Michal Uhrin, Comenius University in Bratislava and University of Ljubljana, ORCID: 0000-0002-8062-5785

Vol. 31, Issue 1I, pp. 157-181, ISSN 2232-3716. DOI: https://10.5281/zenodo.17479008 Research article The role of the experiences with the dead in the lives of individuals in rural Slovakia: Practices and rituals Michal Uhrin, Comenius University in Bratislava and University of Ljubljana, ORCID: 0000-0002-8062-5785 Abstract This paper aims to explore people’s experiences with the dead and subsequent rituals, practices and associated ideas. Experiences and subsequent practices can be analyzed and classified according to whether they are individual or collective, according to their degree of generality, intentionality and rigidity; and in terms of whether they are firsthand experiences or general narratives.!The data presented in the paper were gathered during long-term ethnographic research carried out in the Horehronie region in central Slovakia in 2023 and 2024. The research site is characterized by a high prevalence of members of the Roman Catholic Church who are of Slovak nationality. The ethnographic research carried out so far shows that rituals, practices, associated ideas, and people’s experiences with the dead and their agency are multidimensional phenomena influenced mainly by the Catholic religion, and to a lesser extent by folk religion or vernacular religion. The agency of the dead is usually manifested because of experiences with the dead that cause the performance of rituals, ritualized types of behavior, ritualized practices or other activities, and because of contemplation about the moral and religious aspects of the lives of individuals and society. KEYWORDS: death, experiences with the dead, agency of the dead, ritual, practice, ethnography, Slovakia Introduction Death, and the ideas, practices, and rituals associated with death, are well-established areas of study in the social sciences and humanities, particularly in sociocultural anthropology and ethnology. Scholars such as Ariés (2020), who explored the cultural, reli- © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 157 gious and historical transformations of the perception of death and dying, Bloch (1971), Bloch and Parry (1982), Engelke (2019), Hertz (1960), Huntington and Metcalf (1979, 1991), Silverman, Baroiller, and Hemer (2021), who have researched diverse aspects of death and dying through the lens of sociocultural anthropology, and Krekovič! (1993) or Taylor (2005), who explore death and dying from an archaeological perspective, among others, have contributed significantly to this field. The anthropology of death explores how different societies and individuals around the world perceive and respond to death, conceptualize the afterlife, and conduct postmortem practices and rituals (Abramovitch, 2015, p. 870; Soukup M., 2016; Soukup V., 2016). In this regard, an important question is also how experiences with the dead and death stimulate the performance of rituals and ritualized practices.! Rituals form a central topic in the study of ethnology, sociocultural anthropology, religious studies, sociology, and psychology (Bell, 1997; Xygalatas, 2022; Whitehouse, 1995, 2004, 2021). The topic of death, funerals, rituals and customs has been extensively studied in both Czech and Slovak ethnological contexts. Beginning in the early twentieth century, there was a significant increase in the publication of regional and local monographs that detail these topics. The second half of the twentieth century saw an increase in publications addressing burials, customs, rituals, and practices associated with the dead and death. These works provide valuable ethnographic material, insightful analyses, and stimulating theoretical and methodological reflections (see Beňušková, 2017; Botík, 1999; Botík, et al., 2001; Jakubíková, 1972, 1980, 1997, 1999, 2001; Jakubovská, 2016; Jágerová, 2008; Navrátilová, 2004). In the Horehronie region, ethnographic research concerning the various aspects of death and funeral rituals has been conducted by Slovak ethnologist M. Jágerová (2008). In her synthetic work, Jágerová addressed contemporary forms of customary behavior associated with the death and burial of individuals in the selected localities, taking both geographical and social (confession, gender, and age) aspects into account (Jágerová, 2008, p. 9–10). Her ethnographic analysis is related to the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Jágerová presents ethnographic material from villages in the region, but she did not conduct ethnographic research in the locality that was the research subject of this paper. Nevertheless, Jágerová's work is an excellent ethnographic source for comparison and inspiration for researching funerary customs in contemporary times. One of the basic features of human psychology is the search for the source of the agency of events, actions, and processes in our social and ecological environment. As Claire White puts it, humans are inclined to perceive and find agency in the social and ecologi- © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 158 cal environment in numerous ways (White, 2021, p. 65; Barrett, 2004; Guthrie, 1993). Concerning the dead, this tendency manifests itself in various ways when the dead are ascribed the capacity to influence the lives of the living. In practice, this means that various types of behaviors and ideas of living people are influenced by the notion of the agency of the dead. Agency can be understood as the socially and culturally mediated and ascribed capacity to act and influence the physical and non-physical realms. It is closely related to intentionality and is frequently studied in the context of cultural practices, rituals, and beliefs, which is precisely the focus of this paper. The existence of this type of agency of the dead is contingent on several factors relating to the existence of certain assumptions regarding the afterlife. According to White, these assumptions include the notion that the person survives biological death, embarks on a journey to the next life, resides in a physical location, and!retains mental processes and identity (White, 2021, p. 143). Related to the last notion is the assumption that the deceased person is interested in the actions, opinions, attitudes, morals, etc., of living human beings, and thus has both a reason to, and the intention of, directly or indirectly influencing their lives. Furthermore, as Silverman, Baroiller and Hemer argue, diverse ontologies concerning the dead create a variety of relational possibilities and determine whether the dead have agency at all, how it is experienced, and how their presence is manifested and interpreted. Such diverse ontologies also shape the responsibilities of the family, kin, friends, acquaintances and community toward the ancestors and the dead in general, and finally, influence the character of ongoing relationships with them—e.g. whether they are established, encouraged, or possibly discouraged (Silverman, Baroiller & Hemer 2021, p. 6). Building upon the points made above, this paper aims to explore the role and dimensions of the agency of the dead in the lives of individuals in contemporary rural Slovakia, focusing mainly on experiences of the people with the dead and subsequent associated practices and rituals. This study is framed by the following empirical research question: What rituals and practices are invoked by experiences with the dead? The paper will focus on individual experiences and contexts, considering the factors influencing individuals’ practices associated with the dead. In this regard, attention will also be paid to relevant collective activities. In the case of collective activities, the focus will lie on whether and how individual persons experience the agency of the dead during collective activities such as commemorations, visits to cemeteries, and memorials or collective rituals. This paper aims to analyze and classify people’s experiences with the dead, and subsequent rituals, practices and associated ideas. The data presented in the paper were gathered during long-term ethnographic research in a village in the Horehronie region in central Slovakia in 2023 and 2024. The research site is characterized by a high © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 159 prevalence of members of the Roman Catholic Church of Slovak nationality, its agrarian nature, local manufacturing companies, and the intensive activity of folk music and dance groups . 1 Theoretical framework All important moments in the lives of individuals and society are permeated by rituals. I suppose we could add that almost all important moments in the lives of individuals are, to some extent, important moments in the life of society, and vice versa. These important moments in the lives of individuals and society are accompanied by rituals, ceremonies and commemorations, which have been popular topics of research in sociocultural anthropology since the pioneering work of Émile Durkheim (1995), Arnold van Gennep (2018), Robert Hertz (1960), and many others. One such crucial moment is death, which has been accompanied by ritual since time immemorial (Xygalatas, 2022, p. 251; also, Ariés, 2020; Taylor, 2005). However, in addition to rites of passage such as burials and secondary burials (Forth, 2018, p. 3–4; Palgi, Abramovitch 1984, p. 387), many rituals and practices that do not bear the characteristics of rites of passage are associated with death, the deceased, the soul, and the afterlife. In this section, I will outline the definitions of ritual I utilize in data analysis and interpretation. Roy Rappaport defines ritual as the performance of more or less invariant sequences of formal acts and utterances that the performers do not fully encode. According to Rappaport, but also Lang and Kundt, rituals offer a conventional (invariant and encoded/ legitimized by previous generations) and performative (visible, tangible, or physical) way of communicating (Rappaport, 1994, p. 24; Lang, Kundt, 2023, p. 3), and thus represent an important communicative platform. Furthermore, according to Dimitris Xygalatas, a leading expert in the field of ritual research, rituals are highly structured and require rigidity; they must always be performed in the culturally and socially determined “correct” way, are repetitive (i.e. the same actions are performed on the same occasions), and are characterized by redundancy (Xygalatas, 2022, p. 81; Uhrin, 2024). Although rituals and ritualized behaviors and practices are characterized by a large degree of stereotyped and rigid types of behavior, they often involve actions that may not be characterized by these properties and allow for a certain degree of individual variability. In some sociocultural and religious contexts, often in alternative spirituality groups, the emphasis may even be placed on personal aspects and creativity (see The data from the last census in 2021 are publicly available at https://www.scitanie.sk/en 1 © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 160 Bužeková, 2024; Bergen, 2019; Heelas, 1996). In addition to collective rituals, people also perform individual or solitary rituals, which are an equally important part of every society, culture, or religious system. Individual rituals are particularly significant in the anthropology of death and research into ideas and practices associated with death and the dead (see Bužeková, 2024), as people can carry out a number of these rituals and ritualized practices individually. As Whitehouse explains, the term ritual is often used to describe a variety of behavioral expressions. On the one hand, these include highly formalized and complex collective rituals, ceremonies, and rites. These can include, for example, funerals, or commemorations of dead persons such as fallen soldiers, famous writers or politicians, or the “triduum” of All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day, traditionally called “Dušičky” (which can be translated as “little souls”), which are an important holiday in Slovakia due to the prevalence of the Catholic Church (Bužeková, 2024, p.13; Zajonc, 2014, p. 214–225). On the other hand, the term ritual also encompasses individual behaviors such as blessing oneself, lighting a candle and saying a prayer to the dead alone at home, or following culturally established rules of etiquette (Whitehouse, 2021, p. 1). The second group can include individual rituals and practices associated with communicating with the dead, such as praying for the souls of the dead, cleaning graves, caring for the belongings of the deceased's loved ones, and many others. This distinction put forth by Whitehouse can also be applied to the study of rituals and practices related to death in the ethnographic and Christian religious context of rural Slovakia. Following Whitehouse, it is also useful to bear in mind Aruksak's division of all deathrelated aspects and behaviors of human life. According to Aruksak, they can generally be divided into rituals, ritualized behaviors, ceremonies and ideas that begin to operate upon the occurrence of death (or a death-related practice) in the neighborhood, family, religious group, etc., and more general death-related ideas and behaviors in daily life (Aruksak, 1998, p. 7). Another intriguing way of classifying experiences with the dead is to categorize them according to whether the interlocutors directly experienced the encounter with the dead or whether they are relating stories experienced by someone in their social environment (relatives, friends, spouse, etc.), or whether the interlocutors report that they were intentionally trying to communicate with the deceased, or the deceased had begun to communicate with them. In this sense, we can categorize these experiences into first-hand encounters with the dead and general narratives about the dead (Bahna, 2019—but for further discussion, see Dégh, 2001; von Sydow, 1977).! © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 161 As was mentioned in the introduction, this study is framed by the following empirical research question: What rituals and practices are invoked by experiences with the dead? In the following pages, I will analyze experiences with the dead and the practices they stimulate according to the criteria mentioned in this section. Field research The data presented in the paper were gathered during long-term ethnographic field research carried out in a village located in the Horehronie region in central Slovakia in 2023 and 2024. The research site is located in an area that has received long-term and systematic attention in Slovak ethnography for almost a!hundred years (see Mjartan, Plicková, 1974; Podolák, 1999). According to the latest census, the village has a population of just under 2,400 inhabitants and is characterized by a high prevalence of members of the Roman Catholic Church who are of Slovak nationality, by its agrarian nature mixed with local manufacturing companies, and by the intensive activity of folk music and dance groups. The job opportunities in the industry and factories built during the socialist period in the second half of the twentieth century have now disappeared in Horehronie, mainly due to the sociopolitical and economic circumstances of the 1990s. Similarly, the collectivization of agricultural estates occurred much later here than in other parts of Slovakia. We are talking about a time gap of more than two decades, i.e. only in the 1970s. According to Jágerová (2008, p. 16), this contributed significantly to the high degree of preservation of many traditional cultural elements. The field research in 2023 was conducted during the months of October and December. In that year, 16 ethnographic interviews were conducted with 16 interlocutors (11 women, 5 men). The field research in 2024 was conducted from March to November, and 38 ethnographic interviews were conducted with 38 interlocutors (28 women, and 10 men). All research participants (interlocutors) declared themselves to be members of the Roman Catholic Church and were born between 1930 and 1990. Pseudonyms have been used when referring to their statements. The descriptors for the interlocutors indicate the fictional first name randomly assigned to them, their gender self-identification, and year of birth. In addition to the interviews, I conducted participant observation at cemeteries, funerals, All Saints’ Day celebrations, various ceremonies and rituals, folklore festivals, and everyday life activities. I strive to make participant observation an equal, not complementary, method to ethnographic interviewing during research. Such an approach potentially makes it possible to reveal, for example, whether the respondents are © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 162 merely reproducing norms or whether behavioral manifestations are also associated with their reproduction (see Shaver, White, Vakaoti, Lang, 2021) Classification and analysis of ethnographic data Dreams The first example of an experience with the dead is their appearance in dreams. Kiliánová asserts that dreams involving ancestors and departed relatives or friends constitute a distinct and significant category of dream experience across both European and non-European societies. Research consistently demonstrates their notable frequency of occurrence (Kiliánová, 2010, p. 7). At this point, I will not dwell on the individual aspects of these dreams, and I will also not go into detail concerning their content. Rather, I will focus on the ritualized and non-ritualized practices that are triggered by these dreams, or narratives about dreams. Following Gabriela Kiliánová, I utilize the definition of narratives about dreams as “… stories that usually communicate the content of a dream as well as its interpretation and implementation.” (Kiliánová, 2010, p. 8). As an initial example, I will discuss the following case, which I observed, or rather overheard, while conducting participant observation. I had the opportunity to listen to a conversation between two inhabitants of the village during participant observation. I did not make an audio recording of this conversation because the context did not allow it. This observation took place after a Sunday Mass in June 2024. A man, approximately 60, and a woman, approximately 50, were talking on the church grounds after the Sunday service. The man spoke about a dream in which his deceased godparents had appeared. He said that his godparents had appeared to him in a dream, and he had the opportunity to talk to them, but he did not elaborate further on the content of the dream. At the end of the conversation, the man added that he must light a candle on the graves of his godparents - the act of lighting a candle is usually accompanied by a short prayer. The other participant in the conversation just silently nodded in agreement. The church in the research locality is in the same area as the cemetery; however, it emerged from the conversation that the man intended to light the candle not after the service but on another day.! From the context of the observed conversation, it appears that the man wanted to light a candle because of a dream with his godparents. Research participant Gertrúda-F-1946 recalled she had a dream with her husband two years after his death. This dream came to her on her birthday. Gertrúda’s case does not represent an isolated exception, but rather a regularly recurrent phenomenon of a similar narrative in interviews with many interlocutors. Dreams of the dead often occur at © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 163 significant anniversary moments such as birthdays, marriage anniversaries, wedding anniversaries or death anniversaries. Gertrúda interpreted this dream experience positively, was very overjoyed about it, and even said that her husband had kissed her in the dream as well. During the interview, she stated that she still remembers her husband many times every day because they had a beautiful marriage. Ethnographic research conducted in the research locality so far shows that these dreams evoke many reactions, i.e. both ritualized and non-ritualized practices. Very common actions include visiting the cemetery, praying and lighting a candle at the grave of the deceased, cleaning the grave of the deceased that appeared in a dream. Similar practices as consequences of dreams with the dead have been documented in the Slovak rural environment by Kiliánová among others (Kiliánová, 2010, p. 16–18; also, Jágerová, 2008). Other practices may include lighting a candle in the memory of the dead in the house of the deceased or one’s own home and praying for their soul, or just deliberately reminiscing about their life. I have come across the following interpretation more than once during field research: If a dead relative or friend appears to someone in a dream, it means that they are in the other world, and sometimes they are missing something in the afterlife (more on this below). It can also be interpreted as a reminder to the bereaved that the deceased are not forgotten. Another interpretation among the interlocutors is that the living must pray for the deceased because the deceased needs or craves prayer from their living relatives. This idea of the research participants is based on the idea prevalent in Catholicism of what happens to a person's soul after death. After the physical death, the soul undergoes judgment and goes either to heaven, hell or purgatory (the state of temporary suffering and cleansing) depending on the deeds and morals of the deceased (Ariés, 2020; Soukup, M. 2016; Soukup, V. 2016). According to the research participants, souls in purgatory can still be saved and reach heaven on Judgment Day, but that requires their purification. This purification also requires prayers from the living, which are dedicated to the souls in purgatory, and which will greatly help in this process (for discussion see, for example, Labracque, 2017; Malkovsky, 2017; Sim, 2015). The interlocutor Agata reflected on this topic as follows: There were dreams of the dead that came to say goodbye. They appeared in a dream. Dreams such that even though the dead [person] lay in the house, he was standing by you alive in the dream.! I touched the dead [body lying on the special table in the living room – author’s note]. I was not afraid. We still remember [our deceased family members and friends – author’s note]. Thoughts we have © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 164 of them always. We still remember our deceased parents… my mom and my dad. We always need to pray. The soul feels it if you pray for it. The spirit is invisible. The little soul that deserves [prayer – author’s note], whether it goes directly to heaven, or even to hell, or goes to purgatory. It is necessary to pray for him all the time. Because he needs that prayer to get there [to heaven – author’s note]. (Agáta-F-1943) As Astuti and Bloch argues, according to anthropological and ethnological research, there are several explanations for the high prevalence of agency of dead relatives and ancestors. Most of them have to do with how kinship systems are conceptualized in a particular society, culture, or religion (Astuti, Bloch, 2013, p. 113; also, Forth, 2009; Steadman, Palmer, Tilley, 1996; Stucky, Gardner, 2023). Godparents in Slovakia play an important role in the lives of individuals and kinship relations, and this role might extend even to the!afterlife. A godparent is a type of kinship established by the christening ritual. After the biological parents, they represent not only the child’s closest relatives but also their spiritual guardians in the religious sense. In case of the death of the parents, the godparents are expected to take care of the child (Botíková, Jakubíková, Švecová, 1997). The institution of godparenthood also creates new kinship relationships or strengthens existing ones and promotes the creation and strengthening of cooperative ties. Several ethnographic research studies conducted in Slovakia, including my own, show that if godparents live in or near the same locality as their godchild, there is frequent cooperation in low-cost everyday activities as well as in costly and exceptional activities—for example, building a house, helping to slaughter pigs, or doing long and arduous manual work. If the godparents do not live in or near the same locality, cooperation between the families is limited to exceptional activities (Uhrin, 2022, p. 60; also, Botík, 1999; Botík et al., 2001; Botíková, Jakubíková, Švecová, 1997). Perhaps for these reasons, dreams featuring living or deceased godparents may occur in this ethnographic context. At this point, however, I must underline that so far, apart from the above-mentioned case and one other ethnographic interview, dreams with deceased godparents have not been mentioned frequently by the research participants. When research participants discuss dreams with the dead, they most often refer to spouses, grandparents, children, brothers or sisters. Practices performed after Mass After the Sunday service, many residents of the locality go to pray at the graves of their deceased relatives. This practice is not only performed after Sunday services and ser- © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 165 In this case, the interlocutor is referring to her husband, the boy’s deceased grandfather, and his unspecified reaction to certain behaviors of his grandson. What is not apparent from the above statement, but which is evident from the context of the interview, is that the grandfather’s reaction would not have had positive dimensions. This assertion is based on the observation of the non-verbal of both interlocutors. In this case, the agency of the dead relative is activated through intentional action. I suspect that such means for achieving compliance with social and religious norms are quite common in many ethnographic contexts. These issues will be the subject of further research in subsequent phases of ethnographic research at the site. Although many respondents do not declare first-hand experiences with the deceased, most of them often discuss rather general narratives about encounters with the dead (or any supernatural agent) in any form, that they heard from family members or close friends (see Bahna, 2019; Dégh, 2001; von Sydow, 1977).! This second type of experience can take many forms and may also prompt the performance of rituals and ritualized practices. These forms of experiences often include narratives of dreams with deceased loved ones, or narratives of the dead saying goodbye to the living in dreams or outside of dreams, warnings to the still living of their impending death (for discussion, see, for example, Jágerová, 2008; Kiliánová, 2010; Tedlock, 2003) During the field research in 2024 a resident of the village died. The deceased man had been battling a serious illness for a long time, to which he unfortunately succumbed. The news of the death spread through the village as quickly as the wind blowing from the nearby hills. The date of the funeral had already been announced at Mass on Sunday. The agency of the dead is activated immediately upon the death of a community member, which can be observed mainly from what Aruksak refers to as the imaginations and rituals”, or ritualized activities, activated at the time of death or death-associated events. Here it should be noted that Aruksak’s original distinction (1998) is somewhat inflexible and overgeneralizing. For analytical purposes, his two basic categories should be broken down into several categories, which can be presented as follows: The first category consists of practical activities related to arranging the funeral and taking the body to the house of mourning. The second is composed of practices such as praying for the soul of the deceased, and dead souls in general, in the event of a death in the immediate area (see Bering, 2012). Such prayers may take place collectively in the house of mourning, the day before the funeral is conducted. This is attended by the selected family members as well as close friends, acquaintances, and neighbors. The closest relatives!also pray alone in!their homes. The third category consists of contemplation of the death and life © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 172 of the deceased. This means contemplating what kind of life the deceased led and what kind of death they died (see Ariés 2020 [1977]; Soukup, M., 2016; Soukup, V., 2016). When explaining and evaluating their deeds, residents often refer to religion and recite quotations like “you don’t know the day or the hour… God has a plan.” and many others. Such contemplations, as indicated by the research conducted to date, may trigger ritualized behavior in the form of prayer, lighting candles, visiting the graves of the deceased, etc. Thus, I suggest that the death of one person may trigger ritualized acts of behavior to show respect for, and remembrance of, other previously deceased persons. The fourth category is composed of reflections on death and life in general. This means that in these moments interlocutors may reflect not only on the death of the deceased but also on the death of their loved ones, the lives of their loved ones, and their own lives. Conclusion The results of the research show that rituals, ritualized behaviors, practices, associated ideas, and people’s experiences with the dead are multidimensional phenomena influenced mainly by the Christian Catholic religion and to a lesser extent by folk religion, or vernacular religion. As I have tried to demonstrate, both the experiences and practices can be analyzed and classified along several axes. Experiences with the dead occur either during collective or individual/solitary rituals (Bužeková, 2024; Bergen, 2019; Heelas, 1996) and can be elicited with the!actor’s intention or can occur spontaneously (Jackson, Dillion, Bastian, et al., 2023). They can occur during highly ritualized, rigid, stereotyped rituals, and during rituals, ritualized behavior and practices that allow a!certain degree of individual variability (Whitehouse, 2021; Xygalatas, 2022), and they can be contextually dependent or independent (Aruksak, 1998). Finally, these experiences can be first-hand encounters or any form of general narratives or notions concerning encounters with the dead (Bahna, 2019; Dégh, 2001; von Sydow, 1977).! As I have tried to show, these experiences may trigger the performance of rituals, ritualized behaviors, practices, or reflections about deceased relatives, or life and death in general. These activities are ritualized to varying degrees, have various degrees of rigidity and regularity of performance, and can be performed collectively or individually (Bužeková, 2024; Bergen, 2019; Heelas, 1996). For example, praying for the souls of the deceased during the mass is highly ritualized and structured, and performed on regular occasions. Although the lighting of a candle in the house or a saying a prayer in the home may occur on predetermined dates (the anniversary of the death of the deceased, © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 173 the anniversary of the marriage of the deceased spouse, important religious holidays etc.), it may also be performed spontaneously, because of a dream in which the deceased appears, or because of a first-hand experience with the dead. On the one hand, funeral and anniversary masses for the deceased are tied to a specific context, while on the other, the rosary prayer for the deceased can be performed essentially regardless of the context (Aruksak, 1988; Jackson, Dillion, Bastian, et al., 2023). Rituals and ritualized behavior that begin to operate upon the occurrence of death (or a death-related practice) in the neighborhood, family, religious group, etc., or during funeral rituals, and major religious holidays (e.g. All Saints’ Day) are in general more ritualistic, rigid, ceremonial, and obligatory for individual and the community. However, from the research and analysis carried out to date, it seems that the ideas connected to them might not be more rigid than the general death-related ideas and behaviors in daily life. The general death-related ideas and behaviors in daily life usually include more explanations regarding the experiences with the dead, agency of the dead, their role in the lives of individuals, and ideas about the soul and the afterlife. At the same time, these explanations do not have to be bound to customs, rituals, or commemorations, and can be more fragmented and contain some traits of non-Christian origin, e.g. ideas originating in folk religiosity or vernacular religiosity. On the one hand, people’s experiences are characterized by individual differences and specificities. On the other hand, some cases of experiences with the dead have similar characteristics. The practices and rituals are influenced mainly by Catholic doctrine rather than folk religion and seem to be more uniform. Compliance with these religious social norms is enforced not only by the residents of the village but also by the religious experts. At the same time, some contextually dependent and contextually independent death-related practices and ideas bear the characteristics of folk religious concepts. Analysis of the ethnographic data suggests that the agency of the dead in the lives of individuals in the rural environment of Slovakia is often experienced and reflected upon at an individual and personal level, even during collective activities. The agency of the dead is usually manifested because of experiences with the dead and with death, which can prompt the performance of a variety of rituals and!ritualized behavioral practices, as well as reflections on life and death, religion, moral values, norms, etc. In the same way, many rituals, ritualized types of behaviors, practices and contemplations can trigger experiences with the dead and again, in turn, trigger the performance of other related practices. © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 174 The analysis of ethnographic data shows, that the axes of rituals, ritualized behaviors and practices on the one hand, and the axes of experiences with the dead and with death on the other, are intertwined in the ethnographic data. Likewise, in some instances, the experience may come before the practice, while in others, the practice may occur prior to the experience. The ethnographic analysis presented here tentatively suggests that there may be a kind of circular relationship between experiences and practices, but one that is not closed; rather it is full of metaphorical nooks and crannies that require further detailed research. Acknowledgement ERC project The Roles of the Agency of the Dead in the Lives of Individuals in Contemporary Society (DEAGENCY, ERC No. 101095729); VEGA 1/0724/23 Conspirituality: The Blending of Supernatural and Conspiracy Explanations. AI disclaimer The author declares that no generative artificial intelligence was used in the preparation of this manuscript. References Abramovitch, H. (2015). Death, anthropology of. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & -Behavioral Sciences (pp. 870-873). Elsevier. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.12052-5! Ariés, P. 2020. (1977). Dějiny smrti [The history of the death]. Argo. Arukask, M. (1998). Death and afterwards.!Folklore-electronic Journal of Folklore,!08, 7-20. Astuti, R.,!& Bloch, M.!(2013)!Are ancestors dead?!In J. Boody & L. Michael (Eds.), Companion to the anthropology of religion (pp. 103-117). Wiley-Blackwell. https:// doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118605936.ch5 Bahna, V. (2019). Nadprirodzené skúsenosti a naratívna myseľ: Sociálna nákazlivosť spomienok [Supernatural experiences and the narrative mind: the social contagion of memories]. VEDA, Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie. Barret, J. L. (1999). Theological correctness: Cognitive constraint and the study of religion. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 11(4), 325–339. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23555537 Barrett, J. L. (2004). Why would anyone believe in God? United Nations Publications. Bell, C. (1997). Ritual: Perspective and dimensions. Oxford University Press. © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 175 Bennett, G., & Bennett, K. M. (2000). The presence of the dead: An empirical study.!Mortality,!5(2), 139–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/713686002 Beňušková, Z. (2017). Občianske obrady na Slovensku [Civil ceremonies in Slovakia]. VEDA, Ústav etnológie SAV. Berger, H A. (2019). Solitary pagans: Contemporary witches, wiccans, and others who practice alone. University of South Carolina Press. Bering, J. (2012). The belief instinct: The psychology of souls, destiny, and the meaning of life. W.W. Norton & Company. Bloch, M., & Parry. J., (Eds.). (1982). Death and the regeneration of Life. Cambridge University Press. Bloch, M. (1971). Placing the dead:% Tombs, ancestral villages and kinship organization in Madagascar. Seminar Press. Botík, J. (Ed.). (2001). Obyčajové tradície pri úmrtí a pochovávaní na Slovensku s osobitným zreteľom na etnickú a konfesionálnu mnohotvárnosť [Customary traditions of death and burial in Slovakia with special regard to ethnic and confessional diversity]. Lúč. Botík, J. (1999). Tam zložili aj svoje kosti [There they also laid their bones]. Lúč. Botík, J., & Slavkovský, P., (Eds.). (1995). Encyklopédia ľudovej kultúry Slovenska 2 [Encyclopedia of Folk Culture of Slovakia 2]. Veda. Botíková, M,! Jakubíková, K., &! Švecová, S. (1997). Tradície slovenskej rodiny [The traditions of Slovak family]. Veda, 1997. Bužeková, T. (2004). Kognitívne aspekty koexistencie kresťanských a poverových predstáv [Cognitive aspects of the coexistence of Christian and superstitious ideas]. S l o v e n s k ý n á r o d o p i s , 52(2),140-162.https://www.sav.sk/? lang=en&doc=journallist&part=article_response_page&journal_article_no=22896 Bužeková, T. (2009). Nepriateľ zvnútra [The enemy from within]. Veda. Bužeková, T. (2011). Tradícia a experti: Legitimizácia neošamanských praktík [Tradition and experts: the legitimation of neo-Shamanic practices.]. In T. Bužeková, D. Jerotijević & M. Kanovský (Eds.), Kognitívne vysvetlenie magických predstáv a%praktík (pp. 75-130). ETERNA Press. Bužeková, T. (2019). Mágia a čarodejníctvo v etnografických štúdiách do polovice 20. Storočia [Magic and witchcraft in ethnographic studies up to the mid-20th century]. !AKAmedia. Bužeková, T. (2021). Ľudové náboženstvo ako tragédia teológa : čarodejníctvo z perspektívy kognitívnej antropológie [Folk religion as the tragedy of the theologian: Witchcraft from the perspective of cognitive anthropology.]. Dingir, 24(3), 76-79. Bužeková, T. (2024). Commemoration of the dead in the context of alternative spirituality: Collective and solitary rituals. Religions,15(5): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/ rel15050626 Dégh, L. (2001). Legend and belief: Dialectis of a folklore genre. Indiana University Press. © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 176 Durkheim, E. (1995). The elementary forms of religious life. Free Press. Engelke, M. (2019). The Anthropology of death! revisited. Annual Review of Anthropology, 48(1), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102218-011420 Forth, G. (2009). Separating the dead: The ritual transformation of affinal exchange in central flores. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 15(3), 557–74. https:// www.jstor.org/stable/40541699 Forth, G. (2018). Rites of passage. In H. Callan (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of anthropology ( p p . 1 - 8 ) . J o h n Wi l e y & S o n s . https://doi.org/ 10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2002 Guthrie, S. (1993). Faces in the clouds: A new theory of religion. Oxford University Press. Heelas, P. (1996). The new age movement: The celebration of the self and the sacralization of modernity. Blackwell. Hertz, R. (1960). A Contribution to the study of the collective representation of death (Contributions à une étude sur la representation collective de la mort.). In R. Needham & C. Needham (Eds.),! Death and the right hand (pp. 27-175). Free Press. Horváthová, E. (1986). Rok vo zvykoch nášho ľudu. [A Year in the Customs of Our People]. Tatran. Huntington, R., &! Metcalf, P. (1979). Celebrations of death. Cambridge University Press. Jackson, J. C., Dillion, D., & Bastian, B.!et al.!(2023). Supernatural explanations across 114 societies are more common for natural than social phenomena.!Nat. Hum. Behav.,!7, 707–717. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01558-0 Jágerová, M. (2008). Posledné zbohom – Súčasné pohrebné obyčaje [The last goodbye – Contemporary funeral customs]. Univerzita Konštantína filozofa v Nitre, Filozofická fakulta. Jakubíková, K. (1972). Pohreb [Funeral]. In J. Podolák (Ed.), Zamagurie (pp. 222-232). Košice. Jakubíková, K. (1980). Teoretické východiská ku štúdiu obyčajov [Theoretical approaches to the study of customs]. Slovenský národopis, 28(4), 612 – 621. Jakubíková, K. (1997). Rodinné obyčaje [Family customs]. In M. Botíková (Ed.), Tradície Slovenskej rodiny (pp. 161–188). Veda Jakubíková, K. (1999). Etické hodnoty obyčajových tradícií [Ethical aspects of folk customs]. In K. Jakubíková (Ed.), Tradícia, etika a civilizačné zmeny (pp. 86-92). Univerzita Komenského v!Bratislave. Jakubíková, K. (2001). Obyčaje životného cyklu v kontexte rodinných vzťahov [Life cycle customs in the context of family relations]. Folia Ethnographica, 1(34 – 35), 35–41. Jakubovská, K. (2016). Ritualizácia ako prostriedok utvárania kolektívneho obrazu smrti [Ritualization as a means of shaping the collective image of death]. In! K. Gabašová, K. Jakubovská, G. Maiello, J. Palitefka, M. Reiser, M. Soukup & V. © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 177 Soukup (Eds.), (De)tabuizácia smrti vo filozoficko-antropologickom diskurze (pp. 109-124). Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v!Nitre. Krekovič, E., (Eds.). (1993). Kultové a sociálne aspekty pohrebného rítu od najstarších čias po súčasnosť [Cult and social aspects of funerary ritual from the earliest times to the present]. Studio Nona. Kiliánová, G. (2010). Dreams as communication method between the living and the dead: Ethnographic case study from Slovakia. Traditiones, 39(2), 7–23. https:// doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2010390201 Klass, D. (2015). Continuing bonds, society, and human experience: Family dead, hostile dead, political dead. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 70(1), 99-117.!https:// doi.org/10.2190/OM.70.1.i Labracque, C. A. (2017). The glorified body: Corporealities in the catholic tradition. Religions, 8(9), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8090166 Lang, M., & Kundt, R. (2023). The evolution of human ritual behavior as a cooperative signaling platform. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 1–23. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/2153599X.2023.2197977 Malinowski, B. (1948). Magic science and religion. Faber & West. Malkovsky, B. (2017). Belief in reincarnation and some unresolved questions in catholic eschatology. Religions, 9(8), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8090176 Marris, P. (1974). Loss and change. Pantheon. Mjartan, J., & Plicková, E. (Eds.). (1974). Horehronie 2: Kultúra a spôsob života ľudu [Horehronie 2: Culture and the way of life of folkpeople]. Veda. Navrátilová, A. (2004). Narození a%smrt v%české lidové kultuře [Death and birth in Czech folk culture]. Vyšehrad. Nenadalová, J., & Řezníček, D. (2024). Sensing ghosts and other dangerous beings: Uncertainty, sensory deprivation, and the!feeling of presence.!Religion, Brain & Behavior, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2024.2305460 Palgi, P., & Abramovitch, H. (1984). Death: A cross-cultural perspective. Annual Review of Anthropology, 13, 385-417. https://students.aiu.edu/submissions/profiles/resources/onlineBook/A9H7k3_death%20sociology%20culture.pdf Podolák, J. (Ed.). (1999). Heľpa, vlastivedná monografia [Heľpa, a local monograph]. Matica Slovenská. Popelková, K. (Ed). (2014). Čo je to sviatok v 21. storočí na Slovensku? [What Is a Holiday in the 21st Century in Slovakia?]. Ustav etnologie SAV. Primiano, L. N. (1995). Vernacular religion and the search for method in religious folklife.!Western Folklore,!54(1), 37–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/1499910 Rappaport, R. (1999). Ritual and religion in the making of humanity. Cambridge University Press. © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 178 Robben, C. G. M. A. (2018). An anthropology of death for the twenty-first century. In A. Robben (Ed.), A companion to the anthropology of death (xv-xl). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814715-3.00008-4 Rosenblatt, P. C., Walsh, R., & Jackson, A. (1976). Grief and mourning in cross-cultural perspective. Human Relations Area Files Press. Shaver J. H., White, T., Vakaoti, P.,! & Lang, M. (2021).!A comparison of self-report, systematic observation, and third-party judgments of church attendance in a rural Fijian village.!PLoS ONE, 16(10), e0257160. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0257160! Silverman,! S. Gila, Baroiller, A., & Hemer, R. S. (2021). Culture and grief: Ethnographic perspectives on ritual, relationships and remembering. Death Studies, 45(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1851885 Sim, C. D. (2015). Death after life or life after death? Scrinium, 11, 143-159. https:// doi.org/10.1163/18177565-00111p15 Soukup, M. (2016). Antropologie smrti [Anthropology od dead]. In! K. Gabašová, K. Jakubovská, G. Maiello, J. Palitefka, M. Reiser, M. Soukup & V. Soukup (Eds.), (De)tabuizácia smrti vo filozoficko-antropologickom diskurze (pp. 65-78). Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v!Nitre. Soukup, V. (2016). Smrt jako biologická konstanta a!kulturní konstrukce: Příspěvek k!antropologii smrti [Death as a Biological Constant and Cultural Construction: a Contribution to the Anthropology of Death]. In! K. Gabašová, K. Jakubovská, G. Maiello, J. Palitefka, M. Reiser, M. Soukup & V. Soukup (Eds.), (De)tabuizácia smrti vo filozoficko-antropologickom diskurze (pp. 81-105). Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v!Nitre. Tedlock, B. (2003). The new anthropology of dreaming. In H. Graham (Ed.), Shamanism: a%reader (pp. 103-122). Routledge. Steadman, L. B., Palmer, C. T., Tilley, Ch. F. (1996). The universality of ancestor worship. Ethnology, 35(1), 63-76. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3774025.pdf Stucky, K., Gardner, A. (2023). Kin selection favors religious traditions: Ancestor worship as a cultural descendant-leaving strategy. Religion Brain Behavior, 14(3), 231-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2023.2215854 Uhrin, M. (2018). Úloha náboženských expertov vo vysvetlení náboženského správania laikov [The role of religious experts in explaining the religious behaviour of lay people]. Etnologické rozpravy 25(2), 40-63. Uhrin, M. (2020). Victor Turner’s theory of symbols: The symbolism of a religious site and object in a rural environment in eastern Slovakia. Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe, 13(1), 21-41. https://doi.org/10.20413/rascee.2020.13.1.21-41! Uhrin, M. (2022). Kooperácia, príbuzenstvo a!susedstvo v!súčasnom rurálnom prostredí na Slovensku [Cooperation, kinship and neighbourhood in the contemporary rural © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 179 environment in Slovakia.] Národopisný věstník, 81(2),% 52-74. https://ceskadigitalniknihovna.cz/view/uuid:b47ba10b-15be-49fe-a22c-08a2f24a0377? article=uuid:8f408dab-1279-4f5e-8948-a2fdae3d597f&source=knav Uhrin. M. (2024). Cognitive and evolutionary inspirations in the study of religion with emphasis on the development of ethnology and sociocultural anthropology in Slovakia. Svetovi, 2(2), 46-68. https://journals.uni-lj.si/svetovi-worlds/article/view/ 18103/16046 van Gennep, A. (2018). Přechodové rituály [Rites of passage]. Portál. von Sydow C. W. (1977). Selected papers on folklore. Arno Press. White, C. (2021).! An introduction to the cognitive science of religion. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Books. Whitehouse, H. (1995). Inside the cult: Religious innovation and transmission in Papua New Guinea. Clarendon Press. Whitehouse, H. (2004). Modes of religiosity: A cognitive theory of religious transmission. AltaMira Press. Whitehouse, H. (2021). The ritual animal. Imitation and cohesion in the evolution of social complexity. Oxford University Press. Xygalatas, D. (2022). Ritual: How seemingly senseless acts make life worth living. Little, Brown Spark, Hachette Book Group. Zajonc, J. (2014). Je Halloween na Slovensku cudzincov? [Is Hallloween a stranger in Slovakia?]. In K. Popelková (Eds.), Čo je to sviatok v 21. storočí na Slovensku? [What Is a holiday in the 21st century in Slovakia?] (pp. 164-247). Ustav etnologie SAV. © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 180 Povzetek Namen tega članka je raziskati izkušnje ljudi z mrtvimi in s tem povezane obrede, prakse in ideje. Izkušnje in s tem povezane prakse je mogoče analizirati in razvrstiti kot individualne ali kolektivne glede na stopnjo njihove splošnosti, namen in togost, ter glede na to, ali gre za osebne izkušnje ali splošne pripovedi. Gradivo je bilo zbrano med dolgotrajnim etnografskim raziskovanjem v regiji Horehronie v osrednji Slovaški v letih 2023 in 2024. Raziskovalno območje zaznamuje visoka zastopanost članov rimskokatoliške cerkve slovaške narodnosti. Doslej opravljena etnografska raziskava kaže, da so obredi, prakse, povezane ideje in izkušnje ljudi z mrtvimi ter njihovo delovanje večdimenzionalni pojavi, na katere vpliva predvsem krščanska religija, v manjši meri pa tudi ljudska verovanja ali vernakularna religija. Delovanje mrtvih se običajno izraža kot odziv na izkušnje z mrtvimi, ki povzročajo izvajanje obredov, ritualiziranih oblik vedenja, ritualiziranih praks ali drugih dejavnosti, pa tudi kot posledica razmišljanja o moralnih in verskih vidikih življenja posameznikov in družbe. Ključne besede: smrt, izkušnje z mrtvimi, delovanje mrtvih, ritual, praksa, etnografija, Slovaška CORRESPONDENCE: Michal Uhrin, Department of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology, Comenius University, Faculty of Arts, Gondova 2, 811 02! Bratislava 1 Slovakia. E-mail: [email protected] © Slovene Anthropological Society 2025 181