passing into the World of death. Then, there are many situations which permanently
cause Chaos, destruction and disturbing of the harmonic relations in the Nature. In such
situation the suspicious dead person appears dead person whose soul has been metamorphosed in the evil spirit, permanently staying among the living and doing many
harmful actions to them. According to the above mentioned, we shall precise which categories of dead persons can become suspicious or impure dead persons:
93
- Dead persons predisposed by boring to become vampires and karakondozols.
- Dead persons with undefined social status: bachelors, maidens and unnamed
new born child.
- Dead persons who died and were buried out of the usual patterns of ritual behaviour.
After somebodys death, the community undertakes a lot of magic and ritual activities that, at first, should prevent the suspicious deceased person to pass successfully into
impure deceased person. The most important protective measures against becoming a
vampire are: keeping the animals not to jump across the dead body; watching that something not given across the deceased and complete realisation of the ritual process.
In some regions of Macedonia, in Mariovo, for example, the most important protection against becoming a vampire is the so called magic hacking of the dead person
(zasekuvanje). After the body of the dead person would be dressed, the most important
ritual actor - mesaria - would realise the magic hatching. Through the ritual threading, the mesaria hits beside the dead persons head and legs from right to the left
with a sickle or an axe, pronouncing the magic formula with a very strong symbolic
meaning: Prefer thou an outlaw or a cut? Go thee with health. (Odmet sakash ali
odsek sakash. Odi mi so zdravje)6 or Go after God and Virgin Mary and not after
Satan and Sataness (Da odish po Boga i Bogorodica, a ne po Soton i Satonica).7
If the community considers that there are some possibilities for the dead person
to become a vampire (if he was very sinful or if he died unseen - nobody saw him at
the moment of dying), than people stab in his left foot hawthorn or mostly they prick
him with a needle into the stomach (navel), believing that the bad influences of these
spirits were finally neutralised. In some villages in the region of Mariovo, they use real
hacking with knife on the breast or at part of the body near the heart. There are numerous folk narrations referring to vampires, and to the difficulties about their excluding from the community. Namely, in spite of preventive measures, it happens very often, somebody that becomes a vampire and moves continuously among the living, especially in the house where he lived before. His coming back to his own household was
6
AIOSC, Inv. No. K - 52/1995. Inform. Kata Shipinkaroska, born in 1919 in the village of Gradeshnica, region of Mariovo. Recorded on September 29, 1995 in the village of Gradeshnica, Mariovo.
7
AIOSC, Inv. No. K - 40/1995. Inform. Velika Koleska, born in 1923 in the village of Veprchani, region of
Mariovo. Recorded on September 13, 1995 in Prilep.

Ljupo S. Risteski

mostly very harmful: he broke the vessels, poured out the water, threw the food on the
floor, let the animals out of the stables, etc.
Many events were narrated in which the vampire continued his sexual contacts
with his wife, and as a result of these contacts a very unusual child was born, well
known in the tradition of Macedonians as a vampire or vampires son. Vampires son
possesses special features which enables the community to use him as the most important destroyer of vampires. Carrying the vampire to another place - has been the
widespread magic measure for the community protection. This ritual action means
carrying the vampire out of the actual or symbolic boundaries of the village. It was
practiced, very often to carry the vampire across the water (river) or across the village
94 landmark with an aim not to come back.
Very often, people carry the vampire, lying to him that they will go to the wedding
in the neighbouring village, taking with them some wine and bread. After crossing the
village border or river, people leave the wine and bread somewhere, saying to the vampire that he must stay and wait there because they must go back to the village. People
believe that vampire can not come back alone across the river or the village border. The
more reliable way of exterminating the vampire is the act of his ritual killing. Ritual
killing of the vampire is done only by the above mentioned vampires son, because he is
the only one who can see the vampire and kill him. On the place where the vampire was
killed, blood - blood - as a meatmold usually appears, threaten after that with hot
water not to become alive again.
The dead new-born infants, unbaptised persons, unmarried and suicide persons
belong to the category of suspicious deceased persons. If the community does not
undertake all the necessary ritual and magic activities, members of this category have
all prerequisites to become impure deceased persons, and after the phase of unsuccessful passing into the community of dead ancestors, they would stay among the living
persons in a form of various demonic beings: navi, faires (samovili). Staying in the
world of living creatures, this category of suspicious deceased person and the demoniac beings referring to this category, permanently, disturb the harmony or bring closer the boundaries between the two opposite Worlds. Thereby, peoples community becomes marginal and because of that there are many folk beliefs about their harmful
effects but also about various modes for neutralisation of their influences.
Navi are mythic demonic beings originating from the unbaptized dead new-born
child. They do not succeed to pass the phase of suspicious deceased person and become
impure spirits attacking women who have just given birth in the first 40 days of parturition. Because of these harmful influences, the community organises fictive baptising of
the child while it is ill or after its dead. Traditional common law does not allow the newborn children to stay nameless for a longer period. This period symbolises a lack of their
personal identity, as well as their ritual not belonging to the community. Only after baptising they become members of the community, having full rights, being therefore harmless for the living persons. Many times, the act of baptising is not enough. As unconfirmed members of the community, their bodies are often buried in places called unknown graves. Realising this kind of ritual action, the community, attempts to erase the
childs nonconfirmed identity protecting thereby its living members.

The Concept of Death in the Folk Culture of Macedonians

The category of socially unconfirmed and uncompleted unmarried persons belongs to the category of suspicious deceased person, too. Because of its lack of social
differentiation and completeness, the community attempts to make symbolic and ritual
establishment of their social integrity organising a special ritual called posthumous
wedding or eternal wedding,8 in order to satisfy preliminary conditions, so that the
new dead person could successfully overcome the phase of passing.
... When I went into (the other World), I saw a girl and a boy staying in front of
the door (of the World of the death).
I asked them:
- Why were you staying there alone?
- Because we had done our death by ourselves. And because of that, they did not 95
allow us to went into. We were staying here...
(... Ama koa vlegu (vo Onoj svet - na son. Zab. Lj. R.) jas, edno chupe i edno mashko
promeneti stoeja na vratata (pred vlezot na svetot na mrtvite. Zab. Lj.R.) I jas mu vela:
- Oti vie taka sami stojte?
- Oti nie sami si naprajvme smrt. Ne n pushtajat dva vlezime. Ovde si sedime nije.
Si stoeme.)9
It is believed that drowned persons have devoted themselves to the devil and their
souls wonder among the living causing damages to the community. According to the
folk beliefs, drowned persons possess the power of water and the power of the hail.
The hail comes back with the drowneds soul. It comes back with him. (Gradot, ko tche
vrne so umreniot se vratcha. So toj shto se udavil. Se vratcha so umreniot).10 Because of
that, an old woman or a man, with knife in the hands, threaten all drowned persons
from the village, to change the direction of the hail clouds.
... to the high mountains and dense forests,
where the axe does not cut,
where the sickle does not reap,
where the threshing floor does not stretch...
(... visoki planini, gusti gori,
kaj sho sekira ne sechi,
kaj sho srp ne zhnie,
kaj sho gumno ne e rastureno...)11
8
V. Garnizov, Smrt = svatba. Balgarskija folklor v slavjanskata i balkanskata kulturna tradicija, t. 8, BAN, Sofija
1991, 248; M. Barjaktarovi, Posmrtna ili naknadna svadba, Glasnik Cetinjskog Muzeja, t. V, Cetinje 1972, 263-272.
9
AIOSC, Inv. No. K - 41/1995. Inform. Menka Mitreska, born in 1924 in the village of Dunje, region of Mariovo. In 1949 she got married in the village of Chanishte and since 1970 she has lived in Prilep. Recorded on November 13, 1995 in Prilep.

AIOSC, Inv. No. K - 50/1995. Inform. Velika Mitreska, born in 1934 in the village of Bzovitch, region of Mariovo.
In 1955 she got married in the village of Chanishte. Recorded on November 28, 1995 in the village of Chanishte, Mariovo.
10

11
AIOSC, Inv. No. K - 50/1995. Inform. Velika Mitreska, born in 1934 in the village of Bzovitch, region of Mariovo.
In 1955 she got married in the village of Chanishte. Recorded on September 28, 1995 in the village of Chanishte, Mariovo.

Ljupo S. Risteski

In the same time, the soul of the drowned person appears as a very useful mediator with the water (especially the rain), in a case of rainless period. Then, maidens from
the village take a stone from the drowners grave and throw it down into some well or
spring calling therewith the rain to fall. This means that drowned persons have a function of bearers of mythic water and fertility. In that sense, the essence of the rituals
carried out through the posthumous complex, reflects the peoples efforts:
- to ensure complete elimination of the effects of dead person;
- supply all necessary conditions for undisturbed and final passing of the new
dead person into the World of the death. This process lasts through a period of oneyear intensive ritual activities;
- to ensure final entering and including the new dead person into the other, eternal,
96
community of dead ancestors, structured according to the system of relationships.

Rituals for Providing successful Passing into the World

of the Death
The community of alive, permanently and cyclically, tries to support dead persons in the World of the Death. According to the folk idea, there are mutual relations
between these Worlds, and the community of living expects support by the community
of its dead ancestors.
In the frames of this folk concept of death, when somebody dies, the community
attempts to become free of the dead person, but, in the same time, to provide him with
all necessities for successful passing into the other world, the world of dead ancestors.
In that sense, the posthumous ritual complex presents a mechanism of symbolic
regulation among the systems and their mutual relations. According to the principles
of folk tradition, the community takes an intensive ritual activity in a period of one
year with an aim to lead the dead person in the World of the Death. After this period,
the intensity of ritual activities decreases and the community starts with cyclic and permanent providing of all necessities for the dead ancestors. The community supposes
that the deceased person has been successfully adapted into the community of death.

Revision of the Process of Cosmisation of the World

After the period of three, five, seven or nine years from the inhumation, in some
regions of Macedonia, the community organises ritual exhumation of the graves until
the first decades of the 20th century. In the wider Balkans region, this custom has been
well known among the people as repeated inhumation, or digging the graves. In ethnological studies, this custom is known as repeated or double digging of the graves.12
12
Kuzman A. apkarev, Izbrani dela, : Obiai, obredi, nosii, tom 4, Misla, Skopje, 1976, 96, 101-102; T. orevi, Na narodni ivot : Nekoliki samrtni obiaji u Junih Slovena, tom 4, Prosveta, Beograd, 1984, 244-246; T. orevi, Dvostruko sahranjivanje, Glasnik Skopskog Naunog Drutva, knj. III, Odeljenje drutvenih nauka 1, Skoplje,

The Concept of Death in the Folk Culture of Macedonians

Having in mind the basic ideas of the traditional culture of Macedonians, the process of
exhumation of the graves had a very important meaning in the establishing the real situation of the process of passing of a dead person into the community of the death. Because of this, we shall analyse the ritual exhumation and repeated inhumation as a revision act of the process of the world cosmisation. The ritual community wants to follow the
process of passing and to revise the possible deviations of the suspicious dead persons. The process of passing ought to be under the communitys supervision.
Revisions of the process of cosmisation are often very concrete. The control
exhumation is done in order to be sure about the real situation of the dead person.
There are numerous belifs about the success in the process of passing into the community of dead ancestors. It is believed that this success would be greater if the deceased 97
person comes to light again or see the sunlight once again. Many times, in the
graves of persons died of tuberculosis, people used to bury a bottle of red wine which
was used when some of the close relatives got ill with same disease. However, this wine
could be used only if the community was sure that the process of passing into the World
of Death had been completed successfuly.
After exhumation, the ritual actors make an actual revision of the state of a dead
person, checking his body, the colour of his bones, etc. If the bones kept their white
colour, social and ritual community is satisfied, believing that it succeeded to organise
the ritual cycle completely, overcoming the dangerous period of suspicious deceased
person. Sometimes, however, the revisions after digging of the graves show that the
process of passing of the dead person into the community of ancestors does not always
follow the custom rules. It happens that some of the dead persons become alive or
become a vampire. In these cases, the community repeats the ritual complex, trying
to find the basic causes for prolonging the suspicious period for death. We mentioned
numerous exhumations and repeated inhumations in order to destroy the vampires or
similar demonic beings.
Finishing this presentation, we can conclude that comprehension of Death as a
cultural and anthropological phenomenon on the basis of empirical materials of traditional cultures, enables us to understand the whole ritual complex, ideas and believes
related to death. Discovering the structure, contents, functions and meanings of this
phenomenon in the traditional cultures we will be able to comprehend the wider mythic concept of cosmic arrangement and its functioning.

1928, 347-348; M. Barjaktarovi, Dvostruko sahranjivanje, Glasnik Zemaljakog Muzeja u Sarajevo, n.s. Etnologija,
tom XXIX, Sarajevo, 1974; M. Jovanovi, Ponovo ili dvostruko sahranjivanje, Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta, IX - X,
(1960-1961), SANU, Beograd, 1961, 212-218; B. Jovanovi, Srpska knjiga mrtvih : Tanatologike I, Gradina, Ni 1992,
193-194; G. Lozanova, Obiajat vtoro pogrebenie u Blgarite sdranie i funkcii, Blgarska Etnografija, Godina
II, Kniga 3, BAN, Sofija, 1991, 52-57.

Ljupo S. Risteski

BESEDA O AVTORJU

98

Ljupo S. Risteski, mag., je dodiplomski

tudij vpisal v olskem letu 1989/90 na Oddelku za
etnologijo in antropologijo, Filozofska fakulteta,
Univerza v Beogradu. Podiplomski tudij je nadaljeval od leta 1994 do 1997 na isti univerzi iz
smeri socio-kulturna antropologija. Leta 1997 je
magistriral s temo Posmrtne ege v tradicionalni
kulturi v Mariovem (specifina etnina regija v
Makedoniji). Od leta 1994 do 1998 je delal na Intitutu za staroslovanske kulture kot asistent raziskovalec. Od leta 1998 je zaposlen kot asistent na
Oddelku za etnologijo na Fakulteti za naravoslovje
in matematiko Univerze Svetega Cirila in Metoda v Skopju. Njegovi raziskovalni interesi: makedonska, balkanska in slovanska mitologija, ljudska
verovanja in obredi. Objavil je tiri monografije in
est lankov.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ljupo S. Risteski, M. A., in 1989/90 school
year enrolled at Belgrade University at the Faculty
of Philosophy, Department of Ethnology and Anthropology. From 1994 to 1997 he studied the postgraduates studies of socio-cultural anthropology at
the same University. In 1997 he graduated with the
theme Posthumous ceremonial complex in the traditional culture of Mariovo - (specific ethno region
in Macedonia). From 1994 to 1998 he worked at the
Institute of Old Slavic Culture, as an assistant-researcher. From 1998 he works as an assistant at the
Department of Ethnology, at the Faculty of Natural
Sciences and Mathematics, University SS. Ciryl
and Methodius in Skopje. The researchers interests: Macedonian, Balkan and Slavic mythologies,
folk religions and rituals. He published four monographs and six papers.