Funerary Joking and Posthumous Applause

Plaisanteries funéraires et applaudissements posthumes

Pierre Diarra (1, 2) , Jean-Marie Privat (3)

1 CIM - CIM - Communication, Information, Médias - EA 1484
2 ICP - Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP)
3 Crem - Centre de Recherche sur les Médiations

The analysis focuses on two types of ritual use of speech and gesture in contemporary funerary ceremonies - in two cultural universes that are at a remove of one another. In West Africa, funerary joking relies on more or less dramatic and public bodily expressions, diverse noises and even common laughter. The purpose is to exalt life, something that families bound by the famous joking relationship must exhibit in all circumstances. Death and the dead cannot have the last word. In Western Europe, posthumous applause - sonic, collective, anonymous and public cheers - are part of the compulsory expression of feelings; they display the gratitude of the gathered community to the exceptionality of the deceased. These ceremonial and symbolic exchanges can be thought out as both a distancing of the deceased body and de facto as a popular protest against religious or official rites that expect silence. Thus, in Africa as in Europe, people as a social body appropriate part of the burial rite and its symbolic efficiency to the benefit of the dead and against death.

Mots clés: symbolic communication; contemporary folklore; posthumous applause; Funerary joking; popular expression; anthropology of rituals

Mots clés: anthropologie du rite; folklore contemporain; communication symbolique; expressivité populaire; applaudissement posthume; plaisanterie funéraire

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Pierre Diarra, Jean-Marie Privat. Plaisanteries funéraires et applaudissements posthumes. Cahiers de Littérature Orale, 2018, Geneviève Calame-Griaule, 83, pp.145-160. ⟨10.4000/clo.4882⟩. ⟨hal-03175856⟩