RECENT TRANSFORMATIONS IN CATHOLIC FUNERARY RITUALS, IN SAN SALVADOR DE JUJUY AND LA PLATA (Argentina)

Abstract

In this paper changes in catholic funerary ceremonies and rituals are studied from analyzing how these are performed and what transformations are occurring in their current practices related to those of the recent past. Change concept, interpreted from semiotics is the key in those transformations understanding, such as the concept of death (as event) and its relation with religion.
Catholic apostolic roman church´s priests in activity from San Salvador de Jujuy and La Plata cities have been interviewed, in order to inquire possible changes that catholic church perceives in funeral rituals, and some of the causes that it sets. Interviews have been recorded, and later analyzed from symbolic semiotic, achieving an approximation to the possible semiotics worlds of death and its transformations.
The research is guided by the following hypothesis: modification in catholic funerary rituals brings into play the sense of belonging and the strict sense that catholicism gives to the death as rite of passage, what is perceived by this religion as a weakening of its structure, or of faith, or as a threat.
This work has allowed the characterization of the catholic funerary ritual as a complex one, with different stages formally established by the obsequies (those related to the deceased farewell and subsequent stages, as memorial services). Identified changes, mainly and in relation with the complex of the funerary ritual, have to do with the removal of some of these stages or stations provided by the Catholic religion: some have disappeared and others have been modified. Although several factors are identified as those that cause these changes, the common one (according to interviews) is the cultural, linked to traditions that are different from the catholic, and which refer to particular geographic locations. It is in those situations where the catholic church develops a funeral rituals hybridization, aspect that in this paper is defined as: adaptation, integration and validation (mainly in the NOA). It also discusses the issue of cremation, something that appears as a big change that the catholic church has recently accepted (with its conditions).